The orchid file

• The honest review
• The see-through pot: watering by root colour (silver = thirsty, green = fine)
• Bark, not soil
• How she dies: five failure modes + a rescue clock
• Why she drops her flowers
• The rebloom protocol: light, the cold-night cue, and where to cut the spike
• The ice-cube myth, answered by the actual 2017 study (verdict: surprisingly true)
• The supermarket rescue + the keiki surprise (a free second orchid)

I'm not a botanist, and I don't have 150 plants — I keep a windowsill's worth, and I've killed a few learning how (a Calathea in eleven days is how this whole thing started). When something goes wrong I go down the rabbit hole: the studies, the extension-horticulture pages, the 2am forum threads, and every horror story plant people send in on @leafjournal on TikTok. These guides are that mix — hands-on experience checked against the research, cleaned up and told straight. No lab, no sponsorships, no “trust me.” Just what actually keeps a plant alive, so yours isn't the one that learns it the hard way.