Easy Orchids: The Fail-Safe Guide to Growing Orchids Indoors - Softcover

Johnson, Liz

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1552979385 ISBN 13: 9781552979389

Publisher: Firefly Books, 2009

Synopsis

Advances in home climate technology have spurred a dramatic rise in the popularity of orchids as houseplants. Wide availability and affordability have made them far more accessible. Modern orchid varieties are hardy and come in a vast array of colors and sizes to suit any gardener's home environment.

Easy Orchids shows just how easy it is to fill the home year-round with these colorful and scented blooms. The book is packed with glorious color photographs of orchids from around the world and gives practical guidance and expert tips in a clear and easy-to-use format.

Topics include:

• Extensive A-Z orchid directory of plants
• Cool, warm and intermediate varieties
• Choosing a healthy plant and checklist for buying orchids online
• Transporting and importing plants
• Detailed cultivation instructions
• Strength of fragrance and size of bloom
• Ease of growth and ideal growing temperature and location
• Watering and humidity levels
• Feeding, potting and seasonal care.

Using Easy Orchids, gardeners everywhere will discover how fail-safe and rewarding it can be to grow orchids at home.

About this title

About the Author

Liz Johnson is a member of the Royal Horticultural Society, an orchid judge and the owner of McBean's Orchids, a company that has been growing orchids since 1879.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Introduction

There are orchid books for academics, amateur collectors, and enthusiasts, but none for those who love and buy orchids purely as plants to decorate their homes and gardens. This book aims to provide a practical, concise, easy-to-use guide that is suitable for those with little or no experience of growing orchids.

Orchids have long been considered expensive and difficult to grow, and the myth that has built up around these fabulous plants needs dispelling. There is a wide choice of easy-to-grow orchids that will happily live in most homes.

Many people may have come across a stunning orchid, but were discouraged by the uninformative plant label. It is not unusual for the instructions on such labels to be so general that they are virtually useless. In this book I will explain the basic rules for selecting your orchid, caring for it properly and getting it to reflower. Once you know the basic techniques, you will get enormous enjoyment and satisfaction from growing these wonderful plants.

Central heating and other modern heating systems have resulted in a dramatic rise in the popularity of the moth orchid as a houseplant. Discovered in the jungles of the Philippines, it has elegant, arching sprays of flowers that shimmer in the breeze like fluttering, fragile moths. Phalaenopsis now tops plant popularity polls in the U.S., the U.K. and other parts of Europe.

The past two years saw the moth orchid share top spot as the U.K's most popular pot plant, and it has achieved the number two position in the U.S., just behind the ever-popular Christmas poinsettia. The pages of lifestyle and decorating magazines and television shows bring us images, week after week, of orchids used as decorative features in the home. Their use is understandable: they are truly beautiful and available in a range of colors, shapes and sizes. Many are easy to grow and do not require constant attention.

As for my own orchid "credentials" -- I am the owner of McBean's Orchids in Cooksbridge, in southeast England, a company that has grown orchids since 1879. Over a century of breeding and showing these amazing plants has gained McBean's nursery countless awards and worldwide recognition. I have written this book with the orchid as a houseplant firmly in mind. I'm backed by a wealth of experience from the team at McBean's, who have bred and raised several million orchids.

Edition details

• Publisher: Firefly Books
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 1552979385
• ISBN 13: 9781552979389
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 144