You need all of the same stuff, plus another jar, an old toothbrush and some dishwashing liquid, and some bamboo stakes about two feet long. Try to get some rhizome clips. They are doohickeys made from thick aluminum wire shaped like the hook part of an old-fashioned door lock hook-and-eye like you see in really old wooden public bathroom stalls. They hold the rhizome down in the pot so the plant doesn’t wobble. These guys are top-heavy, and if they wobble, they chafe off their nice new roots.

Set up the same way as before. Don’t forget the disinfectant soak for the shears.

Drizzle a few drops of dishwashing liquid into the new jar with about 2 or 3 inches of water in the bottom and stir it up with the toothbrush. This is to clean up the plant later.

Run the butter knife around the inside of the pot to dislodge the root ball. It may be very hard to do, so use some muscle. If there are roots stuck to the outside of the pot, scrape them loose, too. I find it’s easiest to scrape from the top down. Grab the plant firmly by several of its pseudobulbs and pull it out of the pot. Pulling on only one pseudobulb may break it off or break the rhizome in a place that you won’t like.

Sometimes the plant is so overgrown and tight inside the pot that no amount of pulling will get it out. In those rare, extreme cases, break the pot with a hammer if it’s clay (pot shards have to come from somewhere), or cut the pot off with shears if it’s plastic. The drain holes make a good starting place to cut away a plastic pot.

Shake and pick off as much of the old potting material as possible. If you have a solid root mass that won’t release any of the old stuff, try squirting it with a strong jet of water from a hose nozzle. That should blow off at least some of the old dead roots and old potting media. Aim the water jet carefully just at the root mass and try not to blast the water downward on any tender new growths that may be sprouting from the base of the pseudobulbs. They have a nasty habit of snapping off if the water jet gets behind them.

Now take the shears out of the disinfecting soak and cut off the old flower stems. Cut off all the roots at about 4 inches below the base of the plant. Shake the plant again, and start inspecting the roots one by one, picking off the clinging bits of old potting material as you go. Healthy roots should be green or white(ish), and feel firm. Cut away all the roots that are hard and completely dried out, or look brown or gray and feel mushy.

Now find the oldest part of the plant by tracing back along the rhizome from the pseudobulb that just flowered. There probably aren’t any roots left back there. Do the pseudobulbs have any leaves? Do they look yellow or shriveled? If there are no leaves on the psuedobulbs, no roots under them, and they are yellow or shriveled, you probably want to cut that back part off. If the plant is one long, straight row of pseudobulbs that would need a huge pot, you definitely want to cut off the back part. Try to leave 4 or 5 pseudobulbs, though. Most sympodial orchids won’t bloom on a plant with fewer than 4, so if you cut off too much you would probably have to wait an extra year or two for it to grow up again before it can flower. Sometimes you really don’t have a choice, though. If the base of a pseudobulb or any part of the rhizome is black, cut it off. It’s diseased. When you make the cut, choose a place that is still green at least a half inch from the blackness.

Put the shears and butter knife back in the disinfectant for a while before going on to the next plant.

Use the toothbrush and soapy water to give orchids a little bath, scrubbing gently to remove dried up bits of old sheaths from the rhizome and pseudobulbs, then rinse under running water.

Hoseaholics, set the back of the rhizome (the oldest part of the plant) into a corner of a slat basket and wire it into place, or tie it roots down onto driftwood, a hardwood log, a cork slab or a tree fern plaque, cover the roots with a little damp sphagnum or Spanish moss (just a little, you hoseaholics), and use plastic-coated wire or fishing line liberally to hold it all firmly in place. Water daily. Done. You can remove at least some of the wire later after the plant attaches itself firmly to its mount with new root growth.

Normal people, choose a pot that is just big enough to hold the rhizome and roots comfortably. Put some packing peanuts, pot shards or river rocks in the bottom of your pot, making sure the drainage hole isn’t blocked. Set the back of the rhizome (the oldest part) against the side of the pot and hold it level about a half inch from the top. The trimmed roots should just touch the stuff in the bottom of the pot, and the growing end of the plant should have enough room to make one or two more growths before reaching the far side of the pot. Now add the potting mix and poke it down among the roots with your fingers or a stick until the roots are covered up to the rhizome. Try to keep the rhizome horizontal in the pot, and try not to bury the rhizome.

If the plant wobbles when you let go of it, find some way to hold it firmly and steadily in place. Your plant may have come with a metal rhizome clip on the edge of the pot that held the rhizome down, and maybe a metal hoop surrounding the vertical pseudobulbs. Reuse them. A wobbling plant chafes the new roots off. This is a very bad thing. If you have no rhizome clips, you can stabilize the plant by using the bamboo stakes and plastic-coated wire. Jam the bamboo stakes down into the potting media near one or more of the pseudobulbs and wire the bulbs to the stakes to keep the plant from wobbling in the pot. My favorite technique is to wrap the wire once around the stake, and on the second wrap to go around both stake and pseudobulb, and then twist the two ends together behind the stake. For some reason it seems to make a more secure attachment than a figure eight or a single wrap around both.

Water the plant well, and then set it aside for two weeks before you water it again. This dry resting period encourages new roots to sprout. After that, put your plant in its regular growing spot and water once or twice a week or wait for rain. Your choice. Done.

Wrap up the mess of cut-off stuff and old potting media in the top layer of newspaper, throw it out, and move on to the next plant.

Next time – how to tell a corsage orchid from a dancing lady from a cane orchid.

Repotting 101 focuses on the monopodial Phalaenopsis or moth orchid. This is the one with the broad, flat leaves on a single short trunk. We’ll do the sympodials next time.

Repotting orchids is easy but messy and involves running water, so consider working outdoors. It’s also very simple if you are a hoseaholic. We’ll get to that in a minute.

Let’s start with the shopping list for normal people. You’ll need a pot, and some orchid potting mix. Look for the specialized orchid potting mix made with chunks of bark, charcoal, coconut husk, little rocks or other such stuff about the size of jellybeans up to the size of Brazil nuts. Don’t use anything that looks like dirt or mulch, even if it says it’s for orchids. The big box stores with garden centers carry all this stuff.

What kind of pot? Anything will work, as long as it has at least one big drainage hole. Some people like plastic because it is cheap and the orchid roots don’t dry out very quickly, so they can water less often. Some people like unglazed clay because it is heavy and won’t tip over as easily. It’s also porous, and in Florida the evaporative cooling around the roots reduces plant stress in the summer. There are even special clay orchid pots with big slashes, gores or holes in the sides for additional drainage and air circulation, and teakwood or plastic orchid baskets. These are nice, but not necessary unless you are a hoseaholic.

The best pot shape for orchids is called an “azalea” pot. Here’s the lowdown on pot shapes. A flowerpot is just as tall as its top diameter, so an 8” pot is 8” tall and 8” wide at the top. An azalea pot is three-fourths as tall as its diameter, so it’s shallower. A bulb pan is half as tall as its diameter. When you start growing specimen size orchids, you may need some bulb pans for them. For orchids, shallower is better so the roots don’t stay soggy for a long time.

To carry out the repotting job you will also need a butter knife, an old toothbrush, a pair of garden shears, some household bleach or Trisodium Phosphate (TSP), an empty jar, newspaper, and some styrofoam packing peanuts, river rocks or bits of broken clay pots. Most of this stuff is already in your kitchen, bathroom and garage.

For hoseaholics, if you have a piece of driftwood or a piece of hardwood with the bark still on it, and if you have Spanish moss growing in your trees, you may not have to buy anything. If not, buy a plastic or teakwood slat basket, a tree fern plaque, or a cork slab, and maybe some sphagnum moss, unless you really want your orchid in a pot, in which case, get the fancy, gored orchid pot and some potting mix. You will also need plastic-coated wire, or tie-wraps, or some monofilament fishing line.

No matter which way you go, you will probably also want some rubber gloves if you value your fingernails.

Now for the fun part.

Make yourself a disinfecting solution in the jar. There are two solutions to choose from – bleach or TSP. For bleach, put 1 part bleach in with every 5 parts of water high enough to cover the blades of your garden shears. For TSP, stir in as much TSP powder as will dissolve in the water. Set the shears and the butter knife in the solution to soak. Orchids may be generally tough, but they get diseases from other plants and from each other through open wounds, and we are going to wound them plenty.

Lay out a few sheets of newspaper. This is to catch the dirt and trimmings from what comes next. Run the disinfected butter knife around the inside of the pot to dislodge the root ball. If there are roots stuck to the outside of the pot, scrape them loose, too. I find it’s easiest to scrape from the top down. Grab the plant stem firmly below the lowest leaf and pull it out of the pot. It may come out as a single mass, or a big mess of little bits. No matter. That’s what the newspaper is for.

Shake off as much of the old potting material as possible, then take the shears out of the disinfecting soak and cut off the old flower stem. Start inspecting the roots one by one, picking off the clinging bits of old potting material as you go. Healthy roots should be green or white(ish), and feel firm. Cut away all the roots or parts of roots that look brown or gray and feel mushy (rotten), or are gray, shriveled, dry and hard (dead). There may not be many left by the time you are done. Not to worry. New ones will grow.

There is one more surgical matter to attend to. Cut off any rootless part of the main trunk below the lowest live root.

Wrap up the mess in the top layer of newspaper and throw it out. Never re-use old potting material except as mulch in the garden. Put the shears and butter knife back in the disinfectant for a while before going on to the next plant.

By now, your hands and your plant should be pretty dirty. Give them both a rinse under running water. It’s amazing what a nice bath does for the plant’s appearance.

Now for the “new shoes.”

Hoseaholics, set your newly cleaned and trimmed plant into a basket or onto a piece of driftwood, a hardwood log, a cork slab or a tree fern plaque. Put just a little damp sphagnum moss or Spanish moss over the roots – over, not under, to make the roots grab onto the mount and not the moss, and just a little moss because you are a hoseaholic. Use plastic-coated wire, tie-wraps or fishing line to tie the plant firmly in place. Water daily. Done.

Normal people, choose a pot that is just big enough to hold the roots comfortably. You can clean and trim your plant before you buy your pot if you are unsure of what size to get. A few days lying around in the shade with no pot won’t hurt a Phalaenopsis, or any of the Big Four for that matter. You can even re-use the pot it came in, if it is the right size. Just be sure to scrape away anything that may be stuck to it and wash it clean first. A quick soak in water with a dash of bleach wouldn’t hurt.

Put a few packing peanuts, pot shards or river rocks in the bottom of your pot, making sure the drainage hole isn’t blocked. Center the roots in the pot and hold the plant so that the lower leaves just touch the rim. The trimmed roots should just touch the stuff in the bottom of the pot. If your pot seems too deep, you can make it shallower by putting an extra inch or more of the peanuts, rocks or pot shards in the bottom. Now add the potting mix and poke it down among the roots with your fingers, the butter knife or a stick until the roots are covered up to the base of the lowest leaf.

Water the plant well, making sure the water runs freely out of the drainage hole, and then set it aside for two weeks before you water it again. This dry resting period encourages new roots to sprout. After that, put your plant in its regular growing spot and water once or twice a week or wait for rain. Your choice. Done.

Move on to the next plant.

Next time – repotting sympodials.

The moth orchid is the one most commonly seen and sold at this time of year, so let’s start there. The tag that came with the plant may say “Phal” or “Phalaenopsis” somewhere in the plant name. If not, or if you it didn’t come with a tag, you can identify them by their broad, flat, dark green leaves. The plant itself is very low, with each new leaf rising at the center of the plant from the crease at the base of the previous leaf. The flower stem sprouted from low on the “trunk” and rose high above the leaves. The flowers began about two thirds of the way up the stem and opened on alternating sides right out to the end. The roots grow out of the trunk, and may even sprout between the leaves. If you have a moth Orchid, it needs repotting at least every other year. And since you just got it and don’t know where it’s been, you should repot it now just for the experience.

The remaining three types, the corsage orchid (Cattleya), the cane orchid (Dendrobium) and the dancing lady (Oncidium) look nothing at all like the moth orchid. The moth orchid (Phalaenopsis) stays very low and grows vertically on a single stem. Orchid-speak for this is monopodial – one foot. The other three have tall stems called pseudobulbs - “fake bulbs.” They aren’t part of the root system, but they do store food and water for the plant. The leaves sprout from the tops or sides of the pseudobulbs (or both), and the plants grow sideways from the base like St. Augustine grass, each new growth crawling off to the side in one or more directions. Orchid-speak for this is sympodial – feet together. The sideways part that crawls along the ground is called the rhizome – the rootstalk. The roots grow down from the rhizome.

Sympodial orchids may not need repotting very often. It depends a little on which type it is and a lot on two important things.

First, and most important, is the “sniff test.” Water the plant and smell the potting material. If it smells musty or sour, or has any off-odor other than damp bark, it’s time to repot. The stuff in the pot has rotted, and the roots are in danger of rotting as well.

Second, has the plant grown out over the side of the pot? Or does it look like the next growth will hang over the side? If so, it’s probably time to repot.

So, what’s the verdict – repot or not?

Before I quit, my runny nose has reminded me of a bit of orchid trivia. I am allergic to pollen from a lot of plants, especially trees and grasses which are madly pollinating now, but not to orchid pollen. That is, I might be allergic to it, but it doesn’t get the chance to affect me. Orchid pollen doesn’t blow around in the wind like dust. It forms in sticky globs that hold together like matzo balls that have to be physically contacted by some sort of bug before it detaches from the plant and sticks to the bug. So if allergy to pollen has stopped you from getting an orchid, forget it. They’re hypoallergenic…unless the stuff in the pot gets moldy and you’re allergic to mold. So repot it.

Next time, prepare to get your hands dirty.

You have two choices – keep the plant or get rid of it. I know. You’re asking yourself why you bought it in the first place if you’re just going to get rid of it. Here’s the good part about buying orchids. Keep your receipts. There are local Orchid Societies everywhere that are organized as non-profit corporations under IRS 503(c). They would love to have your out-of-flower plant for their fund-raising raffle. If you make sure to ask for a Thank-you letter from the local Orchid Society, you can take a tax deduction for the donation. Try that with dead cut flowers! You’re smarter already.

Suppose you decide to keep the plant. The bad part is that it may not flower again until this time next year, so you may be staring at boring green leaves for a long time. However, the great thing about Florida is that the Big Four orchid types can grow outside with very little assistance from us. They thrive on benign neglect, and most of what you need to take care of them is already in your kitchen, your bathroom and your garage. Even so, there are a few decisions you will have to make before you get started.

There are four major considerations in growing orchids, or any plants for that matter. They are living things, so they need food, water, air and light – just like us, but in different proportions and for different reasons.

Food – any balanced fertilizer is fine. Balanced fertilizer means that the three numbers on the label for the main components are the same, like 6-6-6 or 10-10-10. I like the little gray time-release granules, because I can put some in the orchid pot twice a year and let it do its thing. Just don’t use the crystallized lawn & garden stuff that comes in the gigantic bags. It dissolves too fast and will burn up the orchid roots. Ready-to-use liquid or the blue water-soluble fertilizers are OK, too. They cost less, but are more work. Most people who use liquid fertilizer apply it at half the package recipe strength once a week. Like I said, more work.

Water – now that you have committed to growing your orchid, how often do you want to have to water? This is an important question that will determine what type of pot and potting media you will use and where you will place the orchid to let it grow. Some people are hoseaholics and can’t pass by a plant without watering it. Others seldom if ever interfere with Nature in the matter of watering. Both can grow great orchids if they are potted in or on the right stuff.

Air – orchids need good fresh air circulation to dry off the leaves after rain or watering and prevent fungus and little critters like mealy bugs and scale from getting a foothold.

Light – orchids, like all plants, use the energy of sunlight to drive their metabolism.

Here’s the first important decision to make. The bright window location you used for enjoying the flowers won’t give enough light to power any new growth in most cases. Of the Big Four, only the moth orchid will grow in such low light. You will need to find a bright spot around your house, on your porch or patio, or out in the trees, that provides bright but filtered light. None of the Big Four will survive in direct mid-day Florida sunshine. Stand for a moment in the place you want to put your plant. If you’re too hot, your orchid will be, too.

If you pick the right spot for your orchid, it will mostly take care of itself until it is ready to bloom again. Outdoors you will get good air circulation and occasional watering courtesy of Mother Nature. All of my orchids are out in the yard, hanging from the branches of live oak trees. This works out very well until there is a strong windstorm. During the Year of Many Hurricanes, all of my babies were safely tucked away in the barn, in the garage and on the porch for the duration, but I left them in the trees for Hurricane Wilma the next year. When the branches started heaving in the wind, the orchids went for a rollercoaster ride. Some of them continued upward after the branch reversed direction, and ultimately dropped like bombs. It was amazing. Most of the pots landed base down and thunked a couple of inches down into the mud. A few landed on their sides or on exposed tree roots and the pots shattered, though all of the plants ultimately survived. But I digress…

If you choose to grow indoors under grow-lights (how depressing!), or in any space without wind or good air movement, you will need a fan. No matter where you grow, you will need ready access to water. With just a few orchids this is not much of an issue, but when you get a bunch (this almost always happens without you even trying), a hose, a sink or a bathtub nearby is probably a necessity.

Next time – repot or not?

Orchids seem to be becoming mainstream plants rather than rarities cultivated by the rich. There’s no reason not to spend $15 to $30 for a nice orchid that will stay in bloom for weeks instead of buying cut flowers, for the same money, that will fade in a few days. Even if you give the plant away after the flowers fade, it’s worth the money. But the best thing about orchids is that they are ALIVE! You can rebloom them with very little effort and a lot of patience.

Orchids are actually pretty tough and resilient, but they’re not like most other plants. So, there are a few things about orchids that are important to know if you want to keep them alive.

Here’s the first one.

Most of them don’t grow in the dirt – at least not the ones you can buy in Home Depot, Lowes, Target, Publix (no kidding) and Sam’s. Those come from the four main groups of horticultural orchids that most people come to know and love – corsage orchids, cane orchids, moth orchids and dancing ladies. Let’s call them The Big Four. Technical gobbledygook will come in later articles for anyone who wants to become a hard-core orchid grower. For now, it’s just the broad strokes.

The Big Four in their wild state attach themselves to trees, and their roots accumulate bits of bark and other detritus that falls off of the tree. Their food comes from what the birds, lizards and frogs deposit on the tree that gets washed down by the rain. In other words, they are used to hard living. Pampering them is a death sentence.

Here’s the second one.

Orchids don’t like to have wet feet all day every day. Their roots have a white coating that acts like a sponge to soak up water for later use. They are used to drying out their socks between waterings. Keeping them wet all the time will rot off the roots and kill the plant.

When you buy an orchid, get one with at least one or two flowers open so you can see what they look like. But try to get one with buds on it that will open later. You will be able to enjoy its flowers for much longer that way. There are other things to look for when buying a plant, but that’s for the aforementioned hard-core aficionados. For now, just get one that you think is pretty and doesn’t give you “sticker shock” when you see the price. As I said, think of what cut flowers would cost, and spend whatever you think is appropriate for you.

So now you have an orchid. What do you do with it? Well, don’t repot it into potting soil. Leave it alone at least until the flowers fade. Put it near a bright window while you enjoy the flowers. Water it once a week. Not just a little spritz, but a good soaking in the sink. The water will run right out of the bottom of the pot, but the point is to wet the sponge-like roots until they are saturated.

Next time—what to do after the flowers are gone.