this post was submitted on 25 Jun 2023
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Nature and Gardening

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All things green, outdoors, and nature-y. Whether it's animals in their natural habitat, hiking trails and mountains, or planting a little garden for yourself (and everything in between), you can talk about it here.

See also our Environment community, which is focused on weather, climate, climate change, and stuff like that.

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A better question might be: would it be better suited for a "houseplant" community, since this is more gardening and general nature inspired?

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[–] Kovari@lemmy.ml 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

That's funny, out of all the plants I have, I've never owned an orchid because (ironically) I've been concerned about their care! I know now they're nothing to be scared of but I had that mindset when I first started collecting and I guess it just stuck lol.

[–] interolivary 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I've understood that orchids thrive on neglect

[–] diannetea 2 points 1 year ago

I think it's really just getting the soil and pot right tbh. I have based mine on the "wiffle ball" technique except instead of buying a wiffle ball I just made a bark clump in the middle and then wrapped the roots and bark with sphagnum moss, and then bark + moss on the top to try to hold some of the moisture in, each in a good orchid pot. That made them pretty happy as before they were just hanging on and were dealing with root rot from the pot they came in. I stick my finger in the bark occasionally and soak them for like 15 minutes when they're dry. I think it's about every week and a half.

Right now I'm trying to keep a little hydrangea alive that we bought our son, I think it had pretty bad transplant shock when I repotted it. It's lost all the flowers and leaves after a month or so but I see new leaf growth so I'm just holding steady trying to make sure it's getting water only when it needs it.