Care and Growing Tips For Blooming Orchid Plants

Orchids are beautiful plants but one that we get a lot of questions about.  The most common complaint of orchid plants is getting them to bloom again.  We have compiled a list of tips that may help you with your orchid care.


1.  Temperature:  Orchids will grow and bloom best in a room that maintains a temperature of 70 degrees.  They do not like drastic temperature changes such as blasts of warm or cold air from vents, doors, or windows.  This can harm the blooms and cause them to fall off early or not appear at all.


2.  Lighting: Orchids love bright indirect natural light.  Placing an orchid directly in the window can cause the blooms and leaves to burn.  Instead place it out of the direct light but where it can still enjoy the sunlight from a distance.  They will not bloom with florescent or incandescent light alone, they need the natural light of the sun to bloom again.  This puts most offices out of the question for blooming orchids.


3.  Watering:  Orchids do not like to sit in water.  If you see water pooling in the tray under your pot or your pot overflows while watering this is too much.  The water needs to flow out of the soil.  When the water washes through it caries with it nutrients and impurities.  If it sits in the pot the impurities are not removed and can be absorbed through the roots, thus damaging the orchid.  Orchids like to be moist but not sitting in pooled water.  The best time to water orchids is in the morning and with slightly warm tap water.  To see if your orchid needs to be watered place your finger, or a pencil, in the soil and if it comes out dry it is time to water.  Overwatering will cause more damage to your orchid then underwatering.


4.  Food:  Use only orchid food on your orchid plants, other plant foods can contain urea that can harm your orchid.  You can dilute your orchid food to 1/4 of the recommended dose and add it to your watering once a week.


5.  Pruning: Trim off the orchid bloom when it starts to wilt, this will allow the water and nutrients to feed the remaining blooms with ease.  Trim your orchid with pruning scissors after the blooms are all gone.  This will help it start the blooming process again.


Still not blooming?  Some orchids will bloom only once.  If you are looking for a nice blooming species try the phalenopis variety.  These will give you years of blooming pleasure if you follow the steps above.


Enjoy!

Arrangement of The Month ~ March 2011

Arrangement of The Month ~ March 2011

The arrangement of the month is a new feature we are hopping to have each month.  This arrangement will be named by our Facebook Friends and will be fresh in our cooler everyday for the month.  The arrangement will always feature seasonal flowers and will even sometimes have seasonal containers, like our live pumpkin.

This month we are featuring an adorable woven basket full of fresh spring colored flowers.  It holds pink tulips, fragrant stock, blooming iris, dasies, mini carnations, alstroemeria lilies, dark purple stock, and wisps of caspia.  Such a wonderful mix of spring colors.  We LOVE it!  

The arrangement will retail at $38.99 but our facebook friends will receive 10% off if they mention facebook at the time of order.  

We are hoping you will help us name this arrangement.  You can either leave a comment on here or on facebook.  If leaving it here be sure to include your name and email so that we can contact you if you are the winner.

The winner will receive 2 tickets to Jesus Christ Superstar at the Lincoln theater on March 5th 2011.  We are proud to provide all of the fresh flowers for this production and we will be attending!  

The winner will be announced on Monday February 28th, so get your votes in now!

March 2011 Newsletter

Valentine's Day Recap 2011

Our biggest holiday is a fading memory to us now.  Valentine's Day was a wonderful success thanks to our customers, staff, and helpers.  We delivered 180 arrangements on Valentine's Day and spread smiles from Mt.Zion to Forsyth and everywhere in between. 

To read more about what goes into a successful Valentine's Day we wrote a blog post all about it.  To see what we have to offer check out our facebook album.

Spring in The Garden~

We are ready for spring to arrive here at The Secret Garden.  Spring is one of the most decorated for seasons. It is the season of new beginnings and wonderful colors and scents.  From the first bud on the tree to the tulips peaking through the ground, this season brings a promise of new life and renewed spirit.  

Did you know that we custom make silk wreaths?  We sure do, just stop and we will discuss colors, flowers, and designs with you today.  We can create something that will last for years to come.  Our designers have over 37 years of experience and have a passion for wreaths.  We also create silk pieces for mantles, tables, and more.  

This spring we are awaiting arrival of new merchandise as well.  We will be posting it to facebook as it comes in so be sure to become a fan of our page so you don't miss a thing.  We just ordered a beautiful line of cards from leanin' tree and they should be arriving in the store around March 1st.  This is very exciting for us and you will just love the designs.  

We are also planning on adding yard flags and new garden items to our assortment of gifts.  If you have not seen our gift selection it is worth the trip out to see us.  

Daffodil ~ March Birth Flower

What a fitting flower for the month of March, you will see these little flowers popping up everywhere very soon.  

Now your daffodils may not look exactly like this one, some say that there are over 200 different species of daffodils out in the world today.   You may find that your daffodils are the best growers in your garden, you would be correct.  The bulbs will outlast just about any other bulb you plant.  Don't worry if you do not see new blooms on your fresh daffodil plants, sometimes they take up to 5 years to fully come into their glory.  And depending on where you live, these beauties can last anywhere from 6 weeks to 6 months.  

But one thing you should know about your daffodil is that they do not play nice with other flowers when cut.  We store daffodils away from the other flowers and do not use them with other flowers.    The sap in the stems will harm other flowers, guess it is there way to insure that they are center stage on your desk or table. 

Arrangement of The Month ~

We have an exciting new program that we will be unveiling this month.  It is called the Arrangement of the Month.  We will select an arrangement and have our facebook friends name it.  It will then be featured in our cooler, on our website, and available all month long.  This is something we have been thinking about for a while now and we did it in the fall with our live pumpkins.  We can't wait to see what you think.  These arrangements will be designed by our designers and feature seasonal flower.  So be sure to look for that on our facebook pageas well as our promotions blog in the coming week.