A frequent lament I hear goes like this: “I’ve had other orchids before, but why won’t this one grow?”
This is like saying, “I’ve had other mammals before, but what’s wrong with this one?” A more specific example: “I’ve had dogs (a kind of mammal) before, but why won’t these cats (or raccoons, or bears, or tigers, or dolphins, or seals) respond the same way?”
When you hear the word “orchid” in reference to this Family of plants, it is helpful to think of the word “mammals”*. Just as there are thousands of different types of mammals in the world occupying practically every climatic zone, there are around 30,000 known orchid species on the planet (and hundreds of thousands of hybrids bred over the years), occupying every climatic zone (except for the arctic/antarctic).
While it is certainly possible to make general statements about orchids, you can mislead yourself if you start to think too broadly about “orchids” and start thinking that what works for Phalaenopsis hybrids from the supermarket is going to work for equally well for more rare (and interesting) orchid types. In fact, even the ancestral Phalaenopsis species from the jungle (from which the supermarket Phal hybrids were bred) may not do well in typical home conditions.
So if you’re struggling with an orchid, you’ll need to understand the type of orchid, and preferably the genus. The genus (a group of related species). Learning about how the plants in a particular genus grow will help you to understand the needs of your particular orchid.
That being said, two things that will help practically all orchids are 1) higher humidity, into the 75% – 95% relative humidity level, and 2) high-quality water (e.g., collected rainwater, reverse osmosis-purified water, or distilled water). More on the importance of both of these factors in future posts…
*Mammals are of the Class Mammalia, which is actually a couple of steps above Family in terms of biological classifications.