What happens inside a Phalaenopsis leaf when we switch off the lights? Evening settles over the house. The lights go out, the day’s small duties are done, and you plump up a pillow, leaving your orchid to its own devices. Watered, inspected from every angle and perhaps even congratulated on a new root, the moth…
Category: Biology
How orchids work: their roots, leaves, flowers, physiology, reproduction and relationships with the environment.
The Genie in the Bottle, or Three Wishes. Part III: Make My Orchid Bloom
By now, the genie has served dinner, promised stronger roots and survived a minor identity crisis over whether humus exists outside the laboratory. He might reasonably assume that the worst is behind him. But there is still the third wish: “Genie, make my orchid bloom.” And this is where the real magic begins. Not the…
The Genie in the Bottle, or Three Wishes. Part II: Make My Orchid Stronger
The genie had barely settled back into the dark liquid when he heard the second wish: “Don’t just feed my orchid. Make it grow stronger.” This was a more serious request. Any well-formulated fertiliser can feed a plant. It supplies nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and the other essential elements, and—as we established in Part I—a root…
The Genie in the Bottle, or Three Wishes. Part I: Feed My Orchid
We walk into a garden centre and stop in front of the fertiliser shelf. On the left are the mineral fertilisers: precise, businesslike, armed with tables, percentages and chemical symbols. They look as though they have come straight from a laboratory and might ask us to sign the test report at any moment. On the…
The Root Trilogy, Part II: Touching Moisture. How Does a Root Know Where Water Is Waiting?
You lean over the orchid and notice a young root pushing its glossy green tip out from between the leaves and holding it just beyond the rim of the pot. There is no path laid out in front of it: dry air on one side, damper bark on the other, the outer pot below, a…
The Root Trilogy, Part I: The Pharmacy at the Tip of the Root
Aerial roots of Phalaenopsis have a particular talent for causing anxiety. They climb out of the pot, creep across the windowsill, lean against the glass, catch on the curtain and sometimes head towards the neighbouring plant with the air of someone who has just decided to move house. The owner watches this for a while…