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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 by difficulty.

Orchids
Phalaenopsis Orchid (Moth Orchid) Beginner

Phalaenopsis Orchid (Moth Orchid)

The Phalaenopsis, or Moth Orchid, is the orchid for everyone.
Paphiopedilum (Slipper Orchid) Beginner

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.
Cattleya Orchid Intermediate

Cattleya Orchid

Cattleya, the classic corsage orchid, has ruffled, perfumed blooms and was the best-known orchid for a century before Phalaenopsis took over the supermarkets.
Oncidium Orchid (Dancing Lady Orchid) Intermediate

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 Intermediate

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.
Cymbidium Orchid Intermediate

Cymbidium Orchid

Cymbidiums are grassy-leaved orchids carrying tall spikes of 10-25 waxy blooms that last two months in winter, exactly when nothing else performs.
Zygopetalum Orchid Intermediate

Zygopetalum Orchid

Zygopetalums are orchids with green petals leopard-blotched in mahogany over lips painted indigo-violet, with a hyacinth fragrance that fills rooms.
Brassia (Spider Orchid) Intermediate

Brassia (Spider Orchid)

Brassia, often called the spider orchid, carries sprays of blooms with petals drawn out into 15-20 cm trailing threads, like elegant green-and-bronze spiders climbing the spike.
Miltoniopsis (Pansy Orchid) 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) Beginner

Epidendrum (Reed-Stem Orchid)

Reed-stem epidendrums are cane-stemmed, sun-loving garden orchids topped with nonstop clusters of small vivid crucifix blooms in firecracker oranges, reds and pinks.
Spathoglottis (Ground Orchid) Beginner

Spathoglottis (Ground Orchid)

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

Vanda Orchid

Vandas are 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 Advanced

Catasetum Orchid

Catasetum orchids have waxy male blooms that catapult pollen onto visiting bees at a touch, on plants that live a double life: lush leafy summers, then total leafless winter dormancy when watering STOPS.
Phragmipedium (S. American Slipper) Advanced

Phragmipedium (S. American Slipper)

Phragmipediums are South American slipper orchids that grow streamside with wet feet, breaking every 'orchids hate soggy' rule.
Masdevallia Orchid Advanced

Masdevallia Orchid

Masdevallias are compact cloud-forest orchids whose leafy tufts carry triangular, tailed blooms in traffic-cone orange, blood red and neon pink.
Bulbophyllum Orchid Advanced

Bulbophyllum Orchid

Bulbophyllum is an orchid genus of 2,000+ species with hinged, wobbling, fly-pollinated blooms, some smelling of carrion (medusae's tentacled showstoppers among them).
Vanilla Orchid Advanced

Vanilla Orchid

Vanilla is a vining orchid whose cured seed pods are the world's vanilla; it can be grown at home as a handsome climbing vine with succulent leaves.
Ludisia discolor (Jewel Orchid) Beginner

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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