How to Grow and Care for Vanda Orchids

In our orchids 101 guide, we provide an overview of how to care for species in the highly diverse Orchidaceae family.

This guide discusses all things vanda orchids and how to care for them, so you too can enjoy the magnificent flowers.

Here’s what I’ll cover:

Botanical classifications can be confusing and convoluted at the best of times, but orchids are especially challenging.

Plants in the Orchidaceae family have gone through big reshuffling over the years and continue to do so.

The Vanda alliance, as it is known, includes 80 genera with 1,550 species and countless cultivars and hybrids. These are sometimes called “vandaceous.”

All vandas are epiphytes or lithophytes, which means that they grow on trees or rocks rather than in the soil.

They don’t draw nutrients from the plant they’re growing on, they simply use it as a support to help reach the light and nutrients that filter down from the canopy.

Vandas are monopodial, with leaves and flowers emerging from a single stem.

The flowers can be white, yellow, pink, red, purple, and more, in solid colors or with freckles, speckles, spots, and splotches. Some are fragrant, others aren’t, depending on the species.

Vanda orchids grow natively throughout tropical Asia, from warm, coastal regions to cooler mountain forests.

How to Grow

Most vandas need to be grown outdoors in an appropriate climate or in a greenhouse.

They are large plants, growing up to three feet tall and two feet wide that need lots of light and humidity.

Many of the hybrids and those formerly classified in the Ascocentrum and Neofinetia genera are happy in the conditions of the average home.

Most classic vandas are warm-weather lovers and need high humidity and lots of direct sunlight.

However, there are a few that grow in the highlands that prefer cooler weather and lower humidity, with a bit less sun.

Many of these have been reclassified as Papilionanthe, which is part of the Vanda alliance, but no longer considered a Vanda species.

Those with more broad, strappy leaves usually thrive in cooler, shadier conditions.

Light

Generally, provide bright, indirect light all day or, even better, direct morning sunlight with bright, indirect light the rest of the day.

Warm weather types do best with just a bit more sun than that, but be sure to protect them during the afternoon heat.

Better yet, take them outside and place them in all-day dappled sunlight. If you are using a light meter, aim for about 4,000 foot candles of light.

If you can’t provide this in your home, consider using grow lights.

Receiving enough sun is absolutely key for flower production. If you aren’t seeing good flower growth, the first thing to do is try exposing your plant to more light.

You should always increase light gradually.

Growing Medium

Remember that these plants are typically epiphytes, which means they don’t grow in the soil.

They grow attached to a tree with moss covering the roots. Our goal is to give them similar conditions without actually attaching them to wood, though you can do that, too.

There are lots of good commercial orchid-growing substrates on the market. Most of these are a mixture of fir bark, moss, and perlite.

Some might contain added goodies like coconut coir, lava rock, or charcoal.

You could even make your own potting mix by combining four parts medium textured bark, one part perlite, and one part sphagnum moss.

I’ve had good success with Better-Gro Special Orchid Mix, which contains bark, charcoal, and perlite.

Better-Gro Special Orchid Mix

You can find it at Amazon in four-quart bags if you’d like to give it a try. All of my epiphytes seem to thrive in it, from orchids to staghorn ferns.

If you decide to mount the plant, no potting medium is necessary, but you’ll want to cover the roots in sphagnum moss.

Water

Regardless of the type of medium you choose, the substrate needs to be kept consistently moist at all times.

It shouldn’t be soggy, however. For terete types, allow the substrate to just dry out between watering.

Our guide to watering orchids has more details.

Humidity

Humidity is the other part of successfully growing vandas. The humidity around them should be at least 65 percent, with 80 percent being preferable.

Most homes aren’t anywhere near this, and growing your plant on a pebble tray or in a bathroom isn’t going to cut it. You’re probably going to need to use a humidifier.

Or, you can open a window provided it doesn’t expose the vanda to drafts.

Temperature

Temperatures during the day should be around 70 to 85°F, and about 10 degrees colder at night.

This variation from day to nighttime temperatures is another key to good flowering.

Fertilizing

Fertilize once a month using a mild, balanced fertilizer with an NPK ratio of 2-2-2 or 4-4-4.

Don’t feed at all during the winter. You can either apply the food as a foliar fertilizer or place pellets in the medium.

Check out our guide to fertilizing orchids.

Cultivars to Select

There are a lot of hybrids and cultivars out there, but vanda orchids are, in general, hard to find.

You’ll need to see if there are any nurseries in your area that carry these plants or look to specialty stores.

Some of my favorites include:

Brighton Sunset

‘Brighton Sunset’ is a gorgeous hybrid of Vanda ‘Fuchs Sunset’ and V. ‘Doctor Anek’ with bright fuchsia flowers dotted in magenta.

It’s a heavy bloomer that will add color all summer long.

Pachara Delight

‘Pachara Delight’ is the perfect option for those who love dark flowers.

This one is a hybrid cross between Vanda ‘Karulea’ and V. ‘Gordon Dillon’ and has deep indigo flowers and a nearly black lip.

It’s a reliable rebloomer and can flower up to three times each year.

It’s also a sturdy, adaptable option, which is what makes it popular for first timers.

Xena

‘Xena’ made a big splash when it was registered in 2008 by nursery R. F. Orchids in Florida.

A cross between V. ‘Mem. Thianchai’ and V. tessellata, it sports big yellow flowers with pale orange freckles.

They’re a feast for the eyes, but more than that, they’re incredibly fragrant without being overwhelming.

Maintenance

Wipe the leaves of your vanda orchid with a damp cloth once a month.

Vandas are capable of flowering repeatedly, but not if you leave the spent flower spikes in place. After the flowers fall off the plant, the spike starts to dry up.

Snip it off close to the stem, being careful not to damage the leaves.

Don’t snip off the aerial roots. Some species produce lots of aerial roots and gardeners may be tempted to clean up the look of the plant by removing them.

These aerial roots help the orchid photosynthesize, take in nutrients, and absorb moisture – basically they act a bit like leaves.

Repotting

You don’t need to repot vanda orchids too often, but you will need to refresh the substrate every few years as it breaks down and becomes compressed.

If the roots are growing out of the top of the pot, out of the drainage holes, and they seem packed really tight in the bark, it’s probably time to move up a size.

Wipe out the pot or grab a container one size up and hold the roots inside it. Fill in around them with orchid bark.

Learn more about repotting orchids here.

Propagation

As monopodial orchids, you have several options for propagation.

While it’s possible to propagate vandas from seed, it’s a challenging activity and requires special equipment and a lot of time.

Otherwise, you can remove and plant the offshoots, which are known as keikis. Or, you can cut the stem, plant the top half, and propagate the offshoots of the lower half.

Learn more about your options for orchid propagation here.

Managing Pests and Disease

Generally, if you take care of your plants properly, then you’ll rarely bump into issues.

Pests

Always, always check any plants you buy before bringing them home to make sure that they aren’t carrying any hitchhikers.

You don’t want to bring in pests and then spend the next year trying to get rid of them. Not that I speak from experience or anything.

Scale insects are the big baddies of indoor orchids. If you encounter anything pest-related, it’s highly likely it will be scale.

Most are light to dark brown or sometimes gray or yellow, with oval, nearly flat bodies.

They latch onto the plant and don’t move, so they can look a lot like some kind of lump or symptoms of a disease.

As they feed, they turn the plant yellow and cause stunted growth.

Scrape them off with a butter knife and check the plant once a week until you go several weeks without any sightings. Instead of scraping, you can also wipe off the insects with isopropyl alcohol.

Less often, you’ll see aphids and spider mites, so be sure to keep an eye out for those as well.

Our guide to 13 common orchid pests has more information.

Disease

Crown rot can attack any orchid, though vandas aren’t particularly susceptible.

Still, learn about how to identify and address crown rot here so you don’t lose a plant to this common issue.

Black Rot

Black rot is easily identifiable by the large black areas that it causes on the leaves of many types of orchids.

Eventually, the entire leaf might turn black and die. It can also attack the pseudobulbs.

Typically, the rot starts as yellow areas followed by black spots. If you press on the spots, they’ll often crack open and ooze soggy, stinky material.

The disease is caused by the water molds (oomycetes) Pythium ultimum and Phytophthora cactorum, which can also cause damping off in young seedlings.

The pathogens are spread in water, so maintaining good airflow, watering at the roots and not on the leaves, and wiping off any water droplets on the foliage can help.

Even the best prevention techniques aren’t foolproof, so if your plant becomes symptomatic, you’ll need to use a sterile knife to cut off any rotten leaves or pseudobulbs.

Then, grab a biofungicide and saturate all parts of the plant once a month. I like to use a product that contains Bacillus amyloliquefaciens strain D747, but copper works well, too.

Monterey Complete Disease Control

Monterey’s Complete Disease Control contains this beneficial bacteria, and it is available at Arbico Organics in 32-ounce ready-to-use, or eight, pint, or gallon concentrate.

Leaf Spot

There are several pathogens that cause spots on the leaves of orchids. The most troublesome is Phyllosticta leaf spot.

If you see symptoms, remove dying leaves and spray your plant every month with a rose spray that contains triforine.

Get Ready to Fall in Love

Orchids tend to turn perfectly chill gardeners into fanatics, and it seems like vandas are often the types that take people from growing a grocery store specimen to obsessing over all the tiny details.

They’re just such captivating plants, even for orchids, which are already pretty impressive.

Are you growing vanda orchids? Let us know if you have any tips to share or even a picture of your specimen in the comments section below!

And to learn more about the fascinating world of orchids, add these guides to your reading list next: