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Orchids, genus by genus.

Orchids are 28,000 species pretending to be one plant - and the difference between genera is the difference between success and a dead Phalaenopsis. Slippers thrive on north sills, cattleyas demand sun, cymbidiums want autumn cold, vandas want daily rain. Here are 18 genus guides matched to real homes, rated honestly by difficulty.

Phalaenopsis Orchid (Moth Orchid)

Phalaenopsis Orchid (Moth Orchid)

The Phalaenopsis, or Moth Orchid, is the orchid for everyone.

Paphiopedilum (Slipper Orchid)

Paphiopedilums are the slipper orchids - pouched, waxy, almost carnivorous-looking blooms that last three months each, atop low-light-tolerant plants with handsome mottled foliage.

🪻 Intermediate

Cattleya Orchid

Cattleya is the corsage orchid - the ruffled, perfumed queen that defined 'orchid' for a century before Phalaenopsis took the supermarkets.

Oncidium Orchid (Dancing Lady Orchid)

Oncidium Orchid (Dancing Lady Orchid)

The Oncidium, affectionately known as the "Dancing Lady" orchid, is one of the most joyful plants you can grow indoors.

Dendrobium Orchid

Dendrobium Orchid

The Dendrobium is one of the largest and most diverse genera of orchids in the world, with well over a thousand species and countless hybrids.

🪻 Intermediate

Cymbidium Orchid

Cymbidiums are the cool-weather champions - grassy-leaved orchids carrying tall spikes of 10-25 waxy blooms that last two months in winter, exactly when nothing else performs.

🪻 Intermediate

Zygopetalum Orchid

Zygopetalums are the perfume-and-ink orchids - green petals leopard-blotched in mahogany over lips painted indigo-violet, with a hyacinth fragrance that fills rooms.

🪻 Intermediate

Brassia (Spider Orchid)

Brassia is the spider orchid - sprays of extraordinary blooms with petals drawn out into 15-20 cm trailing threads, like elegant green-and-bronze spiders climbing the spike.

🪻 Intermediate

Miltoniopsis (Pansy Orchid)

Miltoniopsis is the pansy orchid - big flat velvet blooms with painted 'faces' and one of the loveliest fragrances in the family, on soft grassy plants that want the cool, moist, gentle life of their Andean cloud-forest home.

Epidendrum (Reed-Stem Orchid)

Reed-stem epidendrums are the everblooming garden orchids - cane-stemmed sun-lovers topped with nonstop clusters of small vivid crucifix blooms in firecracker oranges, reds and pinks.

Spathoglottis (Ground Orchid)

Spathoglottis is the flowerbed orchid - a true terrestrial with pleated palm-like leaves and constant purple (or gold) sprays, planted straight into tropical garden soil like an agapanthus.

Vanda Orchid

Vandas are the flying orchids - grown in empty baskets with roots dangling meters in the air, crowned with flat, saturated blooms in blues and purples no other orchid attempts.

Catasetum Orchid

Catasetums are the orchids with a trigger finger - waxy male blooms that CATAPULT pollen onto visiting bees at touch, on plants that live a double life: lush leafy summers, then total leafless winter dormancy when watering STOPS.

Phragmipedium (S. American Slipper)

Phragmipediums are the slippers that love water - South American pouch orchids that grow streamside with wet feet, breaking every 'orchids hate soggy' rule.

Masdevallia Orchid

Masdevallias are the kite orchids of the cloud forest - compact leafy tufts flying triangular tailed blooms in traffic-cone orange, blood red and neon pink.

Bulbophyllum Orchid

Bulbophyllum is the orchid family's weird wing - 2,000+ species of hinged, wobbling, fly-pollinated blooms, some smelling of carrion (medusae's tentacled showstoppers among them).

Vanilla Orchid

Vanilla is the orchid you've eaten - the vining orchid whose cured seed pods are the world's vanilla, growable at home as a handsome climbing succulent-leaved vine.

Ludisia discolor (Jewel Orchid)

Ludisia discolor (Jewel Orchid)

The Ludisia discolor - the Jewel Orchid - is an orchid grown for the one thing most orchids are not known for: its leaves.

🪻

Match the orchid to YOUR window

North/east sill → Paphiopedilum, Phalaenopsis. Bright sun → Cattleya, Vanda. Cool rooms → Cymbidium, Masdevallia, Miltoniopsis. Warm + humid bathroom → Nepenthes-adjacent... no, that's the carnivores - here it's Vanda and Bulbophyllum. Choose by conditions first, flowers second, and orchids stop being 'hard'.

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