Rest Period, Your Plants Not Dying!

Alright, here's my post on rest period. You've been taking really good care of your orchid and then the flowers start to shrivel up and fall off one by one. Don't be alarmed. Your orchid is going through a healthy, natural life cycle. Orchids can stay in bloom for three to four months at a time and this takes a lot of stored energy.

Once all of your flowers have fallen off it's time to trim the spike. The spike refers to the stem that extends from the base of the plant. You can use kitchen shears or gardening clippers just make sure to sterilize them before trimming your orchid. If you follow the spike up from the base, stop at the node just before the flowers. This is where you will make your cut, on the same side of the node as the flowers.

Most orchids produce a spike without branches (like in my photo on the left below). This plant produced the beautiful flower for the back round for the blog. My white orchid on the right has a few branches coming off of the spike. For this orchid I did the same thing as the single-branched one except I did it for each individual branch.

If you don't trim the spike it will dry out and die. When this happens it can take a long time for the plant to produce a new spike (up to a year depending on the orchid). Below is a picture of a dried up spike. For this one I trimmed it just after the very first node on the spike.

This orchid was a rescue and even though I trimmed the spike shortly after the flowers fell off the spike still dried up. The spike was a little sad looking before the flowers started to fall. When I got this plant it was in full bloom and the spike was a kind of brown color. This was my first rescue but will not be my last!

Once you've trimmed your orchid's spike keep up your normal watering amount and schedule. Your orchid will reward you with stunning flowers once it's gone through its rest period.

Happy Planting!