Barb and I finished our week of flower fun with a visit to Longwood Garden’s for their annual orchid event.  Here are some of the pictures I took there.  Disclaimer: I’m an engineer and an amateur writer, not a photographer.  I just really like taking pictures of flowers and I’m happy that I finally have something to do with at least some of the photos I take at gardens. 

​Barb and I went to the Philly Flower show in early March.  She didn’t speak this year, but wandering around the exhibition hall was exactly the break from winter that we both needed!  This year’s theme was a 1960’s-inspired flower power and all of the colorful flowers would lift anyone’s spirits.   

Waldor Orchids is always a favorite!
​Waldor Orchids, orchid growers from Linwood, New Jersey, always does a stunning display each year and this year was no different!  My photos don’t do it justice, so I’ll try my best to describe the display.  The base was a flat pool died black with pedestals of orchids and bromeliads.  The pedestal in the center rotated and some of the outer pedestals had mirrors.  I believe their display was named Kaleidoscope and I think they definitely nailed it.
Barb works closely with Waldor Orchids for plant and potting materials for a lot of her classes.  They’re a great group of people and fantastic orchid growers!

​I’ll admit the title might be a little misleading. “Professionals” is a bit of an exaggeration because professionals have degrees in horticulture and greenhouses with temperature controls and light regulation that make fiddling with flower timing eerily precise.  This post is filled with Barb’s at-home hacks for altering flower timing when you don’t have fancy equipment.
Healthy orchids  tend to flower at the same time every year.  It’s crazy, I know, but weirdly true.  If you buy a flowering orchid in March and raise it well, it will most likely flower again the following March.  However, you can fiddle with the timing a bit, particularly after the bud spike has begun growing. 

When it’s needed: If you need a plant to bloom earlier.
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How it’s done: Barb had to do this recently because a plant she entered in the Philadelphia International Flower Show was not open the day before she had to take it down to Philly for judging.
The bud was nearly open, so to give it an extra nudge, Barb set the plant on a heating pad the night before. That photo on the right is what she woke up to the following morning!  Some important things to point out: (1) The heating pad was on its lowest setting.  The goal is just to warm up the plant a bit, not bake it. (2) The orchid is not sitting directly on top of the heating pad.  Barb just flipped a dry tray upside down and set the pot on top.  That way, she was only heating the air around the plant rather than cooking the pot and the roots. (3) This worked overnight because the bud was already very close to opening.  Tighter buds and less developed bud spikes will require more time.

When it’s needed: If you have an orchid that is already flowering and you want to extend the life of those flowers.  Or, if you want to slow down bud development to delay flowering.
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How it’s done:  To slow down flower development, just cool the plant down. Barb has a couple methods that she uses depending on how long she needs to stall development.  For small changes, she just uses a bow window in her living room, pictured on the left.  The glass surrounding the plant on three sides cools it down more overnight than sitting further away from the windows.  Barb also turned a spare bedroom into another cool room for orchids.  She partially closed the heating vents in this room and keeps the door shut so the room stays ~5F cooler than the rest of the house.  The room still gets excellent evening sunshine.  I’ll give you the same warning as with warming the plant up, you don’t want to make any drastic changes to temperature. Most orchids can stand temperatures down to ~50F, but they don’t like sudden changes, like from 70F to 50F in two minutes.  If you are going to move an orchid to a cooler temperature, do it incrementally.  For instance, Barb may inch a plant closer to her bow windows over the course of a couple days.  Or she may leave the spare room’s door open to warm the room up before she moves the plant into the room.  Then, she’ll slowly close the door to cool the room down while the orchid is in to allow the orchid to acclimate.