MAINE, USA — Many know David Sparks as an animal lover, rehabber, and founder of Sparks Ark but the now-retired Windham native can add orchid lover to his resume. The Maine Orchid Society representative showed Gardening with Gutner all his beautiful flowers. Here are a few of his favorites:
Dendrobium speciosum - from Australia, white flowers which indicate it could be pollinated by moths, more fragrant in the evening.
Dendrochilum wenzelii - from the Philippines, each spike has 20-30 flowers, and would grow on a tree branch.
Paphiopedilum Winston Churchill - slipper orchid, hybrid.
Dendrobium rindjaniense - grows only on Lumbac Island, Philipines, David mists it every day.
Most people get their orchids from the supermarket or retail store, not from exotic dealers like Sparks and they are usually the common Phalaenopsis. The orchid lover had some tips for taking care of the delicate plant.
"If you leave it like this and try and to take care of it, it will die," Sparks said referring to an orchid he was holding with no drainage and in a tiny constricted pot. He said to wait for it to finish blooming, and then repot it.
"And you put it in a pot with styrofoam peanuts on the bottom for drainage and then use a little orchiata or pine bark mix with some volcanic rock for drainage. It lets the air get to the roots. These orchids need to breathe," Sparks instructed.
He said to be careful of your light.
"Also, you don't want to put it in bright sun, you'll burn the leaves and a good test is to take and hold your hand over it and if the shadow is just kind of a soft shadow, that's the kind of light you want but if you see a real dark defined shadow, then it's too bright a light and will burn the leaves," the orchid expert warned.
Sparks had another interesting way to display his orchids.
"The other thing you can do is, you can take and mount it and put it on a piece of bark like this. And when I do that, I use monofilament line and I wrap it around," Sparks instructed. "Eventually the roots will grow right into the surface of the bark to be watered."
Sparks said to water orchids thoroughly but not to let them sit in water and to ensure they drain well to allow air to the roots. He also cautioned about orchids getting a virus.
"Sometimes orchids can get viruses. There's a multitude of viruses and if you use scissors and don't sterilize them well, you're going to transfer a virus from one orchid to another. So I use single-edged razor blades. And they're real easy and real inexpensive and I can take and cut the roots or cut a bad part of the leaf with the blade and just throw it away and then I don't have to worry about it and any orchid that I get even though it probably doesn't have a virus; I treat it like it has a virus," he said.
Orchids can seem intimidating because of their exoticness but don't be discouraged, following David's tips you'll have beautiful blooms to enjoy.
To learn more about orchids contact the Maine Orchid Society at maineorchidsociety.org