Stanhopea orchids – time to wake up!

It spring here in Sydney and all of my stanhopea orchids started growing new shoots after couple of months of winter slumber. The weather is quite warm, which means I am staring again my watering and fertilizing routine.

While the weather is mild, I water my orchids every couple of weeks, making sure orchids compost saturated. At times we get strong tropical rains and I postpone my watering until they a bit drier.

All of my stanhopeas growing in open hanging planters – they love a lot of moisture and then drying period – it seems to stimulate their growth more.



Over the years I’ve tested many planters for my plants and out of necessity designed planters especially suitable for orchids and especially for my stanhopea collection. I was after planters that could simulate this wet/dry cycles and at the same time looking practical and beautiful. I am fortunate to have husband who can actually bring all of my thoughts and designs into reality and to produce for me planters that can bring out the majestic beauty of stanhopea’s for enjoyment of these magical orchids. Our latest design shown here and if you are interested in purchasing these planters you can contact me via email.





During spring time I fertilize my stanhopea’s monthly and use liquid fertilizers – fish, seaweed, worm tea, etc – from my personal experience they seems to respond better to liquid organic feeds. I know that slow release fertilizers are very popular these days, but I found that my stanhopea’s respond better to natural liquid feeds and in our weather that can turn quite hot suddenly, if I miss watering slow release granules can burn roots and bulbs, so I always play safe and stay away from them.