"Orchids as just as easy as any plant, you just have to know them" - Falacy or not?

[Miller]

Also being in Houston, I found that my orchids starting growing much better when I place them on my back deck. A few did burn but don't seem any worse for the wear and are sending out new spikes and or growths. I am looking into rigging some sort of shade cloth but for now I've positioned a potted ficus tree to block the western sun. Wish I had thought of if before I burned several of my orchids. My oldest Oncidium got the worst of the burn but apparently it doesn't mind, it has 6 or 7 spikes now! I attached a pick of two of my reblooms. The Oncidium has two more spikes on top of the one that is in flower. I have to say I am finding them a lot easier to care for than I thought they would be. I do try to buy ones that like heat.

Miller

Miller

[PaphMadMan]

Are all orchids as easy as any houseplant? Of course not, but if you can grow a Philodendron you can grow a Maudiae-type Paph. If you can grow an African violet you should be able to succeed with a typical Oncidium intergeneric. If you can grow a Hoya you can grow many Catts. In each case under exactly the same conditions, and much easier than many houseplants I could name.

[sand_tiger86]

Some excellent responses in here! I'm intrigued, to say the least. Some things have been brought up that I never thought about.

In any event, I have no problem with a profusely flowering Crown of Thorns (Euphorbia milii). I never even knew what it was...I've had it for two years, out of bloom, and just stuck it in my window and voila. It's been flowering nonstop for over a year now. I finally looked it up and realized what I had and from what I've read they need bright to high light in order to bloom. But that's not necessarily "orchid speak", though. When someone says "bright light" for one plant and "bright light" for an orchid, they can be two entirely different "bright light"s. ha

[bumpman]

I have now found out that orchids are easy (to grow and rebloom) once I understood that most of them live as epiphytes high in tropical trees, a place that's humid, breezy, cool at night, and with periodic rain then drying. And then there's SH, which makes their culture even easier. The first orchid I ever got (A Beallara on sale) survived (in soil!) for three years because I neglected the poor thing and hardly ever watered it. Now in SH in an orchidarium it keeps on blooming again and again.

[pipsxlch]

I've found them easier than most houseplants, but probably because I'm blessed to have lived in a climate that is 'close enough to home' for many of them, and have fortunately been drawn to ones that are in that group. I should add that almost all are outside where nature does most of the work- my inside ones usually don't do quite as well!

[wetfeet101b]

"A question is only difficult if you don't already know the answer".
The same can be said about orchids (or pretty much any living thing that people take care of as a profession or hobby).

Is it difficult to get orchids to flourish under artificial conditions? If you don't know the what required conditions are in the first place then of course it would be very difficult.
If you already know what they need, then it would be just a matter of muscling up a rig that replicates their growing conditions at a microclimate level.
That "rig" could be as complex as a fully automated greenhouse or as simple as a swatch of shade cloth and wire shelves, throw in a 6 ounce water squirter for good measure.

When a gardener tells me "It is easy", I take it that it is easy for HIM because he has already gained the experience and know-how to be able to "read" that type of plant and he knows what to do to keep the plant healthy.
It might be easy for him, but for those not familiar with that type of plant, it is a difficult start.

Throw in a good measure of luck where different people live in different climate zones with some zones able to support a wider variety of orchids compared to others.
An "easy" orchid that grows in a backyard Argentina could prove near impossible to grow in an apartment in Cleveland.