A plant of tropical origin, the orchid brings a real touch of elegance and freshness to the home. This houseplant, whose colorful flowers resemble butterflies, requires a rather special flowering process. At the florist or even the supermarket, it seems like it’s always orchid season.

Actually, this plant does not bloom all year round: its most common variety, which is easily found for sale, is almost always the “phalaenopsis” or “butterfly orchid”. However, these species only bloom in spring and summer, and certainly not in winter.

Precisely, during the winter season, when we find an orchid in bloom, it means that it has been artificially flowered, altering its vegetative cycle.

Pero, ¿podemos seguir haciendo florecer esta planta todo el invierno?

The answer is yes, although it would be best to let the orchid wilt. For this reason, it is important to respect its natural resting period, after flowering, until temperatures rise.

What to do to keep the orchid in bloom?

Here’s how to keep an orchid in bloom even in winter, taking special care of it until spring arrives to give us a hand with a climate more suitable for its growth!

Keep it warm

You should know that the orchid likes summer and warm temperatures. Therefore, you will always need a lightweight frame.

First of all, you need to keep your plant at a fairly high temperature, never below 21-22°C.

Thus, in a warm environment, the orchid continues to retain its flowers without wilting prematurely due to the winter weather.

Also pay attention to sunlight which should always be present, without directly touching the plant. Therefore, it is necessary to try to find a good balance: too much sun risks being fatal to it, while too little light can prevent it from blooming.

The best thing you can do is keep the orchid on a windowsill with opaque glass or a filter curtain.

fertilize it

As a general rule, an orchid should never be fertilized during the winter months. However, for artificial flowering in this cold period, the plant must be fertilized using the same process that is applied during hot weather.

Therefore, you can fertilize it with a specific fertilizer based on nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. This will be the fertilizer that will allow it to keep blooming longer.

You should know that the orchid may fade after a few weeks. Don’t panic, your plant may bloom again after the first bloom. What is needed is to cut off the stems on which the flowers have wilted. Then place it in a cool place for a fortnight and reduce the watering frequency. After this time, you can put it back in its place and little by little a new stem will come to life.

Water it frequently

Your orchids need to be watered regularly, but also not too much to prevent root rot.

The best way to water it? Surely the immersion one that consists of putting the plant in a sink or basin filled with water for 20/30 minutes so that it only absorbs the water it really needs. Just remember to drain well after watering so that the water doesn’t stagnate at the bottom of the pot. On a regular basis, you can spray a little water on the leaves and roots.

The ideal time to water orchids is when you notice that the soil is no longer moist and begins to dry out and harden.

Regularly spray water on the leaves and roots, this may suffice for watering.

Keep humidity high

A maintenance tip that applies to the orchid at any time of the year is to keep it in a place where the ambient humidity is high enough (between 60 and 80%).

In fact, with its tropical origins, this plant is used to growing in an environment where the humidity level remains consistently high.

Therefore, we strongly recommend that you install it in the bathroom – this is the room where the humidity is generally much higher than in the other spaces in the house.

Learn that when humidity is low, the orchid can have major problems with its leaves or roots.

Consequences and advice.

As we have already mentioned, when we make an orchid bloom in winter, its vegetative cycle is altered because we have accelerated its awakening.

For this reason, it is always preferable to let the orchid follow its natural cycle imposed by the normal change of seasons, without forcing its flowering.