Join in and vote, and stand to win a beautiful arrangement of orchids.

From 1 December, you can vote for the most beautiful and most extraordinary Phalaenopsis orchids on our Facebook page. These orchids have been specially selected by the orchid growers. By ‘liking’ your favourite photo in the relevant album, you are casting your vote. You can ‘like’ several photos, but only the photo that has received the most votes will be crowned Phalaenopsis of the month. Cast your vote and stand to win a beautiful arrangement of orchids.

Click here and cast your vote.

On Monday 22 December, we will announce the winner who has received the most votes. We will also select a winner for the arrangement of orchids.

In December the Phalaenopsis Orchid is the Houseplant of the month. This delightful orchid with slender stems, shiny leaves and butterfly-like flowers brings style, class and a touch of Asia.

Flowers like butterflies
Phalaenopsis comes from the Greek ‘phalaina’ (moth) and ‘opsis’ (like). The flowers do actually look like flying moths, which is why it is also called the Moth Orchid. The flowers can be found in purple, pink, salmon, white, yellow and even blue and often have creatively spotted or striped patterns. The heart of the flower also has a protruding ‘under lip’.

All the way from Asia and Australia
The Phalaenopsis Orchid has lots of travel experience. The plant was discovered around 1700 in the tropical rainforests of Asia and Australia and explorers brought it back with them to Western Europe. The orchid naturally grows in trees or on rocks, but is equally happy on your window sill or desk.

Enjoy your Phalaenopsis Orchid for a long time
This is how you can enjoy your Phalaenopsis Orchid for longer: place the Phalaenopsis Orchid in a position with enough light, but avoid bright sunlight between April and October. Submerge the pot once every 7 to 10 days, for 1 minute in (rain) water. If you have the central heating on, spray the leaves with water regularly. In addition you can add orchid fertilizer to the soil once a month from November to February and twice a month for the rest of the year. Your Phalaenopsis Orchid will love this.

Houseplant of the month
The Phalaenopsis Orchid takes centre stage this month as Houseplant of the month of December 2014. Houseplant of the month is an initiative of the Flower Council of Holland. Each month the Flower Council, in collaboration with representatives from the horticultural sector, chooses a plant which is well liked by the consumer, or isn’t known very well (yet) but has the potential to do well in the living room.

Covid-19 has made us creative and collective in recent months. We came up with ways to be as close as possible to each other from a distance and to be there for each other. From window visits to bear hunts, from support your local initiatives to shout-outs for healthcare providers and from birthday drive-by to plant campaigns for the Red Cross. We filled the physical and emotional distance with beauty, in the form of meaningful gestures.
Now that measures are relaxing, we are in a gray area: what is possible and what is not (yet)? How we interpret this is different for everyone. While one person mainly feels space and uses it to the maximum, the other is hesitant to come into contact with his or her loved ones.

STAY ATTENTION
We would like to continue to encourage you to continue to fill the physical and/or emotional distance with beauty. Think of grandparents who are not yet allowed to babysit their grandchildren and where the lack is great, (lonely) elderly in care homes, that sweet neighbor who feels more comfortable with minimizing contact, the local entrepreneur who tries to keep his head above water or your mother who sees you but does not kiss.

ORCHID WITH A MESSAGE
Remember: it’s about the gesture you make. Let the store help you choose a beautiful plant or orchid, drop it off and have a chat. Isn’t that right? Then you can have the orchid delivered. Replace the everyday kiss with an orchid if you can see someone, but can’t touch it because of the 1.5 meters.

SHARE YOUR GESTURE
How do you fill the distance with beauty? Let us know with hashtag #VulDeAfstand.

Source: www.mooiwatplantendoen.nl

Summer is almost setting in and the UK is more than ready.  House cleaning is in its full swing, while gardens are being prepared for those cozy warm nights. In order to mark the summer the right way, one’s interior can use a boost as well. With its tropical look and feel, an orchid can brighten up any room in the blink of an eye. With 25.000 species on offer, finding the proper match to your living style will be anything but hard. Besides, the exotic plant is inextricably linked to the newest living trends. The colorful orchid is idyllic for outside venues and is the perfect opportunity to create a botanical image or a flowery mini-expo.  

Botanical living
Nature brings peace and moments of perfect solitude. With the aim of implementing nature into our living room, we preferably choose luxurious plants, plant prints and green tints. The orchid fits this botanical picture like a glove. Step away from choosing just one orchid for your interior for a moment and instead cluster them together in different pots.  Or plant them in a hanging pot or one with legs, thus emphasizing that green feeling just a little bit more.

Choose color
The orchid is also perfectly in line with this year’s color trends – ochre gold and soft pink. Take the Cattleyas for example; it comes in many colors, including yellow, and spreads a delicious scent in the house. The Phalaenopsis, either with its honey-sweet pink tint or soft yellow color, is very suitable here as well. Same goes for the Cymbidium, which is originally from the Himalaya and is available in a vivid yellow color and a soft pink tint. The latter actually turns out to be surprisingly feasible in August on the balcony or in the garden.

Enjoying the orchid outside
Enjoying the orchid in and around the house in the summer months the best way possible? In outdoor space the orchid is also one to watch; the Garden Orchid is a perennial plant with its roots in North-America, Russia, China and Japan. The Garden Orchid is well equipped for the winter, can handle severe frost and turns into a wonderful plant with beautiful flowers for the ultimate pleasure in the summer.

Flowery mini-expo
Something completely different from using pots and vases comes down to saving the orchid in a box of glass as a special fragrant treasure. Get going with various boxes of glass and style several sorts and colors of orchids in those boxes, thereby creating your own in-house mini exposition. Beautiful for your salon table, but certainly also appealing as a vibrant present.
The orchid makes sure that one can enjoy its gracious appearance, delicious scent and vivid colors every season. Definitely choose the orchid more often in and around the house, so as to enjoy this special, many-sided flower. We “feel better around orchids” for a reason.

About the campaign ‘We feel better around orchids’
This material is produced originally on behalf of a program which is co-financed by the European Union between 2016-2018.

It’s as if Matisse and Monet started plant breeding together and had a particularly good day. The first thing you notice about Miltonia are her magnificent flowers, full of refined patterns, sparkling lines and almost cartoon-like dots. The second thing you notice is the wealth of colour: Miss Miltonia likes to wear brown, crimson, scarlet, purple, white and yellow. Miltonia is one of the few orchids where some varieties are scented.

Styling

Miltonia has sturdy green leaves which are best served by a robust base to give an appealing contrast with the elegant flower. Experiment with different shapes: an old can or an original vase can also serve as a decorative pot, for example.

Orchid of the month

Every month we present a new orchid of the month. Want to find out which orchid it will be next month? Take a look at the list.