Growing Cymbidiums in the house
 

I have 3 new Cymbidiums that I am trying to grow, I have read that they are hard to get to flower indoors. I have them outside now on my deck, they only get am sun, when I bring them in they will be in my dining room in a south window. Is there anything that I should know to encourage them to bloom?

Why would you want to bring them inside ? Do you go below freezing at night? Cymbidiums grow well outdoors. I have 2000 Cyms growing under shade cloth the temps go down to 2 degrees C here in the winter

I am in upstate New York, we get a lot of below freezing weather with snow. We usually get our first frost Sept-Oct.

Yup ,that would be a good reason to grow them indoors , there are others here on the OB that can help you with that . They should be along soon to give you advice . Good luck.

Well cool growing cyms can take temps to freezing or just below for short periods - like a couple hours
I protect mine from frost by moving them onto the porch on those nights.

I realize upstate NY is going to be much colder than nor-cal in the winter - but it's summer now - I think you are safe to leave them outside until overnight lows are around 50 - or even a bit lower, and the temp drop in early fall (? - don't know what time of year you start to get into low 50s overnight) should help to initiate blooming.

I am sure there are others on the board who grow cyms in a climate more similar to yours than mine is - so I shall defer to them, but for the time being I am sure the cyms are fine to remain outside :)

That all being said I have been presuming you have cool growing cyms - I don't have experience with warm growers, but they should be fine to remain outside in the summer I would think.

I don't grow them, but here is some of the advice I have seen for UK growers of cymbidiums. I'm not sure our temps get as low as NY but we do get periods of snow.

The advice is that they like a min of 46F and that during Autum (fall), Winter and Spring the night temps should not exceed 55F.

It says they can be grown in the home, but to initiate spikes they need cool nights (in the 46F to 55F range). If you are having problems getting spikes it might be that they are not getting cool enough.

For our climate here it suggests they should be outside between May & September.

Put t hem OUTSIDE until just before first frost. I am in NY, 65 miles north of NYC. Mine LOVE being outside and bloom fine indoors when it's time.

They need some cool fall temps.

Thanks for all the suggestions. It sounds like I should do the same thing as I do with my Christmas cactus to get them to bloom.

Exactly!

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