How to Care For and Display Phalaenopsis Orchids

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Orchids are such beautiful flowering plants, and they make great gifts (Valentine’s Day is coming up)! I’m sharing tips for how to care for phalaenopsis orchids and five creative ways to display them in your home, including unique items to use as cache planter pots for them.

Every time I mention orchids, I can see the terror on people’s faces. They seem to have a bad reputation as being finicky and hard to keep alive. Truthfully, I think they probably can be, but also, when you have a little information about them, orchids become a lot less scary! Hopefully after reading this post, you’ll have some knowledge about orchids that will make you not only feel better about them, but also the courage to get or gift one of your own!

Video courtesy of WHO13.com

One of the reasons that I love orchids so much is that they give you a lot of bang for your buck! The blooms on them can last for months, making them a super budget friendly way of having colorful fresh flowers on display in your home! They are also gorgeous and have lovely movement. The height, texture, and pattern they can add make them a great way to add interest to a space, without needing an actual piece of décor. Plus, natural elements always make for the most beautiful of spaces.

Now that you know a few of the reasons I’m so crazy about orchids, I want to share a few tips in caring for your plants. I’m prefacing all of this by saying that I am by no means an orchid expert, and in fact, all my knowledge belongs to only one type of orchid. The phalaenopsis orchid is the variety that you more than likely see at the grocery store, local nursery, and even at your local home décor store, although, those are faux.

Phalaenopsis orchids are the easiest of the many varieties to take care of, so that’s why they’re the ones that are most widely available. They normally have one or two curved branches with several blooms on them. The blooms come in lots of different colors, shapes, and sizes, so it’s easy to find one that will work well with your décor or color scheme, although, they’re all beautiful!

Again, I’m not an expert, so I’m just going to share tips that have worked for me, as I think they will work for you too.

-No direct sunlight—their leaves can burn. Bright indirect sunlight is best or even a bit of dappled light.

-Normal indoor temperatures. The orchids can handle temperatures anywhere from 60-80 degrees Fahrenheit. The warmer the temp, though, the more humidity the plant will need.

-Water once a week while the plant is blooming. I run the faucet on warm/hot and turn the sprayer on the lowest setting I can. Then, let the water run over the plant for about two minutes, allowing it to fully drain after.

-Trim the stem. When the plant is done blooming, trim the top bit of the stem off within one inch of a node. Phalaenopsis orchids don’t rebloom on the same stem, so this will encourage new healthy growth and more blooms! If the stem (or spike) is brown, cut it down to the base—it will not produce flowers again.

-Fertilize. After the plant is done blooming and it goes dormant, you’ll want to fertilize every two weeks or once a month, until it starts to wake up again. Don’t water the plant on the week that you fertilize.

-Place in cool, partly sunny spot. When the plant is done blooming, I set mine under a chair in our dining room, near a window. It’s cooler down there and it gets just a bit of sun. This allows the plant to recharge! Water once a month or so during this time.

-Keep an eye on it. While the phalaenopsis orchid is recharging, check on it occasionally, so you know when it starts to wake up. You’ll notice the stem sending out new growth when it’s ready to bloom again.

-Let there be light. Once your orchid starts waking up, move it back to the spot in your home where it was happy before. You’ll want to cease fertilizing at this point but pick back up with watering every one to two weeks.

I know that seems like a lot of steps, but once you have the rhythm of orchids down, they really are so easy to care for! One way you can ensure that you’ll (almost) always have an orchid blooming, is to buy a new one when your current one is done blooming. In theory, four orchids should mostly assure you of always having an orchid in bloom, if they bloom for around two or three months and then go dormant for anywhere between six to nine months. Best case scenario is that you’ll have multiples blooming at one time—even better!

Once you feel comfortable with your phalaenopsis orchid, you can get creative with how you display them. The plants look fabulous no matter where you put them in your home, but also have a lot of potential for containers in which you can place them.

If you follow me on Instagram, you know that I love thrifting—if I could buy everything at the thrift store I would! In the case of my phalaenopsis orchids, I’ve been on the lookout for fun containers, vessels, and cache pots to display them in. With all the different pieces I’ve acquired, I’ve also been able to display the plants in fun and unique ways!

You don’t really need to consider drainage when you buy pots or containers for the orchids because you’ll take the nursery pots out when you water. Fun pieces to look for are baskets, large bowls (these can hold several orchid plants), cup style trophies, square tissue box covers (yep—turn them upside down and they’re perfect), and studio pottery…to name a few.

I styled some lovely phalaenopsis orchids (courtesy of Harvey’s Greenhouse) around our home and had so much fun! I love the different options for how to display them and all the fun containers for them! Of course, I had lots of goodies to choose from, since I may or may not thrift shop on the regular.

While I had many of the items to display the orchids in, I did shop the thrift stores for a bowl. I’ve wanted a bowl to put three orchids in forever and this one seemed made for this project! I scored the bowl for only $2! I put the three plants in, added plastic grocery bags in around to fill the bowl and for stability. I then added decorative moss to the top to make the display look lush and rich! You can find the two types of moss I used HERE and HERE.

I love how the orchid looks in this hanging basket! You could use this anywhere you have a handle or a hook, just as long as it’s in a spot that has appropriate light for the plant and where it won’t get knocked around.

I thrifted this chippy and wonky long basket box a while ago and absolutely love it! I originally bought it to resell in my antiques booth, but decided I loved it too much and had to keep it for myself. The three phalaenopsis orchids look so good in it—such a big statement! I styled them on our fireplace hearth, but this would look so nice as a table centerpiece as well.

Whenever I think about orchids, I picture them being in a pretty silver vessel of some sort. I was walking the aisles of the thrift store the other day and spotted this silver-like tissue box cover. I turned it over and saw that the bottom was completely open—I knew it would be perfect for an orchid! You never know what you’ll find at the thrift store, so always keep your mind open!

I’ve had this cup style trophy for a long time and just keep finding uses for it! It’s a little tall to then put a tall orchid in, but I just don’t care—I love it! Again, there is something so lovely about an orchid paired with anything silver tone, so the trophy works perfectly. I love the height that it gives the vignette on our side table as well.

I had so much fun styling these beautiful phalaenopsis orchids throughout our home. I also loved finding unique ways to display them! I hope that if you were scared of having an orchid of your own before, that you feel a little more at ease now. They really are a fairly easy plant to keep, once you have a bit of knowledge.

If you decide to get an orchid of your own, I would love to see! Share a picture in your Instagram story and tag me—you can find me on Instagram at @hilaryprall.