Pam Moore wrote:
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.

I have various orchids about the house, mostly phalaenopsis, and
a couple of, hmm, dendrobium, iirc. I think I've had a cymbidium
in the past, but killed it after 3 or 4 years. It was an odd one
actually - first year it flowered with one large flower; next year
it flowered with hundreds of tiny flowers on a stem; third year it
flowered with one flower again! Then it died.

My phalaenopsis all keep flowering almost constantly - one flowered
for 3 1/2 years running, with a total of 162 flowers! (yes, I was
sad enough to count them :-)

I can't give advice on the cymbidium, but my tip for the phalaenopsis
is to keep it on a north facing, non-draughty window sill, and treat
it mean - I rarely water mine, but when I do I totally soak them
(often for a few hours in the sink in lukewarm water, then drain them
again), and I even more rarely feed or mist them. They just kind of
get on with things. Also, when your flower stems are finished, if
you cut them back a bit then they should reflower quickly, but poorly.
Take the whole stem off and it will flower much stronger next time.

On the other hand, my dendrobiums (dendrobiii?) love a south facing
window and a more regular soaking (once or twice a month, as opposed
to the 2 or 3 times a year the phalaenopsis get!)