How to Landscape With Orchids

Orchids can turn a corner of your yard into a summer rainforest.

Orchids strike an exotic and colorful note in a warm weather landscape. Tropical gardeners can enjoy the plants in their gardens year-round. Temperate zone landscapers can feature orchids seasonally. It's best to find an ideal location, with the right amount of shade and sun and protection from strong winds, and mass the plants together on a single tree or in a concentrated area where they are easy to care for and admire. Potted orchids may be hung in a tree right in their pots. Or orchids can be rooted to the tree so they grow naturally in the air.

Things You'll Need

• Monofilament fishing line
• Cutting blade
• 1/4-inch brown tubing
• Drip irrigation nozzle or mister
• Sphagnum, green or Spanish moss
• Cork bark backing (optional)
• Ladder (optional)

Instructions

1. Pre-select the best trees to hold epiphytic orchids, the ones that live in air. Look for trees that are the same or similar to the ones the plants would live on in their native habitat. Choose a spring date when the weather is beginning to turn warm to attach the orchids to trees. Even in the tropics, this takes advantage of their natural growing cycle.

2. Position the orchid on the tree in a sunny spot where it is partly shaded from intense, direct sun, protected and able to get enough water. Horizontal branches at visibility height are best, but a vertical branch or trunk near a fork may be a better choice for mounting several orchids with drip irrigation. Rough bark holds more moisture than smooth bark.

3. Install simple drip irrigation. Use ¼-inch brown flexible tubing that will blend into the trunk. Tie it to the tree with clear monofilament line. Attach the type of nozzle appropriate for your orchids -- you might use a mister or a drip nozzle. Check orchid growers in your area to see what works best.

4. Attach orchids firmly but carefully. Place a clump of moss padding between the orchid and the tree to protect the flower and hold more moisture for the roots. Tie the plants securely so they don't move and disturb newly attaching roots. But don't tie them so tightly that they cut off the plant's growth. You can remove the ties as soon as the roots have developed enough to hold the plant on the tree. Monofilament line is fine for tying the orchids.

5. Place any very large orchid plants in tree forks so they will be adequately supported as they grow. Stacking several orchids on a vertical branch allows a single drip irrigation source to reach all of them at once.

6. If your growing zone only allows for orchids outdoors during several months of the year, root the epiphytes to a sold bark base that can be hung in the tree and moved to a greenhouse or indoor microclimate for the colder seasons.

Tips & Warnings

• A copper sleeve around the base of a tree that holds orchids will discourage the snails and slugs that like to munch on orchid plants.

• If your outdoor landscaping includes hanging lights strung through the trees, be sure none of them touch or are too close to any orchids.

References

• Landscape and Garden: Orchids
• U Tennessee Extension: Growing Orchids in the Home