Question
My son gave me a small orchid with with white flowes on it. After a while, the flowers died, and, before I read anything, I broke off the dead stems. Have I ruined it? The rest of the orchid looks great - green and healthy. It's about a foot tall, with 3 thick stems full of leaves that are wide near the stem and narrow as they go out.

Answer
Hello Kay,

Congratulations upon receiving the orchid from you son.  

From your description of what you did, you did nothing to ruin it.  Although you did not mention what type of orchid it is, my guess is a dendrobium orchid from the description.  Also, it probably is an evergreen type dendrobium.  Is there a tag with it that has the orchid type?  

Evergreen dendrobiums do like to become completely dry between waterings, so water when the potting mix is barely dry.  Do not water too often as that may cause the roots to die and rot.  

Was there an instruction sheet with it?  Follow the directions and it should be fine.  But, if there was no sheet with it, here are some things you can do.  

Grow it where it will receive bright indirect sunlight, several hours of early morning sun is fine.  The leaves should be a light to medium green color when exposed to ideal light levels.  Temperature should be between 60 to 85 F year round except for several weeks in mid fall when it should be exposed to night temperatures in the mid 50's.  If possible, try to maintain some humidity (50% or more) around it.  There should be some occasional light air movement around it so do not place it in a corner.  Feed it a balance type orchid fertilizer at 1/4 the amount suggested on the container as dendrobiums do not require lots of it.  As mentioned earlier, water when barely dry.  

Hope this helps.  If you find out it is not a dendrobium, write back with the name and I'll try to help.  

Good luck and good growing.

Jim Kawasaki
San Jose, Ca.