Mr Skill

A recent survey revealed that almost every Gardener in London these days has several orchids growing in the house, and I suppose that this would be true of gardeners elsewhere in the country too. Of all of these, the Moth Orchid that the boffins call Phalaenopsis is reputedly the most popular, and I for one am not surprised that this is so. Did you know that millions of these beautiful while or pink flowers are grown and sold in Britain every year?

The average citizen does not have the same green fingers though. Every year hundreds of thousands of Orchids in Britain fizzle out, and not because Gardener Quotes for small jobs are impossible to obtain either. It’s just because we do not understand that all they need is a draught-free room, some sunlight, a little food and drink occasionally, and a friendly nod in their direction from time to time.

In their natural environment, Orchids grow in forks of trees or in stony crevices. This means that they do not like to grow in earth, but are happy nestling among bark and moss and other natural debris around their roots. Their natural environments also ensure that rainwater drains away rapidly too – forget this principle and they could drown or rot away.

If after several years your Orchid seems as it it’s trying to climb out of its container, then it is time to learn how to re-pot it. All you need is some Orchid compost (or an imaginative stroll through the local wood) and you are ready to begin this simple process.

Remove the Orchid from the old container, and shake its roots clear before removing any shrivelled ones. Cut the healthy ones back to about four inches long with a pair of sharp secateurs. Wrap the roots gently into their fresh growing medium, press them into their new pot, moisten the compost daily with an atomiser, and your job is done.

You don’t need to Find a Gardener for a simple job like this, and I doubt one would be particularly interested either. If you have a bigger gardening job though why not speak to Mr-Skill. They have all the good gardening professionals on their books.

Tags: atomise, bark, breeze, compost, container, crack, crevice, cut, cutter, dead, debris, drain, draught, drink, flower, food, fork, Garden, green, medium, moisten, moss, natural, orchid, pink, pot, rain, rock, secateur, short, spray, stone, sun, Survey, tree, trim, water, white

This entry was posted on Saturday, July 30th, 2011 at 7:37 am and is filed under Gardening & Landscaping. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.