"Pam Moore" wrote in message
...
I have 2 orchids, a Phalaenopsis and a cymbidium which won't
re-flower.
The cymbidium I have had for about 15 years. I bought it in flower
for my Mum, and it has never flowered since. It's huge and looks
healthy enough. The last 2 summers it has spent outside in a shady
part of the garden. It used to be in the bathroom but it's now in the
living room where it might be a bit warmer.
The phalaenopsis I've had 4 or 5 years. It had 2 flowering stems
which I cut back to the next node as top flowers faded and eventually
cut off the whole stems when they went woody. All it will produce now
ar aerial roots, which come out of each leaf joint.
Do any of you have suggestions from personal experience? I've read up
quite a bit but cannot find what I'm not doing.
Feeding? I give them an occasional (every month or so) feed of orchid
fertiliser and I think I'm watering correctly.

Pam in Bristol

Hi Pam,

I have a number of Phalaenopsis, which have recently come back into flower.
I found them quite difficult to reflower, but everyone I spoke to said they
were really easy. So frustrating, isn't it!?
I consulted my books, which suggested keeping the plants at a lower
temperature for four weeks: 5degC or 8degF. To be honest, although I kept
mine in a cooler place, I did not measure the temperature, *and* they were
kept cooler for about 3 months! I kept them a tiny bit drier at this time
and reduced feeding to roughly 2 weeks out of 4. This all happened over the
winter period. In spring, I put them back in a warmer room (but only
slightly warmer) with better light and normal feeding. After a little
while, I was delighted to see flowering stems appearing.
I normally feed my orchids every 7-10 days. After three feeds, I use water
only to flush the plants through. They do not enjoy a build-up a chemical
salts.
I have one Cymbidium orchid (my Xmas pressie 2009 from 2 perfect friends)
which has really only just gone out of flower (as it was bought), so I
haven't had the experience of building this one up to flowering yet. One
book suggests they can be difficult to flower again, and it depends on the
type you have. Since you say yours is huge, it's obviously not a dwarf
form! I will see what I can find out; I've got other books to check yet, so
I'll come back to you soon.
In the meantime, I would say that your feeding sounds a bit stingy. I'm
sure it's enough to keep your plant healthy, but perhaps not enough to build
it up to flowering? I may be wrong, of course, and it may prefer to be kept
hungry to traumatise it into flowering. Let me have a browse through my
books before you change anything.

Spider