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Dancing Little Dolls

© Linda Fortner

Welcome to the Orchid Garden. This month we are going to learn about DOLLS. Yes, you heard right, dolls with frilly skirts and little hats. Hummm, am I writing in the wrong area this month? No! I am in the right area and this is for my Orchid Garden, so why not read on?

You are probably thinking "So what do Dancing Dolls have to do with orchids?" Oh! but these dolls are ORCHIDS!

They are dressed in bright yellows trimmed in brown, pretty reds with pink polka dots, white with splashes of burgundy and many other bright pretty colors. Sometimes there are hundreds dancing around, sometimes only a few. The little dolls are all sizes, some as small as a dime, others as big as a silver dollar. As I watch and admire these little dolls all dressed up in their ruffled skirts, gently dancing in the breeze, I can't help but notice a wonderful sweet scent in the air. The closer I get to the dolls, the stronger the scent becomes. It is very pleasant and soft, and it fills the air around them.

The little dolls can be found down low on a very small spike or sometimes way up high, close to the ceiling of my greenhouse, on a spike over three feet tall! "On a spike?" you ask! Yes! The Dancing Dolls are the beautiful Oncidium orchids that I grow in my greenhouse. If you look carefully at the blooms, you will see their full ruffled skirts, tiny hands and their hats flapping in the breeze. I am sure you will be able to see the little dolls, and be as amazed as I was the first time I saw one.

There are over 750 species of Oncidiums and thousands of hybrids. Their culture will vary of course, but there are some basic rules that would apply to most of them. Oncidiums are not hard to grow if, like other plants, you give them what they need.They like plenty of bright light, and the roots need to have a dry period between waterings. Don't keep them constantly moist and don't crowd their roots. Humidity should be at least between 40 per cent and 60 per cent, and they love good air movement. Depending on the type you buy, you could have blooms in the spring, summer or fall. The blooms last a couple of weeks but, with many, the flower spikes are so large that it could take weeks for all the blooms to open.

Some of them like to be grown mounted on cork bark instead of planted

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