How many plants per pot is suitable for orchids? An orchid grower says 3 plants with 2 flowers looks best

Recently an orchid grower asked me, how many plants per pot is suitable for orchids? A small clump looks spirited and elegant; a large clump has a strong fragrance when it blooms and looks grand.

When it comes to how many orchid plants to plant in one pot, this has to be discussed from two aspects: keeping them alive and growing them well. Generally, wild-collected orchids (shanxia lan) have their roots damaged when they are dug up, so when potting them it is better to use more plants, as they adapt to the pot more easily. Haoshe Farmer has compared this: freshly collected orchids with 4 or more plants have a higher survival rate than single plants, and they also produce more new shoots that same year.

If they are well-established strong plants, there is no need to worry when dividing them. When Haoshe Farmer divided plants this year, he divided strong plants into single plants and potted them, and as a result these single strong plants produced very robust new shoots, even surpassing those with old, middle-aged and young generations together. But some established plants that have been grown for many years without division become crowded and poorly ventilated, and in the end the leaves in the middle of the clump often suffer from disease.

From the perspective of looking good - that is, aesthetics - a remark from an orchid grower is quite interesting. He said: the character "lan" for orchid, in its simplified form, represents how many orchid plants look best, and that is three plants with two flowers. Haha, I have also tried three plants with two flowers, and it is indeed simple without being monotonous.

So Haoshe Farmer believes that how many plants to plant depends on whether the premise is keeping them alive or looking good. If the plants are robust, a single plant is perfectly fine too.

Therefore, for wild-collected orchids, keep the clump as large as possible so it can adapt to the pot more easily. For Cymbidium faberi (huilan), the clump can be larger, so it blooms more brilliantly and eye-catchingly. For established plants, if the leaf form is attractive, fewer plants are fine. Especially for Cymbidium goeringii (chunlan), the flowers rarely rise above the leaves anyway, and with too many plants sometimes the flowers are not even easy to appreciate. So for established Cymbidium goeringii, fewer plants are fine - why not also go with three plants and two flowers.