IF you are going to grow orchids, certainly among the most beautiful flowers on earth, why stack them up on benches in a lath house where nobody sees them? This bothered Dave Bealer, vice-president of the Aiea Orchid Club and collector of hundreds of orchid plants. So Bealer and his wife have designed the interior of their house for the permanent rotating display of the collection. At home with orchids
Display those blooms indoors, and
make their beauty part of everyday livingThe plants themselves are changed, but the containers in which they are shown are more or less permanent installations in the Bealers' home. This interior design with orchids has been going on for 15 years, and has expanded as the collection has grown. The plants are cultivated in two outdoor lath houses and rotated indoors.
In the hallway at the front door, under a skylight, yellow and white dendrobiums grow with yellow and scarlet cattleyas. The pots are sunk into a buried planter box and the surfaces covered with moss so that it appears as if the orchids are actually growing there.
Since dendrobiums grow and flower in much the same conditions as cattleyas, the two make a good pair, Bealer said. Both require fairly strong light to flower. Potted dendrobiums need frequent watering because the water drains rapidly through the planting mix. Cattleyas, however, should be allowed to dry out between watering, to duplicate growing conditions in the wild.
A place at the table
The Bealers' dining room features a long basket of cattleyas on the dinner table. "I bring them in for one to three weeks at a time while they're in flower," Bealer said. "Then they go back outside when the flowers fade." Bealer recognizes the sometimes forgotten fact that there is no such thing as a "houseplant." Plants will grow indoors, but that was never the original intention. Plants evolved outdoors, and that's where they do best.In the kitchen, in an arrangement above a counter near a window, Bealer has temporarily placed a couple of Catasetums. This tulip-shaped variety is able to withstand somewhat warmer conditions than most orchids, so is a good choice for a window, particularly in a kitchen. "It is one of the few orchids plants that is either male or female," Bealer said.
"It is pollinated by the male plant that shoots its pollen onto the back of a bumblebee who rubs it off on the female plant. If you stick your finger inside the flower, the pollen jumps out on it," he said, as he did just that and his finger was instantly covered with a sticky powder.
Above the sink grow several Paphiopedilum, often called slipper orchids, with variegated green and white foliage. "They bloom for one to two months at a time, and because of the foliage, they are pretty plants even when they aren't in flower," Bealer said. Because they require a humid environment and air movement, Paphiopedilum plants will not grow in air-conditioned rooms.
They also grow best in fairly small pots, deeper than they are wide, because the root system goes down rather than spreading out. To encourage flowering, use a standard orchid fertilizer regularly at half strength. There are orchid growers who recommend fertilizing "weekly and weakly" rather than less often at full strength. Bealer uses a balanced fertilizer, usually 14-14-14, for all of his orchids.
Oncidiums thrive indoors
Pots of yellow popcorn orchids, a variety of oncidium, grow well indoors, Bealer said. "I leave them inside for as long as they're flowering, but I take them outside once a week to water them." Unless you have a steady hand and good eye, water your plants where it won't matter if excess water drips out of the saucer under the pot. The kitchen sink or a bathtub are not good options because the planting medium can clog the pipes if it overflows.These oncidiums can be grown either in pots or in hanging baskets, using any kind of orchid planting medium. The medium should be kept moist during the growth period and reduced during dormancy.
Bealer plants his vandas in wooden baskets without any planting medium, and waters daily. Once a week he adds a liquid fertilizer to the water. The plant gets its nourishment from the nutrients picked up by the hanging roots. Vandas have been widely hybridized, and now come in Crayola colors.
Bealer sprays his orchids regularly for thrips, a pest to all local orchid growers. Thrips feed on the flower bud and when it opens, the petal edges are ragged where they munched. Look for a spray specific to the control of thrips -- Bealer uses Malathion.
Cull out the losers
He loves his orchids, he said, but he takes a tough attitude toward the losers. "You have to look at your orchid collection as if the plants were snapshots. Photographers, especially the professionals, take dozens of pictures for every one they save. You have to learn to throw out the ones that are no good."Bealer has been growing orchids since he served in the army and was given a honohono plant by his captain in 1972. "It's not like it was such a great success," he said. "It never bloomed until I finally got it in the right light. It taught me about moving plants around, about finding where they belong."
So don't give up too soon. Orchids aren't smart, so with the proper light, water and nutrients, they'll never know they're in an Aiea house and not a Brazilian jungle.
Gardening Calendar in Do It Electric!
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