Tips for Welcoming a New Orchid Plant into Your Home

When you bring a new Phalaenopsis orchid plant into your home, you’ll want to give it a little tender loving care to help it adjust to its new home. If you already have a collection of orchids, you’ll want to keep your new plant isolated for a couple of weeks. Reliable orchid growers ship only healthy orchid plants, but insect infestations and other problems can occur after orchids reach the retail store. Isolating new plants from your other houseplants allows time to discover and treat problems and prevent them from spreading to your healthy plants.

Familiarizing your Orchid

To help orchid plants adjust to a new environment, follow these tips when bringing home a blooming Phalaenopsis orchid:

• Place your orchid where it will receive bright but indirect sunlight. Harsh direct sunlight can burn plant leaves and bleach color from flower blooms.
• Do not locate your orchid near ripening fruit. The ethylene gas emitted by ripe fruit can cause premature bloom drop. Exposure to strong fumes or pollution can also cause blooms to fade.
• To minimize adjustment stress, keep your orchid on the cool side, between 65 and 75 degrees Fahrenheit.
• Water your orchid regularly as directed on the plant tag; but do not spray plants or expose orchids to high humidity without adequate air flow to prevent fungal development. Just Add Ice Orchids can be watered with 3 ice cubes once a week. Other orchids should be allowed to drain thoroughly after watering to prevent root rot and fungal growth.

For more information about growing Phalaenopsis orchids, view our orchid care videos.