Ok, so let's talk about my favorite orchid.... The vanda alliance! Why alliance? Cause there's so many of them! From big to small, white to purple and everything in between... There's a vanda out there that will make you smile!
I first got into vandas when I was little... My mom loved them! Oh course, none of them survived.. I purchased my first vanda in 2006... V. Robert' Delight 'ink blue'. I saw it at a plant festival with a price tag of $160 on it, it was about 5' tall with beautiful blue-purpley colored flowers. I had to have it! But $160!? No way dude! So I went back to that festival on the last hour on the final day, and bought it for $60
the vanda thrived and did well, bloomed about twice a year for me. The buds take a while to form, and once the buds were almost ready to open......... And some daggum squirrels ate them! Every single bud! So I have a terrible hate for squirrels, and will shoot them if they go anywhere NEAR my vanda rack! Yeah, call me crazy! Anyway, I lost my beautiful vanda when I moved away. I left it at my dad's house and it didn't get watered enough, by the time I got it back, it was far too gone.... It was about 8' tall... (It took me 3 years to find another)
Anyway, enough with my babbling..
So how the heck do you grow these things? First off, I recommend growing your vanda in a basket, I prefer the black plastic since teak baskets are beautiful (and expensive) but the teak forests are disappearing... So, be nice and use the black plastic baskets. Next, you'll need a long 3-4 wire hanger to hang that basket with a nice strong hook at the top. I order my baskets and wire hangers off ebay. Some folks let their vandas hang 'naked', meaning they're attached (zip tied) to a large 'S' hook hanger.
So you got your basket (or 'S' hook) and hanger.... Cool! Now buy a vanda!
Buying local is always good, but if you live up north, they're a bit difficult to find. You can buy some off ebay, but for orchid newbies, stay away from seedlings! They're too fragile and can't go into a basket quite yet anyways. Buy a plant that is mature, about 6" tall with leaves that are at least 4" long (also called 'blooming sized'). If you are somewhere and there's no pictures provided of what the blooms will look like, whip out that handy dandy smart phone and google image search the name and look through some picture and you'll get a general idea of what the flowers will look like. Buying from ebay is fine as long as the description says 'blooming size'. Of course you could always buy from my favorite vanda grower, 'Goodwin Orchids' (www.goodwinorchids.com). All of their orchids are imported from Thailand, they go there twice a year and pick out what they want and bring them home! If you live near there, please make the trip, Donna is quite the lady to talk to, and she will take you all over that greenhouse and help you pick out what you want!
So when you have decided to buy a plant, check the plant crevices for any critters, white fluffy stuff, anything sticky, black bugs, etc. if you see brown spots on the leaves it's not necessarily a bad thing, it can be 'sunburn' but avoid it if you want to. Sunburn is more of a ugly blemish than anything.
When you bring your plant home, give it a good soaking. I use a product called 'SuperThrive' in a very weak solution (1 capful to a sink full of water) and let the vanda soak in the sink. (If your vanda is too big, soak it in the tub.) let it sit for 15-30 minutes, and while it's soaking, get your basket and wire hanger ready.
Get your little vanda out of its soak mixture and carefully guide the roots through the slots/holes on the basket. If it seems a little unsteady, use a bread bag tie, and gently feed it over a root or two to the underside of the basket and twist it. Use several ties if you have to. Once the plant 'settles' you can remove the ties.
Now lighting. Vandas are a high light demander... And if the color of the flower is a darker color, they like even more light. But no, you can't throw these guys out in the full sun all day long, you will quickly kill it. Best time for orchid lighting is morning. From sunrise to about 11 is best, let it be in the shade until about 4 pm. Mine are snugged up against the house on a rack made from 2x2's and once the sun is about 11:30, it's creeping over the roof of the house, and the vandas will be in the shade, but there's bright light around them.
Sunburn:
you can quickly notice sunburn on the leaves, usually near the ends. The leaves will look bubbly and in a few days start to turn a whitish color, then yellow, then brown, then the crispy dead brown. Don't cut the leaf off unless the sunburn is so bad that it's covered most of the leaf.... If you HAVE to cut the leaf off, cut all the brown off up until you reach the green healthy part. Use sanitized scissors, (rubbing alcohol is good to use!) and once you make the cut, take some cinnamon powder and dab the raw cut into it. Try not to rinse the powder off when you water it for a week or so.
Bugs:
vandas are not that susceptible to bugs, (knock on wood!) that I've experienced. I did get hit by 'wooly aphids', aka, apple aphids. Those buggers are hard to get rid of, but they only attacked my dendrobiums. I got hit bad by kudzu beetles, but I didn't notice any damage... The little suckers just STINK bad when you disturb them. Katydids did seem to take a liking to my vanda buds and blooms. My solution, get the 'Sevin' in the concentrate form, mix it as directed, and absolutely drench your vandas (or all orchids) when they're dry and have not been watered. SEVIN is a systemic, so anything that eats on your plants, will die. (So I do NOT advice to use this product on your chameleons orchids unless you plan on keeping the plant out of the cage for months!) rubbing alcohol on cotton balls and dabbed onto buggies will kill them.
Watering:
Easiest part! If your vanda is in a basket (hence why I encourage it so much), you can literally drown these guys every single day and they will be ok. Think of their roots as a sponge, they'll absorb water only for so long until they can't absorb anymore. Vandas that are potted cannot be watered like this! I think vandas are generally happiest when their roots can hang free, kinda like after a long day at work you come home and take the ol' bra off, ok... TMI...
No, literally, water them. Vandas love water. I water mine every single day during the hot summer (most times twice a day) and they absolutely thrive and go crazy. During the winter I'll water them 3 days a week. When your vanda is getting plenty of water the leaves will be firm, and the roots will be fat and silvery in color. You'll see new growth at the tips that will be a greenish yellow or a reddish purple color, all good signs! A sign of under watering is the roots will become very, very thin, dry and brittle like. It takes a while for this to happen, but once it does, those brittle roots are beyond saving. Fix your watering habits and you'll see new root growth.
Just remember, if you water the vanda all over, including its leaves and it's later in the afternoon/evening, put it somewhere near a fan for air circulation. You don't want your vanda to get crown rot.
Fertilizing:
This is a lazy area for me. I don't fertilize because I'm too lazy to mix it up. I use to when we lived in apartments, but now that they have a place to sit outside all summer and can get hit with the water hose, I just don't put that fertilizer effort in anymore... Now if you do want to fertilize, and it's a chameleons orchid, I would try a all natural fertilizer. Like worm tea, or an algae type. But then again, I don't know what it would do to the chameleon if he/she were to ingest the orchid.
But if you don't have this orchid in your chameleons cage, I use 'jacks' fertilizer. You can buy it on amazon. I use the 'jacks classic' and the 'jacks bloom booster'. The key is to 'fertilize weekly but weakly'. I mix a teaspoon to a gallon of water on the classic fertilizer and use it twice a week. Mix the bloom booster to 2 teaspoons to a gallon once a month. It's a lot of fertilizer, but vandas are heavy feeders. But do not make stronger mix fertilizers! You will notice the plant will start to get 'fertilizer burns' or you'll see crystals forming or even the roots changing to a blue color.
Another great beneficial thing to do is mix a hearty teaspoon of Epsom salts to a gallon of water and use that on your vandas once a month.
Again, I'm lazy, because my vandas get about 6-8 months of outside time. Maybe I'll try to get back into fertilizing some this year.
Temperatures:
They can tolerate heat, but follow my guidelines to sun exposure. If you get hot (we can reach temps 105 easily in the summer here) and dry, it's best to water your vandas twice a day. Please do this for your plant, and it will surely reward you with beautiful robust blooms. When it's winter time, it's actually GOOD for your vanda to get chilly, I don't bring my vandas in until temperatures hit about 38 degrees. It acclimates them, and a temperature drop triggers spike growth as well! Do not be afraid to leave them out when it gets cold, just don't let 'em get below 38 degrees! Some folks argue about not letting them get below 70 or whatever, believe me, they can tolerate a chilling and it's good for them, if they didn't, I'd have about 30 dead vandas.
Other stuff:
This goes for any orchid... But when your orchid starts to 'spike', be patient! The more you disturb the plant the higher risk you have for getting 'bug blast'. When the spikes are new and don't have much of a individual bud definition, they can handle some abuse. When you start to see the little buds forming, do your best to not disturb it. Vandas to me are extremely sensitive. If I move the plant around on a rack during a spike budding up, I'm probably going to lose a few buds. If you absolutely have to move the orchid, do it extremely gently and carefully.
*I hope yall enjoy my blogs, keep in mind I mainly do these blogs for folks who want to try orchids... My advice does not necessarily reflect on caring for a chameleons orchid, since I do use chemicals from time to time!
I first got into vandas when I was little... My mom loved them! Oh course, none of them survived.. I purchased my first vanda in 2006... V. Robert' Delight 'ink blue'. I saw it at a plant festival with a price tag of $160 on it, it was about 5' tall with beautiful blue-purpley colored flowers. I had to have it! But $160!? No way dude! So I went back to that festival on the last hour on the final day, and bought it for $60
the vanda thrived and did well, bloomed about twice a year for me. The buds take a while to form, and once the buds were almost ready to open......... And some daggum squirrels ate them! Every single bud! So I have a terrible hate for squirrels, and will shoot them if they go anywhere NEAR my vanda rack! Yeah, call me crazy! Anyway, I lost my beautiful vanda when I moved away. I left it at my dad's house and it didn't get watered enough, by the time I got it back, it was far too gone.... It was about 8' tall... (It took me 3 years to find another)Anyway, enough with my babbling..
So how the heck do you grow these things? First off, I recommend growing your vanda in a basket, I prefer the black plastic since teak baskets are beautiful (and expensive) but the teak forests are disappearing... So, be nice and use the black plastic baskets. Next, you'll need a long 3-4 wire hanger to hang that basket with a nice strong hook at the top. I order my baskets and wire hangers off ebay. Some folks let their vandas hang 'naked', meaning they're attached (zip tied) to a large 'S' hook hanger.
So you got your basket (or 'S' hook) and hanger.... Cool! Now buy a vanda!
Buying local is always good, but if you live up north, they're a bit difficult to find. You can buy some off ebay, but for orchid newbies, stay away from seedlings! They're too fragile and can't go into a basket quite yet anyways. Buy a plant that is mature, about 6" tall with leaves that are at least 4" long (also called 'blooming sized'). If you are somewhere and there's no pictures provided of what the blooms will look like, whip out that handy dandy smart phone and google image search the name and look through some picture and you'll get a general idea of what the flowers will look like. Buying from ebay is fine as long as the description says 'blooming size'. Of course you could always buy from my favorite vanda grower, 'Goodwin Orchids' (www.goodwinorchids.com). All of their orchids are imported from Thailand, they go there twice a year and pick out what they want and bring them home! If you live near there, please make the trip, Donna is quite the lady to talk to, and she will take you all over that greenhouse and help you pick out what you want!
So when you have decided to buy a plant, check the plant crevices for any critters, white fluffy stuff, anything sticky, black bugs, etc. if you see brown spots on the leaves it's not necessarily a bad thing, it can be 'sunburn' but avoid it if you want to. Sunburn is more of a ugly blemish than anything.
When you bring your plant home, give it a good soaking. I use a product called 'SuperThrive' in a very weak solution (1 capful to a sink full of water) and let the vanda soak in the sink. (If your vanda is too big, soak it in the tub.) let it sit for 15-30 minutes, and while it's soaking, get your basket and wire hanger ready.
Get your little vanda out of its soak mixture and carefully guide the roots through the slots/holes on the basket. If it seems a little unsteady, use a bread bag tie, and gently feed it over a root or two to the underside of the basket and twist it. Use several ties if you have to. Once the plant 'settles' you can remove the ties.
Now lighting. Vandas are a high light demander... And if the color of the flower is a darker color, they like even more light. But no, you can't throw these guys out in the full sun all day long, you will quickly kill it. Best time for orchid lighting is morning. From sunrise to about 11 is best, let it be in the shade until about 4 pm. Mine are snugged up against the house on a rack made from 2x2's and once the sun is about 11:30, it's creeping over the roof of the house, and the vandas will be in the shade, but there's bright light around them.
Sunburn:
you can quickly notice sunburn on the leaves, usually near the ends. The leaves will look bubbly and in a few days start to turn a whitish color, then yellow, then brown, then the crispy dead brown. Don't cut the leaf off unless the sunburn is so bad that it's covered most of the leaf.... If you HAVE to cut the leaf off, cut all the brown off up until you reach the green healthy part. Use sanitized scissors, (rubbing alcohol is good to use!) and once you make the cut, take some cinnamon powder and dab the raw cut into it. Try not to rinse the powder off when you water it for a week or so.
Bugs:
vandas are not that susceptible to bugs, (knock on wood!) that I've experienced. I did get hit by 'wooly aphids', aka, apple aphids. Those buggers are hard to get rid of, but they only attacked my dendrobiums. I got hit bad by kudzu beetles, but I didn't notice any damage... The little suckers just STINK bad when you disturb them. Katydids did seem to take a liking to my vanda buds and blooms. My solution, get the 'Sevin' in the concentrate form, mix it as directed, and absolutely drench your vandas (or all orchids) when they're dry and have not been watered. SEVIN is a systemic, so anything that eats on your plants, will die. (So I do NOT advice to use this product on your chameleons orchids unless you plan on keeping the plant out of the cage for months!) rubbing alcohol on cotton balls and dabbed onto buggies will kill them.
Watering:
Easiest part! If your vanda is in a basket (hence why I encourage it so much), you can literally drown these guys every single day and they will be ok. Think of their roots as a sponge, they'll absorb water only for so long until they can't absorb anymore. Vandas that are potted cannot be watered like this! I think vandas are generally happiest when their roots can hang free, kinda like after a long day at work you come home and take the ol' bra off, ok... TMI...
No, literally, water them. Vandas love water. I water mine every single day during the hot summer (most times twice a day) and they absolutely thrive and go crazy. During the winter I'll water them 3 days a week. When your vanda is getting plenty of water the leaves will be firm, and the roots will be fat and silvery in color. You'll see new growth at the tips that will be a greenish yellow or a reddish purple color, all good signs! A sign of under watering is the roots will become very, very thin, dry and brittle like. It takes a while for this to happen, but once it does, those brittle roots are beyond saving. Fix your watering habits and you'll see new root growth.
Just remember, if you water the vanda all over, including its leaves and it's later in the afternoon/evening, put it somewhere near a fan for air circulation. You don't want your vanda to get crown rot.
Fertilizing:
This is a lazy area for me. I don't fertilize because I'm too lazy to mix it up. I use to when we lived in apartments, but now that they have a place to sit outside all summer and can get hit with the water hose, I just don't put that fertilizer effort in anymore... Now if you do want to fertilize, and it's a chameleons orchid, I would try a all natural fertilizer. Like worm tea, or an algae type. But then again, I don't know what it would do to the chameleon if he/she were to ingest the orchid.
But if you don't have this orchid in your chameleons cage, I use 'jacks' fertilizer. You can buy it on amazon. I use the 'jacks classic' and the 'jacks bloom booster'. The key is to 'fertilize weekly but weakly'. I mix a teaspoon to a gallon of water on the classic fertilizer and use it twice a week. Mix the bloom booster to 2 teaspoons to a gallon once a month. It's a lot of fertilizer, but vandas are heavy feeders. But do not make stronger mix fertilizers! You will notice the plant will start to get 'fertilizer burns' or you'll see crystals forming or even the roots changing to a blue color.
Another great beneficial thing to do is mix a hearty teaspoon of Epsom salts to a gallon of water and use that on your vandas once a month.
Again, I'm lazy, because my vandas get about 6-8 months of outside time. Maybe I'll try to get back into fertilizing some this year.
Temperatures:
They can tolerate heat, but follow my guidelines to sun exposure. If you get hot (we can reach temps 105 easily in the summer here) and dry, it's best to water your vandas twice a day. Please do this for your plant, and it will surely reward you with beautiful robust blooms. When it's winter time, it's actually GOOD for your vanda to get chilly, I don't bring my vandas in until temperatures hit about 38 degrees. It acclimates them, and a temperature drop triggers spike growth as well! Do not be afraid to leave them out when it gets cold, just don't let 'em get below 38 degrees! Some folks argue about not letting them get below 70 or whatever, believe me, they can tolerate a chilling and it's good for them, if they didn't, I'd have about 30 dead vandas.
Other stuff:
This goes for any orchid... But when your orchid starts to 'spike', be patient! The more you disturb the plant the higher risk you have for getting 'bug blast'. When the spikes are new and don't have much of a individual bud definition, they can handle some abuse. When you start to see the little buds forming, do your best to not disturb it. Vandas to me are extremely sensitive. If I move the plant around on a rack during a spike budding up, I'm probably going to lose a few buds. If you absolutely have to move the orchid, do it extremely gently and carefully.
*I hope yall enjoy my blogs, keep in mind I mainly do these blogs for folks who want to try orchids... My advice does not necessarily reflect on caring for a chameleons orchid, since I do use chemicals from time to time!
