Protect Just Add Ice Orchids from Winter Drafts

We’re entering the coldest months of winter when even hardy Just Add Ice Orchids will require a little extra tender loving care. Sudden temperature drops and cold winter drafts take a toll on tropical orchid varieties, including Phalaenopsis orchids. Every time you open your front door, the blast of cold air that enters your home can drop the ambient room temperature by several degrees F. Winter winds can send cold drafts whistling down the chimney, scooting under the threshold and seeping through poorly-sealed window frames. You can put on a sweater when the house gets chilly, but your Just Add Ice Orchid has to sit there and tough it out.

Orchids are temperature sensitive. Just Add Ice Orchids tolerate a fairly wide range of temperatures, thriving in temperatures between 55 degrees and 75 degrees Fahrenheit. But exposure to cold drafts and sudden drops in temperature can damage these tropical flowers and may cause Just Add Ice Orchids to lose their flowers.

When blasts of cold winter air shock Phalaenopsis orchids and cause these beautiful plants to drop their buds, the condition is called, appropriately enough, “bud blast.” Instead of opening into the characteristically large, butterfly-shaped flowers that have made Phalaenopsis orchids America’s favorite orchid species, the flower buds on a Just Add Ice Orchids plant that is suffering from bud blast stop growing and begin to shrivel, turning brown and papery on the edges and finally falling off the orchid stalk without ever opening. Fortunately, bud blast can be easily prevented by keeping your Just Add Ice Orchid out of drafts and away from chilly entry areas. During the winter, locate your Just Add Ice Orchid to a room where a constant temperature within the plant’s 55 to75-degree comfort zone can be easily maintained and your orchid will continue to thrive.

Photo by: Galileo5