Just Add Ice Orchids Are Stars but Never Prima Donnas

The prima donna reputation orchids have for being finicky and difficult to grow can most likely be traced back to the ill-fated attempts at tropical orchid cultivation by early 19^th century European gardening enthusiasts and nurserymen. When the colorful and exotic orchids of Southeast Asia, the South Pacific and South America began arriving in Europe in the early 1800s, few plants survived the arduous sea voyage from their tropical homes half a world away. After months of rough treatment and dehydration in the bellies of sailing ships, the few orchid plants that survived intact were subjected to further indignities by Victorian orchid enthusiasts and nurserymen. In misguided attempts to recreate the plants’ imagined native jungle environment, Victorian growers closeted the new tropical species in blisteringly hot, smoky, unventilated greenhouses.

Not surprisingly, few tropical orchids survived these early orchid care practices. Orchid growers of the time were not deliberately trying to kill the plants they paid exorbitant fees to possess. Europeans simply had no idea how to grow and care for exotic tropical orchids that were unlike any flower they had ever seen. The orchids known to Europeans of that era were small and drab, nothing like the large, vibrantly-colored Phalaenopsis and Cattleya orchids that were arriving from the tropics. It took European orchid fanciers years of trial and error to develop the orchid care and propagation techniques that eventually led to the successful cultivation of tropical orchids in the West.

Imagine how amazed those Victorian orchid pioneers would be to see the ease with which Phalaenopsis orchids can now be grown in ordinary homes using the Just Add Ice watering method. Just Add Ice Orchids make it possible for even first-time owners to successfully grow beautiful tropical orchids in their own homes.

Photo credit: i_a_mcdonnell