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The Stick: Saving the 'Dead' Dendrobium

© Linda Fortner

Happy New Year to all of you, and welcome to the Orchid Garden. This month I have chosen a fun story about my brother Greg, and his experience with his orchid. I hope you will enjoy it.

All my life I have had this magic touch of making plants grow. My Dad would tell me, "if you planted a pencil, it would grow into a tree." I guess you could say I have a "green" hand, not just a "green" thumb.

Over the Thanksgiving holiday of 1996, my brother came home for a visit and brought me his "stick." What was it? It was a miniature Dendrobium orchid. When he bought it at a discount store, it had been in bloom, but now the poor little plant was in a very sorry condition. It had lost all it's leaves and Greg just knew he had killed it. In sheer despair he brought it to me with hopes that I could bring it back to life. I secretly smiled to myself and said "You have got to be kidding." I picked up the sad little stick and headed out the door to the greenhouse.

Now I knew something that Greg didn't. Dens were known to lose their leaves on the old "canes," so I was not really worried; the new growth just had not yet begun. I looked closely at the stick and it was still green and healthy so I knew it wasn't dead. By January new growth started to pop out of the bark and I smiled as I watched it grow all summer into a fine looking little Den. By October the new growth had filled the pot and a flower spike was just beginning to grow. Greg came home for Thanksgiving and yes! It was in bloom.

I could hardly wait to see the expression on his face when he saw I "saved" his little stick and brought it back to life! The blooms just added something special to his present. Greg was amazed that the plant was not only still alive but blooming too! It was a wonderful Thanksgiving, one I won't be forgetting for a long time.

Dendrobiums and their hybrids are some of the easiest and most rewarding orchids to grow. There are several types of Dendrobiums and you really need to know which type you are growing. Some are deciduous while others are evergreen. Some have pseudobulbs and others have jointed stems resembling canes.The Dendrobium phalaenopsis-types are the ones you most commonly find in the stores. They have jointed cane-like stems instead of pseudobulbs.

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