Orchids For Dummies. Steven A. Frowine

At least some of the flowers have opened.

       Already flowered: The orchid has already flowered at least once and is now out of bloom. Buying plants at this size and stage usually means the plant is well-established, which is greatly beneficial. Unfortunately, it can also mean the flower wasn’t that great when it flowered, which is why it hasn’t sold already. This last issue is more of a concern on seed-grown plants, not clones.

      Sometimes vendors also list the pot size and/or the leaf spread. In general, a larger pot size indicates a larger plant, although that’s not always so.

      As far as risk with shipping damage goes, plants in flower are the most delicate. If you’re impatient to see your new orchid in flower (and who isn’t?!) but you don’t want to risk the flowers being damaged in transit, specify that the plants be sent in low spike or low bud, if available, which means they’ve just started the process of flowering so are not as vulnerable to the vulgarities of shipping.

      Deciding between a blooming plant and a young plant

      When you buy a mature, blooming plant, you get to see exactly what the flower of this orchid is like. Because many orchid flowers can last quite a while, you’ll be able to enjoy this orchid for weeks after you bring it home. The biggest disadvantage of blooming plants is that they’re usually the most expensive, because they’re in the highest demand.

      Younger plants — ones that are months or even years away from blooming — are much less expensive than their mature counterparts. The joy in choosing these plants is anticipating when they’ll bloom and what they may look like.

      Choosing seed-grown orchids or orchid clones

      Very few orchids sold today have been collected from the wild. Instead, they’ve been grown from seed. The flower color, flower size, and growth habits of these seed-grown plants vary. Seed-grown plants are generally very reasonably priced.

      Cloned orchids, also referred to as meristemmed or mericloned orchids, are orchids that have been multiplied from single cells, usually from a plant of exceedingly high quality, in a flask, which is a type of laboratory bottle. The result is that they’re all identical.

      

The advantage of purchasing a cloned orchid is that you can depend on the orchid that you buy being exactly like its parent, which is frequently an award winner. In general, these clones are a bit more expensive than the others, but they’re usually worth it.

      Selecting orchids with a sweet scent

      Only second to the sheer beauty of the orchid flowers is the exquisite scent that some of them possess. No other family of plants that I know of offers such a wide range of delightful and sometimes repugnant fragrances. They can pleasantly surprise you with the appealing perfume of other flowers as well as fruits, candies, and foods (like chocolate and vanilla). Or, they can gross you out with putrid smell of carrion (to attract fly pollinators). In Part 3 I introduce you to a selection of orchids that you may consider.

      YOU ALWAYS HAVE ROOM FOR AN ORCHID

      If you’re short of growing space and still want to try growing an orchid, don’t fret. Plenty of dwarf and miniature varieties can easily fit any growing area (see the following figure of an Ascocentrum garayi, which takes up very little space). Some are so small you need a magnifying glass to view their flowers! Part 3 discusses some specific ones that are particularly suited to small spaces.

Isolating Your New Orchid after You Bring It Home

      Adding new orchids to your plant collection is exciting, but this is also a time for caution. Even though you may have been careful in the selection process, your orchid still may be harboring insect eggs that may hatch, or it may have a disease problem that you didn’t notice before.

      

So, to be on the safe side, keep your new plant isolated from all your other plants for at least two to three weeks — enough time to see if any insects appear or a disease shows up. If you need to treat your new plant, doing so will be easier when it’s separated from your other plants.

      To identify pests and their safest treatment, see Chapter 9.