ByKen Sakamoto, Star-Bulletin
A mass of dendrobium stems from the supermarket
looks marvelous jammed into a candlestick.
Try for a range of colors.
Less is more
in orchid displaysORCHIDS are like pizza. You can buy them in the store or you can do-it-yourself. The store-bought orchids are cut flowers, the garden variety grow in pots. As with pizza, you expect compliments only on the latter. Nobody suggests that you were intensely clever and a superb cook to serve something out of a flat square box. So, if you are growing orchids, and this is one of the city's most popular hobbies, you aren't going to hack off a spray of flowers for an arrangement on your dinner table.
Instead, you will bring the whole pot into the house for the family and guests to enjoy. But does a plastic pot in a plastic dish really make a statement?
Wednesday, Alice Guild and Pat Schnack of the Garden Club of Honolulu gave a workshop on socializing your orchid collection. There are many ways of dressing up a potted orchid to look like a flower arrangement.
The first rule, said Guild, is " 'Keep it simple, stupid.' Orchids are spectacular, and they don't need a lot of help."
The second rule is to choose the container very carefully. This suggests that you have several containers to choose from, and Schnack says that you should. This doesn't mean that you have to make a major investment from the houseware catalogs.
"Shop the garage sales and the thrift stores," she said. Don't just think "vase." At the workshop, containers included a teapot, a coffee can covered with multi-colored leaves, various baskets and a classroom ceramics project.
The container in all cases was considerably larger than the pot holding the orchid. The space was filled with bromeliad keiki, ferns, moa and other small plants. Use whatever you have that is small, nonflowering and doesn't distract from the orchids with too much color.
If the pot won't stand by itself, stuff crumpled newspaper or bubble wrap around it, and then fill in over this with bromeliads and ferns. Make sure that none of the newspaper shows.
"Place the bromeliads so that they are looking at you, at an angle and not upright," Guild said. "You want to see the centers."
If you are planning an arrangement on a dinner table, Schnack reminds you to keep it either higher or lower than eye level when seated, so that won't have to talk through it.
When your orchids aren't flowering, there is the supermarket dendrobium, usually about $4 for five stems. Ones with unopened buds at the top will last up to three weeks.
Guild and Schnack recommend the Keo treatment for them. "You know how orchids are arranged at Keo's restaurants — they are just shoved into containers and they look wonderful. Look for a range of colors, don't just stick to white. When the light shines on them at night, they are spectacular," Guild said.
For a more formal look, use sprays of cymbidiums bought from a florist. "These have stiff stalks and you can arrange them simply by criss-crossing the stems as you place them in the container. I like clear glass because you don't need a flower holder to keep them in place," Guild said.
She said that while Oasis, that foam used in most florists' arrangements, eases the job, it clogs the pores in the stems. This shortens the life of cut flowers.
(If you receive a Mother's Day arrangement next week, think about rearranging the flowers in a kenzan (needle-pointed flower holder) in a container. They will probably last longer.)
Cut orchids, Guild said, should be conditioned before being arranged. With scissors, cut at an angle at least one inch off the bottom of the stems, and then place them in a solution of plant food in warm water.
Cut orchids that have already been arranged benefit if a small piece of stem is cut off at an angle very few days and they are given fresh water and plant food.
If an orchid becomes limp, you can sometimes replace lost moisture by immersing the whole flower in tepid water for about 30 minutes. Don't call if this doesn't work.
Guild's final advice is to be a scavenger. "Look at things differently," she said. "When you walk on the beach, keep your eye out for driftwood. If you are walking through your neighborhood, look for interesting things. I found a piece of bark that fell off a tree and it makes a wonderful setting for an orchid."
The most important thing is to experiment with what you have around your house and garden. You'll be surprised at the great effects you can achieve with very little.
Gardening Calendar
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