Your cymbid will grow best if it gets full sun in winter and is in dappled shade in the hotter monthe
Putting them under a deciduous tree is often suggested. Alteratively under 50% shade cloth does just fine in a sunny spot
Feed them weekly with half strength liquid fertiliser, any of the easily available ones will do. Don't let them dry out completely, just keep them moist.
They grow naturally in leaf/bark debris on tree branches usually so to replicate this the usual choice for potting medium is pine bark chips, available commercially quite readily.
Resist the temptation to repot your plants, they resent disturbance and only meed to be potted on when very pot bound, and don't fall for the dividing nonsense, if you do you may not get any flowers for two or three years.
John

Cymbidiums are tough plants, and apart from waterlogging or drying out will survive.
Plant it in a plastic pot in composted pine bark, water as often as you like because the water will run through, but dont allow it to stand in water or the roots will rot. Mine are in full sun for most of the day (grouped together) and are doing well, too much shade is said to inhibit flowering.
Beware of slugs and snails at flowering time, the bark makes an ideal home for slugs.
Repot into a larger pot when the pot goes out of shape (the pots will split if left too long). I usually cut the pot to get the orchids out. If you want to divide them try to get old bulbs, bulbs with leaves and new shoots in each division. Cutting the plant in half is usually safest. It's hard work dividing them and I have been tempted to use an axe.

Two points in waussie's post are not very good advice to follow:-
!. do not compost the pine bark, use a fresh commercially produced mix. They are readily available.
2. If you wish to divide a plant there is a right time to do it and it is best done if a natural division is used. By doing it this way you will reduce the chance of any disease/rot problems. If you carefully shake the roots and separate them the plant will readily break, this is much better than cutting into it.
John

Dear JonOl_S
This isn't the place to correct people, I'm sure you are an expert. Different people have different plants, growing conditions, methods etc etc. In my experience cymbidiums are tough plants and require tough methods to divide them.

I don't think I suggested that the lady compost her own pine bark.

Perhaps you have different Cymbidiums, mine do not ever fall apart because they are all joined together.

Heres a website and theres one below, theirs don't fall apart either:)http://www.orquideas.com/growing/potting/cymbpot.html

Here is a link that might be useful: Repotting cymbidiums

FWIW the commercial stuff usually is partially composted pine bark and I assume is what Waussie meant. The point being that any pine bark which has not been composted or at least 'boiled' will give you problems with nitrogen draw down. As you say stick with the commercially available pine based mixes and you can't go wrong.

As for repotting, in a bark based mix you'll need to repot about every three years immediately after flowering (winter/spring). I don't know if Jon meant he truly 'pots on' his plants but after a few years the bark turns to compacted mud and you will want to replace as much of the old bark as possible if drainage and aeration problems are to be avoided. As Jon said Cymbidiums do resent disturbance and while vigorous hybrids will probably flower the following season but some hybrids may not flower until the second season. If you are going to divide remember larger divisions have a better chance of flowering sooner. FWIW I have never seen an orchid for sale which is anywhere near needing division so you'll probably need to wait few years before you need to consider breaking the plant up.
Andrew

Waussie, IMHO it is better that good advice is given particularly to novice growers.
The original poster seemed to be a beginner and to anticipate something as far away as dividing plants is not advice needed at this stage.
If you wish I will advise you by email details of my background.
John

Thanks to everyone who replied!! I have read that it is possible to plant them in the side of a tree fern does anyone know how to do this?
thanks!

Hi Bonnie.
Most of the orchids known as epiphytes, that is the species which live on such places as trees can be grown on tree fern and some other "mounts" but generally they need some extra care because they will dry out quicker than those in pots.
Cymbidiums might not be as suitable as some others but to do it all that is needed is to attach a plant to the mount (tree fern) with nails and a soft tie with some sphagnum moss over the roots. Keep it moist and make sure that it does not move.
If you wouled like an illustration of how to do it send me an Email.
John

A couple of things to keep in mind. Cymbidiums like quite a lot of water compared to many other orchids in cultivation so the tree fern will have to be regularly watered. Live hosts don't usually need as much water compared to non-living mounts but they do need more than potted plants. Most Cymbidiums also need quite a lot of light to flower well so you may find that the canopy of the tree fern as well as any shade the tree fern gets may inhibit flowering.

I kept mine in too much shade last year, then noticed they weren't growing new leaves. I then report them (as they really look too tight) then put them out to near full Sun in Winter. They seemed to hate the cold! So only one or two stems of flowers appear on 5 pots! Also the flowers did not look good at all. So I moved them again to the shade, this time sit them under a Magnolia tree to avoid hot afternoon Sun while giving them morning Sun. They now grow many new shoots and look much better. I only use slow release fertiliser and occasionally I give them some soluble fertiliser. Would Charlie Cap (organic liquid and smelly fertiliser) hurt them? I am afraid that the organic stuff will rot their root. So I use it very rarely with very mild concentration.

Is this the sign that I will get some flowers this time? Also I did not use decent pot mix. I though Cymbidiums can even live with normal soil? My brother has a huge pot and he never even care about them, they give about 20 stems of flowers every year for the last few years. The pot must be at least 15 years old from the previous owner of the house who died old.

Should I try to undo my mistake with not using the right pot mix? I don't want to disturb them so that they refuse to give any flowers this year. Perhaps I should repot them again after flowering? or wait until they do not give good flowers then do it? Please advise.

Hi dmaivn. As you have found out you can place them in a too hot position.
Many are placed under a deciduous tree, eg. an apricot or peach tree. There they get a lot of winter sun but dappled sun in summer.
Cymbidiums do not like to be disturbed and prefer to be a bit pot bound. Mostly they are fed half strength liquid fertiliser "weakly weekly" is a rule of thumb.
They need a couple of cold nights in winter to initiate flowering but hard frost would not be advisable.
I would suggest you do not disturb your plants until late spring now.
The medium they prefer is an open well drained one, pine bark is most often used but some are grown in rockwool or even gravel.
John

Jon, they have flowers now. Not much, some pots give 2 stems the best one gives 5 stems. The leaves seem to have little brown spots. I know a few problems but not sure how to fix up.

- I did not use proper potting mix two years ago. It was franklin's pine bark with garden soil the last time I repot. Not great isn't it?
- The location is under a Magnolia tree. Ok, but not great. Not enough Sun for Autumn and Winter.
- I use slow release osmocott pellets rather than watering them with weak fertiliser solution.

I am not a nut on Orchids, therefore I only want to get resonable results in a lazy way.

My brother set up shade cloth to house his orchids under nearly full Sun. His orchids have much better leaves. Now they have a lot of flowers, between 3 - 7 stems on each pot. he uses commercial potting mix for orchids. But like me, he never really fertilise them on a consistent basis.

What should I do? If I carefully repot them now with commercial mix, would the repotting stop them from flowering next year? Perhaps I can gently repot them into bigger pots without removing the bad old mix?

Also there are some kind of bugs that bore a hole into the flower and eat the inside causing them to fall. What can I do? I suppose this cann't be snails. Will an insecticide product suitable for the garden in general work? I worry that the little white oil content in pest oil may hurt the orchids. Anyway, I just want reasonable orchids, not too fussy about them.

Hi dmaivn, it would not be advisable to repot now as they are in the stage of setting blooms if they are going to set any. Wait until later, most growers aim to just complete their potting by October or at the latest Melb Cup day.
Osmocote is sometimes used as a lazy way and seems to give reasonable results but using a correct mix to pot in is almost essential.
Your brown spots could be insect attack or even water/rain/hail damage. May not be much to worry about, using a shadecloth shelter does help avoid this.
Incidentally the flowering "stems" are called "spikes" or to be strctly correct "inflorescences". Spikes is the most commonly used expression.
Keep at it, they can give a lot of satisfaction with not much work.
John

When I repot them, should I shake loose all the old potting mix? I am sure the old potting mix is bad for them now. I worry that they may not flower or only have one spike next year if I disturb their roots. Some of them will complete flowering by end of this month, should I repot immediately after the blooms all fall off to get a bit ahead?

Thanks

Dao

Hi Dao. You can do more than shake the spent mix off actually. Any roots which are decayed can also be removed, they will show as being dark and rotted or even without the soft outer part but only a fiber string like part.
Active roots are whitish with a greenish tip but they don't start until spring.
You will most likely not get any bloome next season if you repot, that is why it is not suggested that it should be done unless really needed.
In their natural conditions they don't get any interference so why should they be disturbed unless there is a good reason?.
Cyms only flower from bulbs which are matured for 1 or more likely 2 years so if you want flowers leave them be if you can.
If you repot they have to produce these mature bulbs to flower. There is a 3 year time from a new shoot to blooming in most cases.
John

That's why I am stuck. I did not know so I repotted 2 years ago with lousy home made mix. Still, having a couple of spikes is not too bad. Now I know they have to be repotted (but not split). What I want to do is surgically repot them to avoid disturbing the roots. I only want to shake off the old mix as much as I can, cut the rooted roots and restuff the root ball then put into a larger pot. In this way the disturbance is not too much. What I worry is the damage to tiny feeders (which probably would be regrown in Spring anyway)

From the past experience even after repotting and splitting. I still get 1 spike. This time if I am very careful and find a good location for them I might get better luck. My brother repot two years ago with commercial mix and build a home for them with shade cloth, he got a stellar season this time without worrying too much about feeding them. I think I will do it after flowering to get it right for the first time.

Unlike roses, Cymbs flower only once a year. This is a big fault if one compares them with roses. So having healthy leaves would be a must if they are to be kept in sight during the time they have no flowers. I will have to try to give them a bit more suitable Sun in Winter and protection in Summer and also bait those snails to help them look good.

dmaivn, have a look at some of the other orchids which would almost certainly give you much more pleasure with a lot less work. Try some of the Dendrobiums, both native and exotic, they will flower every year right from the start.
There are many Australian natives also well worth looking at.
IMHO Cyms are just not worth the trouble for what you get.
John

Dao, have you considered getting a more prolific flowering Cymbidium? Some of the minitures flower without much effort. The flowers are smaller than standard Cymbidiums but the mass of blooms makes up for it. I have a 6" pot of Cym. Sarah Jean 'Peach' that shows its dislike of repotting by sending up around half the normal number of spikes but that's still about 10 spikes. Some of the larger hybrids do not flower well and are more likely to flower poorly when repotted especially if the plant doesn't have a lot of pseudobulbs.
Andrew

Andrew, Sarah Jean peach does Ok but tends to fall apart when repottting, some of the other Sarah Jeans are a bit better behaved, icycle and ice cascade for example. As you say the miniatures and some of the intermediates are a better bet.
Still think that some of the other species are more rewarding.
John

Just out of curiosity, would a product such as seaweed concentrate help minimise damage when transplanting cymbidiums at all, or is it simply irrelevant for orchids?

GemenePop, I have found that Seasol seems to pep them up a bit and help root development. However when you are repotting cyms this should happen before any root development starts IE. before early November. After that the risk is that roots might not take the damage anyway.
John