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It takes lots of care and luck. Where did you get it?

I bought my orchid at Home Depot and it was white with big purple spots on it so lovely now it looks dead and droopy. I am afraid to get anymore orchids, perhaps I should stick to less fussy plants.

Blooms won't live forever, hopefuly if you keep it alive, it will bloom again next year. I'm not sure on all of it but I think in back posts, all of your questions are answered....look for Nana's posts.

Hi Tigress. I didn't have very much luck with my first orchid when I treated it like any other houseplant, but now I have half a dozen of them and almost always have at least one in bloom and right now have 2 in bloom and two more with buds. There are really in-depth answers from real experts in earlier posts, as suzieb says. But a couple of short answers from one relative newbie to another is that they seem to do better in bark than in dirt and seem to flower more readily if they get a lot of light. I had one in the bathroom next to a frosted window for about a year and it grew new leaves, but never blossomed. A couple of months ago I moved it to a south-facing window, and now it has buds. I have not repotted any of our orchids yet. I think the longest we've had any of them is about 5 years, but the one we've had that long hardly stops blooming long enough to be replanted, so I'm not going to worry about it!

Blooms on Phalaenopsis and Dendrobium orchids last the longest. Sometimes for several months. The old blooms fall off but new blooms keep forming on the bloom spike.
If you will look at the tag that came in the plant and post the name of it then I can advise you how to repot, check the roots and try to get it to bloom again.

Except for certain terrestrial orchids, orchids should never be potted in dirt or potting soil. The roots must get air. Your orchid in the plastic pot is probably potted in a bark mix. If it look dead and droopy it probably has rotted or non-existant roots from too much water/potting mix break down.

Don't give up on orchids! We've had members who have rescued half-dead orchids and the plants are healthy and growing now.

YEP on the 1/2 dead ones, I'm getting a new leaf on that one right now.

Something about Home Depot and Lowes orchids. I was told by a grower, that the chemical fumes, gases from these entities, are one of the main culprits that cause their orchids to fail. the other is neglect from the person in charge of the plant department. If you have someone in there with well rounded knowledge, they can help the plants to survive, but if you just have a worker who knows nothing about watering, feeding, light etc, thats why I see 80% of their stock on sales racks are tossed because of these issues.

Now if you want to take the time and try to revive them, it takes great work, and it can be done, but be ware of Home Depot and Lowes.

Our Lowes had someone with some knowledge but I lost my lowes orchid. The one I retreived from my friend is making it....looks like it's going to make a total recovery. My other Lowes orchid is the orchid in a bag and it's looking great. Guess they are so young, you're not dealing with a blooming plant, maybe it's easier for them to survive. The best one is the one I got from Whole Foods, it bloomed a long time, it still looks good and looks like it might be putting on another bloom stem.

Orchids in big box garden centers are taken from the grower's greenhouse where they were in optimal growing conditions and plopped down in a totally different environment. Some still have the plastic shipping sleeves on them and they are literally cooking. They are generally watered the same as all the other plants. They quickly develop root problems, bothritis spot on the blooms and other diseases/problems. Since the orchids are delivered by the wholesale grower ask which day the orchid delivery is made and go then. I have purchased healthy orchids out of the shipping boxes before they ever went on the shelves.

I was told by the grower who delivers the orchids at Home Depot to leave the orchid in the plastic sleeve till the orchid finishes blooming or it will go in shock and to transplant it in orchid soil later is that wrong?
Also what kind of soil do you use, the orchid soil sold at Home Depot and or orchid bark? Do you use the orchid pots with the holes in the base or is it OK to use a regular pot, see this is why I don't buy them often too many things to worry about. While Cactus is not beautiful it is easy as pie to grow and you can take cuttings easily to grow more and it thrives more from neglect you can kill it with kindness LOL.