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Foolishly I kept an Orchid away from direct sunlight.

Now it's leaves have fallen off (possibly it was over watered).

However one stem still looks good. Any ideas on how to rescue it ?

Ours sits quite happily in water and keeps flowering away - occasionally losing all the flowers but they come back. However, my brother-in-laws girlfriend has the same orchid and she cuts hers right down to the base when the flowers die, and it comes back. Maybe worth trying that?

p.s. I think she says hers has only flowered once or twice though...

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I do quite well with my orchids on one windowsill in the kitchen.
It's an East facing double glazed window with a radiator underneath it. Anywhere else and I seem to kill them off.
Over watering and then allowing to dry up ( ie a bit of neglect )and then occasional ( 3 times a year) feed with baby bio seems to suit my orchids.
I can only grow the Cambrium variety this way.

I'm sure that's not quite right but they do thrive.

The leaves falling off isn't a good sign. When did you buy it and where from? Keeping our of direct sulight wouldn't have harmed it as they don't like direct sun most of the time. Do you know what type of orchid it is (cambrium, phaleonopsis, lady's slipper ??)

If its been overwatered let it completely dry out, put it somewhere light but without direct sunlight (north facing windowsill ideal) and see what happens.

It might have had a disease that caused its leves to die, so don't be too alarmed. hope it makes a recovery

I treat all my orchids really mean, and they repeat flower without fail - even my slipper orchid is flowering now with another flower on the way and i was convinced it would never flower again (difficult to grow). My phaleonopsis orchids flower several times a year. I keep them on north or west facing windowsills, water them once a week max or less if i forget about them, use flowering food when they are producing spikes or are actually flowering, use growth food ver occasionally (i.e. when i remember) when they are not. My best advice is to ignore them unless they're doing something exciting flowering

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Thanks for that.

I do not know what type of orchid it is , I bought it from a stall but the other one I got (which has been watered less) is fine.

How long have you had it? If you bought it from a trader it might have suffered wind chill.

ProTea,
What brand of foods do you Use? Just about to buy some as MIL has just given me the one she had for Christmas.The flowers have fallen but rest looks fine I have pruned stems to buds which are shooting, and now need to repot it as in pot with no drainage hole!!! Will place on west facing kitchen window sill then.

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It's not the growing old I mind but the growing stupid with it!

I have treated over watered orchids with the drying out as noted by others above but also by using anti fungal agent like copper sulphate after it was drier to ward off other consequences of the over watering.
It comes in satchets of 10 for £4.99 and although you need to dilute a whole litre its useful for other houseplants to prevent fungal problems too. To use it up I just water some on various plants and it settles in their pots and has a long term effect (I hope).

Since November. I started noticing the problem 2 weeks ago.
Over Christmas it was well away from the sun and we had no heating for 5 days although another one was fine.

erm....without checking (rumaging in the cupboards!) i think the flowering one is a Chempak brand, and the other one i'm not sure but it comes in a little plastic pot and they do lots of variations for 'special' plants, i have one of their cactus feeds too. they were both bought from garden centres.

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There's vegetable growing in the family, but I must be adopted
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Here are some fotos :-

2 sticks??????....I'd bin it- but then again...someone might just have the right answer!

Thanks a lot

Not that I wish to be pesimistic, and I have rescued several of the orchids my Mum 'abuses' when she has to paint them (professional botanical artist) but I think it may be beyond help......

Sorry, looks pretty dead to me as well

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I think you are right. Any ideas on how I killed it ? Possibly too much water ?
I have 2 orchids one at work - which is doing fine and another one which I have had for years.

I know it is wholly inappropriate to laugh at anothers misfortune... but Nicos' response has had me in tears laughing. For some reason that really flicked my humour switch. I know I am bad but blimey that was a good chuckle!

Southlondongardener - I wish you all the best for future growing and who knows your orchid may well recover. In my opinion though I'd assign it to the same place as the dodo and have a crack with a new one. Good luck.

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Erm, yes. Well as the others have said, i'm afraid it looks terminal for your orchid. By the look of the flowering spikes it looks like it might have been a phaleonopsis orchid (moth orchid).

Can i ask - did you repot it after you were given it? It looks like its in a large black pot which it highly unusual. Phaleonopsis orchids are arboreal (i.e. in the wild they live in trees) and their roots need to see some light. They also absorb moisture from the air which is why you don't need to water them too much. Additionally, they like to have their roots constricted, don't repot them until they're bursting out!

For future orchids i would suggest my method described in my earler post: treat them mean, water infrequently unless they're flowering, keep them in light, but not direct sunlight positions, give them a period of cold to initiate flowering (i have a cold kitchen windowsill in the winter which does fine).

Good luck with your one at work.

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There's vegetable growing in the family, but I must be adopted
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Sorry to hear of your loss SLG, I bought a couple for Mrs G and the small one ( about 4" high in a 2" pot) she thought was dead as it had stopped flowering and she threw it in the bin just before christmas I rescued it the next day ( having been a real good frost overnight and now it's loving it's new position in the kitchen window which is really shady most of the year and has grown about 1" so they are tough ( well that one was)

I think Protea in the guru on here for Orchids so I'll be trying the same plan of attack. I did get a little book the other day only about £3 or £4 so I'll try reading that but I can see the little greenhouse being taken over with orchids as they are real beauties in flower.

I'll see if I can get a shot of our big un.

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Yes I did - that was a mistake and the one in work is in a more crowded plot.
What type of pot would be good for these and where can I buy it from ?

It varies from species to species, but phaleonopsis (moth) orchids need a clear or opaque pot, you can usually get them from garden centres, although you may have to try a few to find one. I'm sure you can buy them online as well but i haven't looked. When you buy an orchid it will normally come in a suitable pot and you can just sit this on a pot saucer filled with gravel (ensuring the gravel is wet creates huimidity which they like).

I'll go and take a picture of my large phaleonopsis which is currently flowering for the second time this winter, i repoted this in the autumn as it was bursting out of its small pot. I expected it to not flower for a year or so as the only larger pot i could get was huge. however, it seemd to have taken to its new pot very well, so you never know!

I have a good orchid book, i'll did it out and see what its called.

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There's vegetable growing in the family, but I must be adopted
Happy Gardening!

Here we are, pic of my flowering phaleonopsis.

This is the first time this orchid has produced a 'side shoot' of buds, on the main flowering stem, its only had single spikes before.

Once orchids have finished flowering you need to cut the stem off at the base where it joins the leaves. There are many books that tell you to cut it off just above a node on the stem, but in my experience this just produces kiki's (baby orchids) rather than more flowers. However, it probably depends on the age of the orchid, i may try it with this one.

Before they re-flower they will usually produce one or sometimes two new leaves and you may find older leaves turn yellow and drop off, although again this should really only be one or two - not the whole lot!

Attached Thumbnails

   

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There's vegetable growing in the family, but I must be adopted
Happy Gardening!