Plants in Chicago: an orchid or a succulent for a sill under glass
Plants in Chicago spend most of the year indoors, and in spring the Garfield Park and Lincoln Park conservatories show orchids under glass beside tulips, daffodils and delphiniums. A moth orchid in a pot brings that greenhouse flower to a Chicago sill, and the right choice depends on the window it will sit by and the person it's for. Most of what's on offer here is one plant in several forms, so the first decision is box, pot or glass.
A moth orchid as a gift: in a box, a pot or beside chocolate
Almost everything flowering among plants in Chicago is a moth orchid, the most familiar orchid grown as a houseplant. A box holds the stem ready to hand over as it is, and seven orchids in a box reads as one generous gesture rather than a single flower. A pot suits a gift that stays on a sill, not just a table for one evening: a hat box pairs the orchid with lisianthus, a jute pot sets it beside roses. Where the occasion is the visit itself, the plant goes alongside chocolate rather than in place of it.
A potted orchid simply lasts longer than a cut flower: in cultivation a moth orchid typically stays in bloom for two to three months, against around a week for a rose in a vase. It grows in bark rather than soil, and the pot is clear, so it's easy to see whether the roots still look damp before watering again. The full range is in flowering plants, almost all of it orchids in one of these forms.
Thirty degrees in July, cooler autumn days: when an orchid reflowers
Chicago reaches around thirty degrees Celsius on a mid-July afternoon, well above what suits a moth orchid preparing its next flower spike. The plant tends to set a new spike once daytime temperatures drop below about 27°C, so a cooler autumn is the moment to watch for one, not a guarantee that it will come. Strong summer sun through south-facing glass can scorch the leaves, so through the warm months the pot does better pulled back from the pane than pressed against it.
Winter runs the other way outside, down to around 0°C by day and -7°C at night, though the orchid never feels either figure. It lives in a heated flat, where the air is drier than it likes. A sill that works all year has bright, indirect light, daytime readings nearer 19-30°C and nights around 16-19°C.
Watering is roughly weekly, less in winter, and the pot shouldn't stand in water; the saucer is best tipped out rather than left to hold a puddle. Water that sits on the leaves or pools at the centre of the plant invites rot, so it's the bark that gets wet, not the crown. Once flowering ends, cutting the spent spike just above the second node often brings on a side shoot instead of nothing.
Stone rose, sedum and haworthia under glass, cacti in a pot
The succulents and cacti among plants in Chicago's glass and pots behave very differently from the orchid. A florarium here is a stone rose, sedum or haworthia set inside a glass shape rather than a planter: a cube, a truncated cube, a droplet or an icosahedron. The glass only decides the look; inside it, the plant still behaves like a desert one.
Succulents store water in their thick leaves, sometimes as much as nine-tenths of their weight. That's why a few drops from a spray bottle do more good here than a jug poured into an open bowl. These florariums are left open rather than sealed, which suits a plant that wants its leaves dry between waterings far more than it wants damp air around it. A cactus in a pot follows the same rule: when in doubt, water less rather than more.
Plant delivery in Chicago is free in the centre, with a flat zone rate beyond it, and timing shown on each product card; see plant delivery in Chicago. The florist photographs the plant before the courier leaves, and a hotel or hospital address is worth checking first, since some clinics don't take live plants.
For a moth orchid as a gift, flowering plants is the place to begin. Florariums covers the glass shapes for a shelf, and cacti and potted plants by type suit something smaller and plainer. Where cut stems make more sense than a plant, flowers in boxes is the equivalent in flowers alone.