Moth Orchids

I believe most people simply call them Phalaenopsis, which is the scientific name of the Moth Orchids, a genus from tropical Asia in which all of the species have lateral petals resembling the wings of a moth. Indeed, the Latinized word Phalaenopsis means "looks like a moth."

When I was a kid, these were pretty exotic plants. But today they approach being common. People have discovered that a nice Phalaenopsis is a practical and elegant way to keep fresh flowers. The plant and flowering stalk are as fine a combination as any floral arrangement, flowers and buds are perfection, and the longevity beats any flower arrangement hands-down. A nice Phalaenopsis, purchased for $15-40 at markets and nurseries around the country, can remain in bloom for weeks..., weeks! Beyond being a more sustainable way to enjoy fresh flowers, the plant becomes a new form of chia pet - a fun project for people to pursue - an attempt to keep the plant alive and even reap a new harvest of flowers.

And the return of flowering is a real possibility. Just keeping a plant in a reasonably good living state is occasionally rewarded by growth of a new flowering branch out from a stem from which every flower has long-since fallen. So afficionados have learned to leave green, healthy flowering stems on the plant until it is clear not much more will happen. Success comes when the plant continues to send out new flowering stems from the base of the stem.

The trick, however, is that people who aren't familiar with orchids are seldom clued into an aphorism of the orchidist - happy roots, happy plant. Those nifty plants, sold at what seem to be impossibly low prices, usually have a built-in problem. They are potted in a way that promotes good "finishing-off" growth and makes the plant practically bullet-proof during the first few weeks of flowering. But the underlying problem is that the medium (the stuff packed around the roots) is seldom a good medium to promote new growth.

To stand a chance at keeping the Phalaenopsis living healthily enough to rebloom, there is work to be done. As soon as it gets to the end of good flowering, someone needs to remove it from the pot. What you will discover is remarkable. Most Phalies sold in the cut-flower trade are potted tightly in sphagnum moss - the kind called New Zealand sphagnum. The sphagnum used is fresh; the leafy scales have an astounding capacity to hold water, and the sphagnum doesn't quickly break down into humus. In fact, many orchid growers use this sphagnum - but they use it in open baskets and pots that give ample drainage and allow air to circulate around roots. But no orchidist packs the sphagnum and roots so tightly into pots as you will see for these flowering plants. They are treated, in reality, like whole-plant cut flowers, not intended at all for long-term survival.

The sphagnum, though perfectly suited for wrapping the roots, is pretty expensive, and can actually hold too much water in the center of the pot. Imagine a light-weight, cheap, non-absorbent, and non-degrading substitute a producer could use to stuff in the core of potting material, and you may guess in advance that growers frequently pack styrofoam packing peanuts into the space at the center of the rootball.

It drives me crazy. Here you are, breaking apart the rootball of a spent Phalie, expecting to compost the refuse, and out fall several white styrofoam packing peanuts. Though practical, there is just something offensive about the whole situation - growers wrapping orchid roots in a blanket of sphagnum and cramming them into a tight plastic pot-like bag with a heart of styrofoam. Weird.

So how do you pot these used plants? How do you bring them back? This is what I have been working on for the past week, testing some ideas, talking to collectors and growers, cleaning and repotting. Here is what I learn from others. Phalies need annual repotting; even if they were in good growing medium from the start, a successful grower would likely have repotted the plant after flowering anyway.

We are moving back to terracotta pots, a special kind perforated with holes to allow for drainage and air movement. We are using medium bark, and selecting pots that seem slightly undersized. If we have to use larger pots (7-8 inches), we are installing a small inverted pot or a red brick under the plant, to eliminate the core of medium that seems to break down into organic mush the quickest. Orchids that are natively epiphytes (growing on the trunks of trees, with their roots totally exposed) do not like rotting bark. Roots found in rotten bark are seldom healthy.

You know when an orchid root is healthy because it has an active growth tip, and is intact and fleshy, covered with the white, barkish velamen. And as we said earlier, happy roots, happy plants. When the roots of a Phalaenopsis are not healthy, the damage soon shows in withering foliage, browning basal leaves, and general reduced size.

There is a lot more that can be said of these wonderful plants. White-flowered forms are wonderful, but the colors and color patterns that continue to appear in the trade are spectacular. The numbers of plants imported (to be brought into flower) increases each year. But the market seems far from saturation, and to the dedicated student of orchids, this trend opens wholly new territory that might bring in new converts.