Hey guys.. so my orchid is already losing flowers.. is it...
1ft to light, indirect
3” pot with drainage
Last watered 2 years ago
3
Hi 👋 Orchid blooms don’t last forever and as it’s new, you don’t know how long it’s been in bloom for before you purchased it - blooms typically last for 6 weeks to 3 months, but with the right care, conditions and nutrients, they can bloom for much longer. Just a note on your blooms - when your plant re-blooms, the flowers will most likely be white as blue Phalaenopsis orchids don’t occur naturally and are usually dyed. After the blooms have finished, the plant moves into its vegetative stage of growth - in this stage, it concentrated on making new roots and leaves and this is a really important stage for the future of the plant. When the blooms have finished, it’s a really good time to do a repot. Repots are always best to do on new orchids as they are usually planted in their sponge nursery plug. The sponge plug causes no end of problems in the home environment as it holds on to moisture for too long and can lead to rot issues and root loss as the plant matures. You can gently remove this and plant into a media of your choice. It can be helpful to pot in a similar media to the one it came in to help the roots stay healthy (changing media can lead to root loss and it can be a challenge for beginners to keep the roots alive long enough for the new root system to come in). It looks like yours is planted in bark and this tends to be a great media for beginners. In some climates, bark tends to dry out very quickly and if this happens to you, you can also add a little sphagnum moss to the mix. You will need to plant in an orchid pot - if the pot the plant came in has drainage at the bottom of the pot, you can give it a clean and reuse it - orchid roots like to be nice and tight in the pot, so items unlikely you will need to go up a pot size. After repotting, don’t fertilise for about a month so that the plant is able to recover from its stress without the fertiliser pushing new growth. Miss Orchid Girl has a series on YouTube about Phalaenopsis for beginners and also has a repotting tutorial. She is brilliant, though just bear in mind that you may need to adapt the advice she gives to suit your environment (her environment is very dry with low humidity and so her advice wouldn’t work in all homes/climates).