Encouraging Difficult Houseplants to Flower

Houseplants originate from all over the world and naturally require different conditions in order to flower. The trick is to mimic these at home to coax reluctant types to bloom.

Excerpted from How to Grow Practically Everything
Filed under: Houseplants, Flowers, Container Gardening

+ Enlarge Photo

– Shrink Photo

Moth Orchid

If the growing conditions are right, it's fairly easy to get moth orchids to reflower. They don't like too much light, so grow them on a west- or east-facing windowsill during winter, and in a shadier spot in summer. Water weekly in summer with rainwater, taking care to avoid the crown. Reduce watering in winter. If you have a plant in flower, just as the last bloom is fading, trim the spike slightly below where the first flower opened. A bud there will sprout a second flower spike, which itself can be trimmed to give a third. To encourage a moth orchid to flower again from scratch, keep it humid, give it a diluted feed once a month, and keep it at about 59 degrees F at night and 70-77 degrees F during the day. This fluctuation, combined with feeding and humidity, will initiate new flowers.