Peony Care

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For the most part, flowers should be bright, cheerful and be full of surprises. This may be the only thing the recipient has to see aside from the television, medical equipment and of course the nurse/doctor. Oddly many customers always request fragrant flowers for hospital recipients. I don't know a single person who wants to be immersed in a sweet smelling flower 24 hours a day. Imagine being in a bed and all you get to do is smell a perfumed room that can be nauseating while eating or taking medications. We usually avoid fragrant flowers for this reason and should you receive an overly fragrant arrangement, please be sure to thank the sender that insists that you just love fragrant flowers while in bed. 

Also avoid white flowers as some cultures (Asian) view white flowers as death.  

Also for Japanese culture it is not proper to send a potted plant showing roots (i.e. orchids) to someone recovering from an illness. 

The idea of having one's ashes inside a pu'olo may appear attractive and Hawaiian, but the pu'olo was not intended for housing of ashes prior to scattering. 

The function of the pu'olo is to remove any spiritual connection to what was placed inside it. hat this suggests that a pu'olo will remove all spiritual association to the ashes with in. In other words the ashes are just charred remans without a spiritual connection. 

If you want to place ashes into a container, may I suggest a koa calabash or one made from any of the many hardwoods in Hawai'i. 

A pu'olo is used for enclosing a lei, food preparations or s gift to present to the Gods or high chiefs/queens. 

The basic color for a Chinese funeral is all white.  Sometimes soft chartreuse, cream and medium green shades are acceptable. Often arrangements are tagged by a generation (i.e. children, grandchildren, etc.)  Flowers are best when they are coordinated by color scheme and style.

In the Buddhist sect for any Japanese memorial services, it is deemed poor taste to have any flowers that has or once have had thorns. Flowers, especially roses is considered bad taste. Other thorny flowers include branches that have thorns in them and foliages with thorny appendages on them. Usual colors are white, green and soft colors. 

The universal acceptance color for breast cancer is pink, but it is understood and acknowledged that pink is the universally accepted color for cancer survivors.  We alsosuggest that you suspend the idea of sending something fragrant if the recipient has just gone through chemo or from heavy medications. For something long lasting, may we suggest a pink flowerring orchid plant. 

Flowers are meant to natures accent to any occasion, but unfortunately there are human intervention that may not always be well intended, but there are "old wive's taled" of a lei worn around the neck of a pregnant mother may cause strangulation of her child. Unlike a chain thst she wears has no issues for strangulation even though metal is stronger than flowers. Yet customarily it is deemed of poor taste to allow a pregnant  mother to wear a neck lei. Often if a lei is desired, we suggest an "open" untied lei or a head lei (tied together) 

The Butterfly/Moth orchids are probably the easiest longest lasting indoor flowering orchid plant available.

The genus is comprised of 60 + species and varieties mainly from the Asian. Indian to Pacific region. The many varied species  this genus contains allows the most genetic variability to create such dramatic colors, splashes and flower forms.   The genus is most suitable to Hawaii's climate and grow here like their second home. 

Most likely you will receive this plant in a ceramic pot from Rainforest. We incorporate cultural techniques with poor grower ability to make a planter design where the plants get watered and foregivness from overwaterng an option within our potting techniques. The best place to keep these plants indoors is in a bright lit room with good reading waulity light for at least eight hours a day. More light is better but avoid direct sunlight as this will burn the tender leaves and roots. 

As mentioned earlier, our plants are potted for watering forgiveness. We advise that plants are watered at least once per week. Finger through the mossy top layer to find the bark that these orchids grow in. If you feel a dry bark, then the plants are dry. We recommend using a mist bottle to wet the bark and roots thoroughly. Try misting a little wait a while andmist again. The idea is that you want to wet the bark without too much water excess running through. We do recommend that you water at least once per week, more if in a drafty or high traffic area.

The newly developed buds may tend to turn yellow-brown and never develop. The reason this occurs is many. There may not be adequate humidity in the air, or root zone. These plants are so keen on their environment that their sensitivity to light, water, humidy, if changes drastically can affect the youngest development of your plant. Excessive bud drying may be a result of a greater problem. Too much or too little water. Your plants may be very wet, yet if all the roots are rotten the wilted lack of water effect will resemble the same. See indoor care above. We strongly advise that watering becomes a very important aspect of one's task at the least once per week. 

If your plant starts to have dried withered flowers at their stem base (opposite of tips), this natural progression of flower dying is a part of the plants ability to discard flowers which have not been pollinated or make seeds. 

If you want a stem of flowers quickest, we recommend that you cut the stalk to the nearest node. (a node is the first joint that the stem end meets. If you cut just above this node ad continue to care for the plant as prescribed above, eventually the plant will produce a side shoot. This side shoot will make more buds and blooms faster than if from the base of a new shoot. 

After your plant has exhausted itself from making buds and blooms, it is advised that  you unpot the plants from the planter and place these clear plastic pots into a sturdier plastic pt and care for them as regular houseplants. Give them indirect or filtered light where possible. The leaves willburn if you place them in direct sun, so avoid this. If you have a dilute soluble fertilizer you use for ouseplants, you can use it with phalaenopsis too. Water through to be sure the entire root mass gets wet. Remove excess water from collecting and allow plants to get thoroughly wet and then dry before watering again. Phalaenopsis orchids tend to be winter bloomers. That is the short days and cooler nights will initiate flowering shoots to develop.