By Victoria Torley
My husband, Metric Man, bought me an orchid!
He doesn’t buy plants often and certainly not
orchids. He has been trying to cure me of
orchid mania, but that isn’t happening.
This wasn’t just any orchid; this was a
Cattleya orchid with great color and the scent
of oil of clove. Add to that, he seemed to
have chosen, probably by chance, a Cattleya
that could be divided into four parts. I
approved. Like any good Cattleya, the orchid
bloomed for several weeks, filling the deck
with perfume.
Then, inevitably, it was gone. Time for some
fun, and by that I mean, making four orchids
from one.
Now this Cattleya was growing roots over the
edges of the pot and through all its holes, so
the first thing on the list was a good soaking
in warm water to soften the roots and keep
them from snapping as I manipulated the pot.
A good thing the pot was plastic, too, as I
needed to cut the pot down a bit to have some
maneuvering room. That finished, I began to
remove the roots from the pot and the potting
material. That’s when I saw it! At some point,
someone had tied this orchid with a thin piece
of string! Horrors!
There are a lot of ways to
secure an orchid; a thin string is not one
of them. In the past, I have seen orchids
secured with fishing line (awful), wire
(shudder), and nasty twine (yuck), and every
time, there has been damage to the plant's
roots.
If you aren’t familiar with orchid roots,
here is a brief explanation. What you think
you are looking at when you look at the
roots of an orchid aren’t roots at all. What
we can see of the root is a root
covering, usually whitish or grey,
called velamen, a protective and absorbent
covering on the actual root, which is often
the size of sewing thread or fine hair.
Tying them with wire or twine will often
lead to damage to the velamen. Once the
velamen is damaged, the root has no
protection from the elements and, since the
velamen supplies nutrients to the plant, no
nutrient source either. So, what is best for
the orchid?
If you live near a "vivero" or
supply source, you can buy a special floral
tape, which is wide enough to leave the
velamen undamaged, or use my method: strips
of old sheets.
Okay, so strips of old sheets make your
garden look like the Ents have been to war,
ala “Lord of the Rings,” but it’s a great
use for old sheets and the material will
usually rot away in 6-9 months, just enough
time for the roots to have grabbed hold of
the orchid mounting surface.
So, that’s my best advice on securing
orchids. Now, if you will excuse me, I have
some old sheets to tear into strips.
Plant of the week. The Cattleya dowiana is a
lovely orchid, and the reason I built a
greenhouse. Metric Man calls it a “green
mansion” due to its size. Cattleya orchids
are actually easy to grow if you have the
right space. They like temperatures above 70
and are not crazy about a lot of rain,
although I have seen them grow outside near
Dominical Beach in Puntarenas province.
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Find more interesting
stories about
gardening in Costa
Rica on the
AM Costa Rica
Garden page. Questions on this article,
Ms. Victoria Torley,
gardener columnist,
can be reached by
emailing victoriatorley1@gmail.com
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