Ill.: clipart-library.com, montage: laidbackgardener.blog

Question: How many years can an orchid live? I have had one for 13 years and it’s given me a baby I potted up on its own. Both bloom and are very beautiful. But do aging orchids need any kind of special care? Mine was given to me when my husband died and I don’t want to lose it.

Lise Lavertue

Answer: An orchid has no specific lifespan. Under the right conditions, it can live for decades, even a century or more. And there is no specific maintenance for an older orchid. Simply repot at least every 3 or 4 years into an orchid potting mix. (Read here to learn how to repot an orchid) Repotting in fresh growing mix is like a fountain of youth for orchids, rejuvenating them pretty much completely.

There are undoubtedly orchids more than a hundred years old somewhere in the wild, but since there is no one to note their progress, we’ll never know for sure. And orchids have no trunk, so they leave no rings we can count.

However, there is at least one cultivated orchid that is over 100 years old. At the Singapore Botanical Garden, there is a specimen of giant orchid (Grammatophyllum speciosum), also called tiger orchid, which was planted in 1861, shortly after the garden was founded, and is therefore 159 years old. It still grows in the original spot and now measures over 5 m (16 ft) in diameter.

There are photos dating back as far as the late 19th century showing the orchid in its current location.

The giant orchid is native to the jungles of Singapore and elsewhere in Southeast Asia where it grows as an epiphyte, on rocks or on the ground. It’s the tallest orchid in the world, up to 7.62 m (25 ft) tall according to Guinness World Records, with cane-shaped pseudobulbs up to 2.5 m (8 ft) high. Each pseudobulb produces a stem of up to 80 yellow flowers heavily spotted with reddish brown. Usually, the giant orchid flowers only once every 2 to 4 years, the bloom then lasting about 2 months.

Due to its enormous size, the giant orchid is rarely cultivated in private homes, but specimens can be found in several botanical gardens around the world, both outdoors in tropical countries and in greenhouses in temperate ones.