Hi Ruth, you'd asked about watering and what I do is slip the plant (in it's tight little inner pot) out of the ceramic one and lower the whole plastic pot into a bowl of room temperature water that I've added just the tiniest pinch of orchid fertilizer to. I also try and tuck the little arial roots into the water as well so that they get a quick soak and then I just hold it above the bowl to let all the water drain out of that inner pot and then tuck it back into the ceramic pot.
After the blooms that are there when you received it, are done, you can clip off the bare flower stem about 1/2 way down just above one of those little nodes that you can see on it and if you keep giving it a drink of that weak fertilizer solution as needed, you should notice a new spike starting to form at that top old node and before long, you'll have a new little batch of flowers. I've found that by giving it that regular feed, it seems to produce even more buds than it did when I received it.
What I'll also do once the second batch of flowers are well started, I'll quit using that bloom fertilizer and I'll probably switch to a periodic feed of Miracle Grow or some balanced fertilizer. That will give the new leaf food to grow and strengthen the plant. And at some point in a few months, I'll start with the bloom booster again.
Mine are all very root bound as you've probably noticed yours is, and as soon as my flowers are finished and we've finished our move, I'm going to repot into the larger drinking cups (with holes melted into the bottom and sides). I think that I'll also probably go to a Dollar Store and buy some clear glass drinking glasses to drop my plastic cup pot into (replacement for the little ceramic pots they came in). That way the light gets through to the roots but the cup will keep them from tipping so easily and protect table tops and such.
I have always loved plants. When I walked home from school as a child, I always stopped in front of the local florist shop and would stand, nose pressed against the glass, ogling all the lovely plants inside and one year when I was about nine, one of my Christmas wishes was to get a rubber plant and there, beside the tree on Christmas morning was my first rubber plant. I'm not sure how long it lasted, but it wet my appetite even further
to 'get growing'.
Right now, I have a potted mugho pine that I've had for thirty years. I bought it as a little one gallon plant to go into the garden but it had a nice, elegant curve to the spindly little trunk, so it's moved with me ever since. At this point it is starting to look quite ancient with its lovely gnarled bark. The only reason that I haven't put it into a bonsai pot is because the big five gallon pot that its in means I don't have to worry about watering so much and summers are easy for it.
Anyway, I hope you have good luck with your orchid Ruth. It was a lovely gift for your grandkids to give to you!
much appreciated.
