Phalaenopsis is an amazingly beautiful type of orchid, having bright large flowers of various colors: all shades of pink, white, lilac, yellow, purple, red-cherry. The upper petals of flowers, similar to huge exotic butterflies, perched on a high strong dark green stem, are often painted with colored stripes or dots. For the similarity of phalaenopsis with this fragile and amazingly beautiful insect, it is also called the "night butterfly."
In flower shops in a wide assortment there are varieties of hybrids of phalaenopsis Mann, Schiller, Fander, pleasant. This plant in nature lives in the moist and dense tropics of Southeast Asia, the Philippines and northern Australia. These orchids belong to lithophyte plants, constant companions of tall trees, for whose trunks they cling to aerial roots and receive moisture and substances necessary for development, literally from the air.
Due to the fact that phalaenopsis blooms for a very long time, usually from December to June, they are a wonderful decoration of winter gardens, greenhouses and rooms. Very often, lovers of indoor plants, subdued by the extraordinary beauty of this flower, breed phalaenopsis, creating huge home collections from various species of this plant.
During flowering, the orchid prefers an ambient temperature of 20-22 degrees and high humidity, so it is often placed on a tray with fine gravel or coarse sand, which is constantly kept moist. The flower is fed at the end of flowering with liquid fertilizer for azaleas. Once every 2 years, phalaenopsis after flowering is recommended to be transplanted.
Phalaenopsis. Care after flowering
The faded flower stalk of the phalaenopsis, as a rule, begins to dry. Then it is recommended to cut it off. But if it is fresh and green, do not rush to perform this procedure, since new lateral shoots may appear on the old peduncle, which will soon be covered with flowers. It also happens, but rarely enough, that daughter rosettes appear on faded peduncles, by which this flower propagates.
After flowering, the phalaenopsis orchid experiences a dormant period. Therefore, she prefers a lower ambient temperature, an average of 15-17 degrees, and a rarer watering, once a week. Phalaenopsis, the care after flowering of which is not complicated, is quite convenient for keeping at home a plant. Perhaps the most difficult is its transplant. The difficulty here is that the roots of the plant are very fragile, and you need to treat them with special tenderness and caution. In addition, the aerial roots of the plant must be in the light, they can not be buried in the ground. Very often, special transparent pots made of hard plastic or glass are used for planting and transplanting plants. The substrate for transplanting orchids is prepared from a mixture of land for conifers, adding a little finely chopped pine or oak bark, fine expanded clay, dry porous sphagnum moss and some charcoal, but it is better to buy a ready-made substrate in the store. The plant is planted in the center of the pot, the roots are carefully sprinkled with a prepared substrate, and covered with moss or fiber peat on top. So transplant phalaenopsis. Leaving after flowering of this plant consists in constant moistening of the roots and rosette of leaves. Orchid is very fond of moisture, because it comes from a humid tropical climate. Therefore, frequent spraying of leaves from a spray bottle is recommended. During spraying, make sure that water drops do not fall into the center of the outlet, which can lead to rotting of the root base.
Fans of indoor flowers can safely breed Phalaenopsis. Care after flowering for this plant is not difficult, it is enough to observe the humid and temperature conditions, but during flowering, bright, amazingly beautiful inflorescences will be an unconditional decoration of the home interior.