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| Photo Credit: Gerald Klingaman |
| The pretty blooms of Cymbidium orchids are 2-3 inches wide. |
Most orchids have a Dr. Jekyll / Mr. Hyde personality – beautiful flowers, but ugly foliage. But the spiky, evergreen, about 2-foot-long leaves of Cymbidium orchids are more attractive than most others. By accumulating several Cymbidium cultivars and a few too many different species of orchids – depending on your level of addiction – you can have orchids in bloom about any time during the year. Give them place to hang out during their downtime, and they’ll reward you with beautiful flowers every year.
Cymbidiums are easy to summer outside in the shade garden with other houseplants, where they should get about half of full light. The plant’s actively growing and flowering pseudobulb is usually trailed by two or three living, but leafless, pseudobulbs. Repot every two or three years, and remove the oldest pseudobulbs – but leave one or two attached to each division to help support growth and flowering. Repot just after flowering using a coarse fir bark. These terrestrial plants grow well in 6- to 8-inch pots. | Add Photo to Journal |  | | Photo Credit: Gerald Klingaman | | Cymbidiums can be placed in any partially shaded location during summer. |
Cymbidium orchids need slow-release fertilizer as the plants begin new growth, followed by a second application in midsummer to keep them growing. In liquid fertilization, use a complete fertilizer with a 1-1-1 ratio applied “weakly weekly” (about ½ of the recommended dilution). An automatic irrigation can be used to keep the plants watered. Never let the plants dry out completely, but make sure they always have good drainage. Direct, midday sun can scorch the foliage.
My plants go into my greenhouse in the fall, where they huddle in the cold with the other orchids, awaiting warmer days. My greenhouse dips to 45 degrees F at night and seldom rises above 70 degrees F during sunny, wintertime days. These are colder temperatures than orchids prefer, but my intent is to overwinter them, not to force flowers. Yet, Cymbidium orchids like the cold greenhouse, needing temperatures in the 50s to initiate flower spikes. If you don’t have a greenhouse, keep your plant in a sunny bedroom that’s kept on the cool side.
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