When Is Orchid Blooming Season? A Complete Guide to the Latest Blooming Times
Orchids are divided into two major categories: terrestrial orchids and epiphytic orchids. The orchids traditionally cultivated in China belong to the terrestrial orchids. Because these orchids are mainly produced in China, they are also called Chinese orchids, or guolan for short. The blooming time varies depending on the orchid variety. Let us take a look below at which months are the orchid blooming season!
When Do Orchids Bloom
Different orchid varieties bloom at different times. Cymbidium goeringii blooms from January to March, Cymbidium sinense from December to February, Cymbidium ensifolium from May to October, Cymbidium faberi from March to May, and Cymbidium kanran from November to January. Among tropical orchids there are also different varieties with different blooming times; for example, spring Dendrobium blooms in spring and autumn Dendrobium blooms in autumn. The normal blooming season of Phalaenopsis should be summer, but through greenhouse regulation it can also bloom during the Spring Festival.
Reasons Why Orchids Do Not Bloom
1. Insufficient growth age: Seedling orchids (seed-grown plants) and tissue-cultured plantlets may not necessarily bloom even after many years of cultivation. Just like other plants, for example fruit trees need to reach a certain age before they can bloom and bear fruit, orchids also need to reach a certain age before they can bloom and set seed.
2. Differences among varieties: The species differences among various orchids differ, and different local climate conditions often make it difficult for orchids to bloom. Take Cymbidium goeringii for example: in some regions it is relatively difficult to bloom, or relatively few plants bloom.
3. Disordered physiological growth: The physiological growth of orchids is disrupted by various reasons. If new leaf buds suddenly appear during the flower bud formation stage, under such circumstances the orchid plant no longer has enough nutrients to maintain the normal differentiation of flower buds, which causes the flower buds to stop growing and fail to bloom.
4. Improper cultivation methods: Improper cultivation methods may also cause orchids not to bloom. There are mainly the following two situations.
① Soil too rich: The orchid growing medium contains too much nitrogen fertilizer and relatively little phosphorus and potassium fertilizer, which leads to excessive vegetative growth and inhibited reproductive growth. The solution is to replace it with a growing medium with balanced nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium nutrition, or to increase the application of phosphorus and potassium fertilizer.
② Overwatering: Watering too much during the flower bud differentiation stage and keeping the growing medium too wet will likewise lead to vigorous vegetative growth and inhibit reproductive growth. Because the growing medium is too wet, the nutrients contained in it are frequently released and absorbed by the roots together with water, then conducted to the leaves to participate in the plant's metabolism. Once metabolism is strong, respiration becomes vigorous, thereby offsetting the products of leaf photosynthesis. The accumulation of organic matter in the orchid plant is affected, and flower bud differentiation lacks the necessary driving force.
Orchid Blooming Season Care
1. Never touch the flower buds: After orchid flower buds emerge from the medium, never touch or squeeze them with your hands. Beginners who see new shoots emerging cannot tell whether they are leaf buds or flower buds and cannot resist touching and squeezing them with their hands. Little do they know that the newly emerged shoots are very delicate. Once squeezed and pinched by hand, the outer bracts will become scorched, and may even cause the flower buds to become stiff. Therefore, you can only observe with your eyes and must never pinch them with your hands.
2. Thin the buds according to growth vigor: After the flower buds have all emerged, thin the buds according to the number of orchid plants and their growth vigor, removing the weak and keeping the strong. For example, for a pot of a famous Cymbidium goeringii variety with only 4 or 5 plants, keeping one flower bud is enough; with 8 or 9 strong plants, 2 flower buds can be kept; with more than ten plants, keeping 3 is also fine. The author has a pot of Yipin with 10 plants that produced 8 flower buds; 6 were thinned out and only 2 were kept. That was to avoid consuming too many nutrients. The principle of bud thinning is to remove the weak and keep the strong. If both the front pseudobulbs (new pseudobulbs from the previous year) and the back pseudobulbs produce flower buds, it is better to keep the flower buds of the strong front pseudobulbs and remove those of the back ones. If one strong plant produces two flower buds, keep only one. Flower buds produced by weak plants must be firmly removed and must not be kept. Flower buds that emerge too late are also best removed. Those crowded among the orchid leaves are not as good as those kept around the periphery of the plants.
3. Move indoors to overwinter in cold winter: Place orchid pots with flower buds in a sunny indoor room so they can bask in warm sunlight. During the day, when the temperature rises a bit, windows should be opened for ventilation to strengthen air circulation. When watering routinely, try to avoid water droplets intruding into the bracts, so as to prevent rot.
4. Control dryness and humidity: When orchids begin to send up stems, a certain amount of water is needed. If there is no moist environment in the pot, the flower stems will not grow tall and will shrink down to the pot surface, hidden by the leaf clusters, which detracts from their beauty. To make the flower scapes grow tall, the pot must be kept moist and not too dry. But when the buds open and the petals spread, the pot must be somewhat dry. If the humidity in the pot is too high, although the flower scapes can continue to grow taller, it often causes the side petals to droop, affecting the flower's appearance and quality. Therefore, water should be reduced shortly before the petals open. But this cannot be generalized. For some unusual varieties, such as Cymbidium goeringii Yuhudie, Liangxi Ruiedie, Wudie and so on, as well as Cymbidium faberi Duoyun, Haiou, Fengqiao, Lixing Ruiedie and so on, not only should they not be kept slightly dry, they should instead be kept even more moist, so that when the petals open they can better display their unusual petal form characteristics.
5. Control light: It is more suitable to place them in a spot with scattered light. If the light is too weak, the flower color will not be beautiful later. If they are exposed to direct sunlight (light too strong), after the petals open the petals will turn yellowish and may even be easily scorched, detracting from the flower's appearance. This is especially true for pure-color orchids; if the light is too strong, the lip will appear slightly yellow. Therefore, when orchid petals open, direct sunlight should be avoided and they should be placed in a location with scattered light.
6. Cut flowers at the right time: The orchid blooming season is generally just over ten days, and some last as long as about a month. Ordinary orchids can be allowed to bloom freely, but for precious and rare orchids, in order not to consume too many nutrients and affect the sprouting of new shoots, Cymbidium goeringii should be cut at the right time after the petals open, at most one week after full bloom. For Cymbidium faberi, which has multiple flowers on one stem, they should be cut in time 5 or 6 days after the flowers have opened fully from bottom to top.