Question
My orchid has "bloomed out"..Do I cut the stem that the blooms were on?  Also, the green leaves are now turning yellow....what am I doing wrong?

Answer
Hello Pamela,

Yes, cut off the stem now that the flowers are gone as the stem will not produce more flowers.  

Since your dendrobium orchid is not one of the deciduous types, there is something causing the leaves to prematurely die.  Here are some things dendrobiums like and dislike, you might take a look at to see if one or more has happened.

Growing in bright shade (little or no direct sun exposure), growing area temperature exceeds 85F (can even be reflected heat from a wall or counter top), humidity above 40%, watered when the potting media becomes barely moist, not allowed to become completely dry between waterings, light air movement present, watered in the morning and not late in the day, misting in morning rather than evening.  

What I suspect is one of two things happened.  It is placed where it gets quite a bit of direct sunlight and temperatures are very warm or it is being watered and misted late in the day.  It also might be all of these.  

Yellowing leaves can be caused by too much direct sunlight, causing the leaves to bleach out and turn yellow, eventually leading to leaf sunburn.  High temperatures can cause the cells within the leaf to collapse and even die.  Water left on the leaves overnight can be a prime breeding environment for fungus, fungus will be apparent by seeing black sooty looking areas on the leafs.  

Hope this helped.

Jim Kawasaki
San Jose, Ca.