On 11/18/2012 12:56 PM, yellowgreentree wrote:
Hi,

This is my first thread, and I need to warn you that I'm not at all
green-fingered, but I'm trying!

A year and a half ago I was given a purple orchid. I'm not even sure
what type of orchid it is, but it's of average size (I imagine) and is
potted in some sort of bark mix. It has NEVER stopped flowering and
growing, and I've really come to like it.

At the moment it has less flowers than usual, and it's roots seem to be
coming out of the pot. I was simply going to buy some orchid potting
mix online and put it in a bigger pot, but I was given another orchid
(again, purple, but this time it's very small) and it's potted in a
totally different thing; it looks very mossy, so I didn't want to buy
the wrong one.

I then went to ask in garden centre, and the man there told me that it
should be in a clear pot which totally threw me!

Please can somebody help - I just don't know what to do, and I don't
want to kill this beautiful plant!



Thinking of which orchids show up in garden centers, the fact that it is
purple makes me guess that you have a Dendrobium. See if your flowers
look pretty similar to this:
http://www.rv-orchidworks.com/orchid...purple-ace.jpg

Also note the shape of the unopened bud in that picture. That is very
typical of Dendrobiums and not other common orchids.

If you can confirm that you have Dendrobiums, don't be in a hurry to
move to a bigger pot. They do better in a small pot, even if some of the
roots have to grow out of the pot. Your 2nd plant is growing in sphagnum
moss. Some orchids do well in that. I'm sure some people grow their
Dendrobiums just fine in moss. Personally, I wouldn't. You'll find a lot
of garden center orchids in the moss and the main reason is that it is
very light weight and cheap to ship from grower to the store.

A second though: Now that I read your original message again, the fact
that it has never stopped flowering swings me more toward it being a
Phalaenopsis. Maybe yours looks closer to this shape:
http://spacegurrrl.files.wordpress.c...sis-orchid.jpg

A Phalaenopsis can take a bigger pot and they actually do fine in
sphagnum as well. When you repot, take away most of the old medium (moss
or bark) and pull off any dead mushy roots before you pot it back up.
The only thing a clear pot would do for you is to let you see if new
roots are growing AND to let you see if there are still beads of
moisture down in the pot. That might keep you from watering too often
and rotting off all the lower roots.
Good luck.