Question
I recently recieved an orchid plant from friends at work. It came as part of a flower arrangement but it is an entire plant, not cuttings. Can I plant it in my flower bed and, if so, does it like sun or shade? Wet or dry soil?  

Answer
Hello Patty,

Congratulations upon receiving an orchid plant as a gift from coworkers, they must think you're special to give it to you.

Do you know what type of orchid it is? There might be a plastic tag stuck in the pot with the name. Without knowing what type of orchid it is, it would be difficult in the least to tell you how to care for it properly. The difficulty is that there are over 30,000 different orchid species and they come from every area of our earth except Antarctica. By the way, most orchids should not be planted in a garden. A few can be but the vast majority would soon wither and die planted in the ground.

With all that said, I will take a wild guess that what you have may be a phalaenopsis orchid plant. Does it have thick oval shaped leaves with no bulb at the leaf base and the flowers are roundish in shape? If that pretty much describes your orchid plant, it definitely would not survive in the garden for very long. Phals. are basically indoor orchids and should be grown in bright indirect sunlight, temperatures between 60 to 85 F, humidity 50% or higher, some light air movement around it. Water it when the potting mix becomes almost dry, it would be a good idea to feed it once in a while with an orchid fertilizer too.

Sorry I can't be of much help at this time but if you can locate the name or give a description of the plant and flower, I may be able to take an educated guess. It would also be helpful to know where you live so I can tailor the care instructions to your climate.

Jim Kawasaki
San Jose, Ca.