Question
Hello Wayne,
I hope you can give me some advice in how to care for my beautiful orchid.  I was given an orchid for my birthday.  It is a Colmonara Wildcat 'Golden Red Star' potted plant.  It is about two feet high, with several pretty blooms on a single stalk.  I'm worried that I don't know how to water it correctly. I worry about the sufficient light, as I live close to Seattle, WA and there isn't a lot of sunlight some days, nor is it overly warm. As for the plant, I think the roots at the base are not looking as fresh and may be in trouble. I tried watering in a bowl of water submerged then was going to take it out and forgot overnight. Is it waterlogged for certain? Please can you give me some pointers?

Answer
Thanks for your questions Valerie.  There is a close relationship between the nature of the potting mix and watering.  Often, newly acquired orchids have not been newly potted so that the bark-based potting mix has begun to deteriorate.  When that happens, the potting mix is not as "open" as it should be and, as a result, tends to hold water longer, and dries out more slowly. This can also happen if the potting mix is moss-based rather than fir-bark based.  In this instance, moss tends to compact, limits air movement to the roots, and may hold too much moisture.  The best approach is to repot your plant in a fir-bark based potting mix.  This is best done when you see new growth begin to emerge.  Soak the new potting mix thorougly before use as dry fir bark will draw water away from the roots.  I assume that your plant is not currently in fresh potting mix, which means that it will take quite a while to dry out your mix from the soaking it just got.  Do not water it for at least a week to allow it to dry out-- it should be fine.  Reduce watering to once every two weeks until you can repot it in fresh potting mix, then you can water and feed weekly. When you water, it may be best to just pour the water through the potting mix enough to thorougly wet the potting mix.  Let it drain out of the mix before placing the plant back into your growing area.

It would help growth if you supplement natural light with a plant light on a timer to mimic natural daylength.  This provides more consistent lighting to compensate for the low light days.  There are many types of light available but you want to provide as much light as possible-- up to 160 watts of floresscent lighting.