When Is Orchid Blooming Season? A Detailed Guide to Blooming Times
Orchids are divided into two major groups: terrestrial orchids and epiphytic orchids. The orchids traditionally cultivated in China belong to the terrestrial group, and because these orchids are mainly produced in China, they are also called Chinese orchids, or guolan for short. Different orchid varieties bloom at different times. Let us take a look below at which months orchids bloom!
When Do Orchids Bloom?
Different orchid varieties bloom at different times. Cymbidium goeringii (spring orchid) blooms from January to March, Cymbidium sinense (Chinese cymbidium) from December to February, Cymbidium ensifolium (four-season orchid) from May to October, Cymbidium faberi (Hui orchid) from March to May, and Cymbidium kanran (cold orchid) from November to January. Among foreign 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 period of Phalaenopsis should be summer, but through greenhouse regulation it can also bloom at Spring Festival.
Reasons Why Orchids Do Not Bloom
1. Insufficient growing 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 must reach a certain age before they can bloom and bear fruit, orchids must also reach a certain age before they can bloom and set seed.
2. Differences among varieties: The species differences among orchid types and the different climatic conditions in various regions often make it difficult for orchids to bloom. Take Cymbidium goeringii for example: in some areas it is relatively difficult to get it to bloom, or only a relatively small number of plants bloom.
3. Disrupted physiological growth: When the physiological growth of an orchid is disrupted for various reasons, new leaf buds emerge during the flower bud formation stage. In this situation the orchid plant no longer has enough nutrients to maintain normal flower bud differentiation, which causes the flower buds to stop growing and fail to bloom.
4. Improper cultivation methods: Improper cultivation methods can also cause orchids not to bloom. There are mainly the following two situations.
① Soil too rich: When the orchid growing medium contains too much nitrogen fertilizer and too little phosphorus and potassium fertilizer, vegetative growth becomes excessive and reproductive growth is inhibited. The solution is to replace it with a growing medium with balanced nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, or to apply more 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 it contains are constantly dissolved out and absorbed by the roots together with water, then transported to the leaves to take part 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 Care During Blooming Season
1. Never touch the flower buds: After orchid flower buds emerge from the medium, never touch, stroke 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 extremely delicate; one squeeze or pinch of the hand will cause the outer bracts to become "scorched," and may even cause the flower buds to become "stunted." Therefore you should only observe with your eyes and never squeeze or pinch them with your hands.
2. Thin the buds according to growth vigor: After the flower buds have all emerged, thin them 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 quite enough; with 8 or 9 vigorous plants you may keep 2 flower buds; with more than ten plants, keeping 3 is 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, in order to avoid consuming too many nutrients. The principle of bud thinning is "remove the weak and keep the strong" - if both the front clump (pseudobulbs newly grown in the previous year) and the back clump produce flower buds, it is better to keep the buds of the vigorous front clump and remove those of the back clump. If one vigorous plant produces two flower buds, keep only one; flower buds produced by weak plants must be firmly removed and not retained. Buds that emerge too late are also best removed, and those squeezed among the orchid leaves are not as good as those kept around the edge of the plant.
3. Move indoors to overwinter in cold winter: Place orchid pots with flower buds in a sunny indoor spot so they can bask in warm sunlight. During the day, when the temperature rises a little, you should open the windows for ventilation and strengthen air circulation. When watering routinely, try to avoid water droplets getting into the bracts, so as to prevent rot.
4. Control dryness and humidity: When the orchid begins to push up its stem, it needs a certain amount of water. If there is no moist environment in the pot, the flower stem will not grow tall and will remain short and shrunken at the pot surface, hidden by the leaves, which harms its appearance. To make the flower scape grow tall, the pot must be kept moist and not too dry. But when it comes time for the buds to open and the petals to spread, the pot should be slightly dry. If the humidity in the pot is too high, although the flower scape may continue to grow taller, it often causes the side petals to "drop their shoulders," affecting the flower's appearance and quality. Therefore water should be reduced just before the petals spread. But this cannot be applied across the board. For some unusual varieties, such as Cymbidium goeringii 'Yu Hudie', 'Liangxi Rudie' and 'Wudie', as well as Cymbidium faberi 'Duoyun', 'Haiou', 'Fengqiao' and 'Lixing Rudie', not only should they not be kept slightly dry, they should instead be kept even more moist, so that when the petals spread they can better display their unusual petal form characteristics.
5. Control light: It is more suitable to place them in a spot with diffused light. If the light is too weak, the flower color will not be attractive later. If they are left in direct sunlight (light too strong), after the petals spread the petals will turn yellowish, and they may even easily be scorched and become "burned," harming the flower's appearance. This is especially true for solid-colored orchids (suxinlan): with too strong light the lip appears slightly yellow. Therefore, when orchid petals are spreading, direct sunlight should be avoided and the plants should be placed in a spot with diffused light.
6. Cut the flowers at the right time: The blooming period of orchids is generally a little over ten days, and some last as long as about a month. Ordinary orchids can be allowed to bloom freely, but for precious 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 spread, at most one week after full bloom; for Cymbidium faberi, which has many flowers on one stem, they should be cut in good time 5 or 6 days after the flowers have opened fully from bottom to top.