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[side_show]

So Hobot, do you actually grow orchids?  Cause I have an orchid that lost it's bloom, then grew two new leaves, and some feeler-like root-ish things came out of the bottom of the pot, and now it just sits there not doing much, and has been in total non growth and sameness and such for a couple of years now.  Is there anything I can do to make it bloom again?

[Hobot]

So Hobot, do you actually grow orchids?  Cause I have an orchid that lost it's bloom, then grew two new leaves, and some feeler-like root-ish things came out of the bottom of the pot, and now it just sits there not doing much, and has been in total non growth and sameness and such for a couple of years now.  Is there anything I can do to make it bloom again?

I do not grow orchids myself... yet.  But I do know a little bit about them, so maybe I can help.  Firstly, do you know what kind of orchid it is?  Even if you don't know the name, but remember what colour the bloom was, I can probably make a semi-educated guess. 

You should not feel dismayed by your orchid loosing its bloom; all orchids, even those recommended for "beginners," are extremely challenging to grow, and only a handful of people are any good at it.  After very briefly browsing this site, there seem to be a few possible explanations for your orchid's lack of flowering: too little light, lack of temperature fluctuation, too little humidity, &c.  If this is all kind of overwhelming, ignore the pickier recommendations like rinsing pebbles in bleach to remove algae, and stick to the more basic suggestions such as avoiding the use of tap water to water the plant.  If you don't feel that your orchid deserves bottled spring water, however, you are in good company; I get around this issue with my plants by filling a little watering can with tap water and allowing it to sit for at least 24 hours before using it to water my plants.  This way, the chemicals disappear for the most part, and you don't have to feel like a tool for buying artesian water for a flower.

Are you still watering your orchid and/or feeding it on a regular basis, or have you given up entirely?  As long as the plant is still alive, i.e. soaking up water when you water it, there is hope for rejuvenating it.  If it's not doing that, though, you may want to start from scratch and buy a new one. 

If none of this was helpful (or even if it was), I highly recommend moseying on over to your local greenhouse and asking one of the employees for their sage advice.  They really know their stuff, and will be delighted to help you.  Orchid lovers are a pretty eccentric group of individuals, which can make for some great story-collecting for you.

Good luck!

[Mite]

I am not hobot, but I do have a couple of orchids that I haven't killed yet.

Are you fertilizing it? Get orchid fertilizer - they need a different blend of chemicals than regular houseplants. Also, when it does bloom again, don't cut off the stem until it turns brown and woody. They usually bloom twice from one stem.

That's all I know - we're waiting patiently for our spider orchid to bloom again. The other two have bloomed a couple of times, but this fancy ##### expensive one just sits there, looking foliage-y.

[side_show]

I haven't been feeding it, but do give it tepid water that has been sitting for at least 24hrs.  It's a Phalaenopsis, according to the site Hobot - mine was all white with a tiny hint of fusia in the middle, if that helps.  I did do a little research about a year ago, and it seemed to indicate - with the tendril like things coming out of the bottom, that the plant probably wanted to be repotted, but the repotting procedure sounded very fussy and different sites contradicted each other, so I eventually just gave up on trying to bring it back and have just been giving it the bare nessisties.  I know that it needs humidity, but the only sorta humid room in our house is our bathroom, and there's no natural light there, and also no where there that I could put it so that my cats don't eat it.  I have a tiny... I don't know the proper term...abourrarium?... a tiny green house - it looks like Barbie's greenhouse - maybe I'll put it in there for the summer and see what happens.

[AlohaDawg]

I just take 'em out of their pot and attach them to a palm tree in the yard. They eventually root to the tree and bloom over and over. No waterin' or fertilizin'.

I also have a really pretty water lily in a tiny pool outside my front door, I'll have to photograph that for you too.

[Mite]

'Dawg, you really know how to make a girl jealous.

Here's a link that seems to agree with everything I've ever read about orchids. It is recommending giving it more light, possibly.

[Tangle]

It won't help if you're not using more than 3x zoom, like Jough said.  There's not much you can do to help the situation you've described except to get a tripod so that your hand doesn't shake while you're taking the picture.

I am by no means a photographer (well, I am in the sense that I own a camera and use it to take pictures), but if you don't want to splash out on a tripod, a reasonable alternative in some cases can be a "bean bag for your camera" -type of thing. It's like a bean bag but the size of a camera, so you just need to find a somewhat horizontal place to plonk it on, and place the camera on top of it for easy(ish) adjusting.

Also, whether you're using the above bean bag, a tripod, or your hand, one thing that helps with shaking is using a timer (I think most cameras have one). Setting the timer to 2 seconds (or 10, even) eliminates the shake that can easily occur the moment you push the button to take a picture.

There you go, camera tips from a noob