Orchids, Flowers That Bloom All Year Long
Finding the Flowers that Bloom All Year Long
The summer is drawing to a close and, despite the heat wave we’re experiencing, the leaves on the trees are getting redder and the fruit is getting riper. I have to say that Northern California produces fantastic fruit and, unlike in Zimbabwe, the insects don’t sting it until it hits the ground. Then all bets are off and the yellow jackets dive in. Yellow jackets look like hybrids of bees and wasps and they eat anything, including meat!
The annuals are looking a little defeated by the heat, as am I up here in my hot little attic office. The hillsides are incredibly dry, given the time of year and five years of drought. Fires are a constant menace although this particular area has managed to avoid them thus far. Tomales has burned down twice in the past, however, so everyone fears a fire from the west.
There is a white magnolia tree next door which is covered in huge white buds right now. So beautiful when they open, they have a heady scent that wafts over the wall and mingles with the last of my lilies and sweet peas (which made an unexpected come back after I dead headed them a couple of weeks ago). My sun loving ground covers are still going great guns but the alstroemerias are fading fast.
It would be great to have flowers that bloom all year and I have found some that do. The non stop bloomers have been my indoor plants – orchids. Back in Zimbabwe they were definitely seasonal bloomers and mine often skipped a season or two. Here, however, my phalaenopses have given me endless pleasure and non stop color. As one stem is reaching its peak, so another is shooting out from where I have trimmed it. They bloomed right through winter without missing a beat.
The two plants I bought back in March last year when we moved into our house are still continuously blooming. They just love their spot on the sunny window sill. Their leaves get a little yellow when it’s hot but the flowers seem to love it there. On the whole, our climate is cooler than Harare’s and that seems to be the secret although today is as hot as the hottest day in October. I water them once a week, spritz them every couple of days, feed them every few weeks and they just keep on putting out blooms. Wonderful.
These non stop bloomers are not alone, however. I have another gorgeous orchid, a caramel oncidium, that I bought at a vegetable market a year ago and it’s now in full flush with its third set of deep orange blooms. When I bought it the vendor told me that it would be fine in Tomales where the sun never shines. He’s wrong about the sun but this cool weather lover seems very content on its sunny shelf. I fill up its dish with water once a week and feed it along with the others.
In March I went to the spring sale at California Orchids in Bolinas, a trendy little seaside town about forty minutes away. I came back with several orchids and one of them, a purple dendrobium, standing on the same window sill, is already putting out more flower stems which will soon produce rich purple blooms. I have a little daisy orchid that also re-blooms, albeit only one flower at a time.
There are other orchids that require specialized growing conditions and hot houses to grow in but if you choose your varieties well, you can have orchid flowers all year round. I never thought orchids would be the rocks stars of my patch but they have certainly proved themselves to be so and I, for one, am an ardent fan. For more info on growing orchids, take a look at this pdf guide on orchid growing tips.
Happy gardening and please don’t forget your sunscreen. There’s so much skin cancer about, you must protect your skin.
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