Marilyn H.S. Light
Canadian Orchid Congress
Copyright 1999
...Orchid Gifts for Shut-ins...
Consider the recipient and their pleasure. Color and fragrance may be especially welcome. Long lasting blooms are preferable to short-lived kinds.
Choose a blooming Phalaenopsis, Paphiopedilum, Miltoniopsis or nobile-type Dendrobium. These orchid flowers last several weeks or longer before fading.
Arrange to visit the recipient regularly while the plant is still blooming.
Your visits are part of the gift. Monitor the plant condition and when the blooms are finished or the plant seems stressed, remove it and, if you can, replace it with another blooming beauty.
Phalaenopsis stuartiana
...Orchid Gifts for Beginners...
Give a healthy, blooming 'starter' plant that is most likely to live under the recipient's conditions. If they are prone to overwater, pot the plant in a more open mix. Include simple growing instructions (AOS Care Sheet), a sample of fertilizer, and perhaps a book about orchids.
Provide an invitation to a local orchid society meeting. Arrange to take them to the meeting or to meet them there. Be certain that they are given a visitor name tag and are introduced to the group. You may have a budding hobbyist just waiting to get started!
Paphiopedilum Cockade
...Orchid Gifts for the Garden...
Choose a gift plant that should thrive in its new garden home whether it will be fastened to a tree/post or planted in a pot or garden bed. A plant with a robust root system and that is soon to bloom will be especially welcome.
OR
Give a Gift Certificate for use at a nursery close to the recipient's home. Additional pleasure will come with the opportunity to pick and choose!
If the recipient does not already grow orchids, be sure to provide helpful suggestions as to how and where to place the gift plant, a sample of fertilizer, and information about orchid clubs in their area.
Dendrobium nobile
...Gifts for Connoisseurs and Fellow Hobbyists...
Give seedlings, divisions of orchids in your collection, or a Gift Certificate to a specialist nursery together with a copy of the catalog and/or web site information.
Choose a plant that the recipient has admired or seedlings of a new cross so that they may have the joy of seeing the plants bloom for the first time.
If you are the hybridizer, consider giving the option to name the grex once the plants bloom. You, of course, will pick up the registration fee.
