A friend showed me a photo of his Vanda Pachara Delight yesterday. It had been hanging in a tree and he forgot it when he was prepping for the hurricane. Not surprisingly it was gone when he got home and as he was cleaning up the mess he found these bright purple flowers peeking out from the branches and leaves on the ground. He didn't even know it was about to bloom, what a pleasant surprise.

How nice!!
Orchids are a lot tougher than people think!!

I say that to folks all the time, Ursula.

Vanda - brown 3rd bloom:

Vanda Pachara Delight -blue on its fifth bloom.

I love the Vanda flowers. About all I have room for are the compact ones though.

Gigi, they are beautiful! I picked up a small V. Pachara Delight a couple of weeks ago, I love it!

Ok, it's just ridiculous how well you have done with those Vandas, Gigi. Please would you share your secrets? I have about a dozen Vandas and have had only one bloom since last spring. I water them daily, and fertilize weekly in winter and more often in summer

What's your fertilizer and watering regimen? What kind of fert do you use? Did you bring them indoors for the cold weather? Where are they living when they're outside? Full sun, part shade under a tree or what?

Sorry for the delayed response I just got back from being out.

Ken I might get a compact one this year. Ursula, I'm sure your Vanda will bring you a lot of Joy.

Elaine, I'm really bad about watering. There are times I can't water them for more than a couple days. I keep them outside all year round under the oak tree and they get the south facing sun (partial) all day long. I don't fertilize often but when I do I alternate between regular and blooming fertilize and I sometimes mix Epsom salt. One thing I do though when I forget to water them for more than a couple days, if the nights are warm (above 70's) I would soak them overnight with blooming fertilizer. Sometimes on weekends I would soak them for an hour on Regular or blooming fertilizer, and yes, I use super thrive. I haven't used superthrive on my pink Vanda and it hasn't bloomed for almost a year now. So I will start soaking it with superthrive again to see if it will bloom again. Will keep everyone posted.

Gigi, you are brilliant. You can't argue with success, especially success as pretty as yours. I've been working with my one puny, unresponsive Vanda. It lives in the bathroom in the winter and it has been showering with me each day and it definitely looks better than it did when I first brought it inside. Still no spikes though.

.......I'm off to soak it in some ST.

Good luck Alice! I know a lot of experts said that super thrive doesn't work but I swear it does for me. I was able to bring to life my dying Vanda (due to black rot), taking the risks of cutting off the stem with no signs of any root to now having multiple roots. This little Vanda is not ready for prime time yet but I'm hoping it will re bloom this year.

I think soaking them with the blooming food probably helps feed the Vanda's better too. I just make sure that following day it gets really dried well to avoid fungus growth.

Hmm. I think I might try that here. I have been watering less due to low temps and high humidity. Maybe your method will give them a kick start.

Mine will be coming indoors next week if it gets as cold as the forecast says, so that will be a good chance for me to soak them in the bath tub with some bloom food.

Thanks Gigi! Btw, the only documented benefit of SuperThrive that's shown up in the research is root stimulation. So that might be that it helps your plants put out new roots anyway. I used to take exception to the extravagant claims they made on their label, but I do see that they have changed the label now, too.

Yes, they had no choice, Elaine. False advertising lawsuits were lurking, if you know what I mean.

Many years ago at an Orchid Show I overheard a vendor having a conversation with a customer about SuperThrive. The Vendor mentioned that in his case he might have to pot up a whole bunch of bare root Orchids after they had gone through several days of transit. He mentioned that it would be way to expensive to soak them first in a Superthrive dilution so he he used Sugar instead. Now I don't remember the concentration of the Sugar solution, but it was not a huge amount of Sugar /bucket of water.

That's a trick florists use to prolong their cut flowers. Very diluted Sprite, 7-Up, and Ginger Ale work too. It seems that the soft drink dilution was 1 tsp. per quart. I don't remember the sugar but if I had to guess, it would be 1 tsp. per gallon, just like most water-soluble fertilizers.

SuperThrive used to advertize that it was good for everything, and I do mean everything. Have a fungal, bacterial, viral problem? Use SuperThrive. Plants not doing well (regardless of the reason)? Use SuperThrive. Though I have it, I seldom use it. It does perhaps help with shock and stimulates rooting when transplanting, but I really don't know. Someone on NGA uses it to soak her seeds before planting and says she gets good results.

I sort of understand the sucrose for cut flowers but question soaking bare root plants in it. It seems to me it might attract insects. Am I overthinking this?

The old guy who invented ST died about 5 years ago and the formula has changed significantly. Those silly ads ("even the government is using it......) have been around forever, certainly since I was young and that was forever ago. The smell always reminds me of those awful tonics we had to take as kids. Geritol?

I do use it though, nothing revives a dried up (too much sun, too little water) plant better.

Late upload:

This V.Pachara is amazing, the old bloom stalk was still fresh and it rebloomed again


Finally after soaking with blooming food and superthrive it rebloomed with 2 stalks again.

Gigi, you are a Vanda whisperer.

Looking great! I assume the color is much lighter due to light from a different direction?

Thank you! These Vandas are worth my time. If we only don't have plan to move, I would buy more of these Vandas.

And yes, Ursula, I think it is my camera phone. I was taking the "portrait" effect.