I bought a cheap-o Orchid from Target a month or so ago. It was in bloom with lovely lovely deep purple/black flowers on a long spike. The orchid is a Dendrobium Copter according to it's tag. These are ephipyte orchids (they live in trees and have aerial roots). They like to have small pots and grow big.

My plants bloomed for several weeks, and then died off. The older leaves started turning yellow and breaking off. I was frantic to figure out what exactly was wrong with my leaves so (being a librarian) I consulted many books about it. Each and every book seemed to have a different take on yellowing leaves. The plant is getting too much sun The plant is not getting enough sun The plant is over watered Wait. The plant is underwatered.

I became very frustrated and decided that overall the plant looked fine and so what. It is loosing old leaves, but I am still getting a lot of new growth. I am now starting to get a new stalk growing which hopefully will bloom. I have no idea if this is an annually blooming plant, or continuous blooming and have nothing to go on than a broad generalization what type of atmosphere it prefers. The room it is in gets Easterly sun, partially shaded. I keep it over a pebble tray with water to keep the humidity up around the plant. The room it is in changes slightly in temp during the day and night and summer/winter due to its poor insulation. So- nice and warm in the summer, cooler in the winter.

I am posting pics because I couldn't find a single picture on the web of Dendrobium Copters. Frustrating to no end so now I am attempting to learn and share my knowledge. Hope this helps someone out there!

Dendrobium Copter - 11/08/05 A complete view of the currently non-flowering

Dendrobium Copter - 11/08/05 an overhead shot of the orchid. You can sort of see the new stalk growing.