I am new to the world of orchids. I was given one orchid plant as an Easter gift several years ago and two as retirement gifts in January, 2016. After the Easter orchid finished blooming and refused to bloom again (for me, anyway), I gave it to a more knowledgeable gardener. I plan to keep the two retirement orchids and would like to repot them. Both are currently in tiny (2" diameter) pots.
I understand that orchids should be repotted in bark. I have lots of bark (bags of pine bark nuggets, bark that is peeling from Norway maples and shagbark hickory trees and other trees of unknown identity growing in a fence row on my property). Question: Is bark from any of these sources suitable for repotting my orchids, or do I really need the bark marketed specifically for orchids?
