You have to tell the posters here where you are because the Climate is an important factor.

Where you are and also where you have the plants, inside? Outside? etc. etc.

Thanks for responding. I am on the Texas coast near Corpus Christi - zone 9a. They are in pots outside - climate is very humid; I am 100 ft. from the water and windy but I can & do protect from the wind. I have a shade house where they are now. Just can't seem to get them to bloom.....?

The problem might be your climate. Cymbidium heaven might be somewhere on the west coast of the USA where there is a nice cold Ocean to provide cooling at night in summer.

Many need average night temps in summer not above 20C to "decide" to flower late Autumn, Winter or Spring.

There are some so-called Warmth Tolerant Cymbidiums developed in Florida to get past this problem. Cymbidium Golden Elf is one example.

Too much shading can also be a problem, They only need light shading to protect from the worst of the summer sun. Deep shade can result in nil blooms.

Thanks. I think too much shade is a major part of the problem, so I'll change that. I'm also lax about fertilizing and might try a little Super Bloom or something similar.

copanolady, Lets start with basics, We need to know what kind of Cym. you have. There are two basic types when it comes to making them bloom.

#1..... "Standards".....Large plants, a well grown mature plant in a pot can have leaves between 4 &6 feet (measured from the ground to the extended leaf tips). a standards' mature pseudobulbs would approach the size of a softball.

#2......"Miniatures"...Much smaller plants, total height of plant would be under 4 feet, and the mature pseudobulbs would be fist size or smaller.

Both types of Cyms. can be, and are grown as landscape plants in areas where winter frosts are minimal. (southern California for instance) Both types of plants do tolerate occasional frosty temps well.

Cymbidiums need to be grown "hard". Lots of light, lightly shaded midday sun, and full sun morning and afternoon. The plants need to display a rusty green color, not a shiny green lush color (indicating lots of sun). Feed them lots of 30-10-10 fert. when they are growing, and as the bulbs reach maturity, cut the Nitrogen off. 10-10-10, or even 0-10-10, or similar.

Cymbidiums are not picky about what type soil/mix you grow them in, so long as it drains well, and they want lots of water when growing.

Now for the trick. The standards require a significant drop in temp at night during the fall/early winter to set blooms. no drop, no blooms! This drop can include some light frost, but must be into the mid 30's,- low 40's.....no drop, no blooms.

Now for the good news......The miniatures are much the same, except generally they do not require the radical drop in temp at night to bloom. Grow them hard, cut the Nitrogen off at maturity, and leave them out during the fall/winter and they will bloom. (if you only get occasional or no frost, perhaps leave them out all winter until they bloom, then take them inside and enjoy.

I gather from one of your posts that you may be near salt water.......Protect them from salt mist if you have it.....they won't like that.

I'm guessing now, but I suspect you probably have a miniature....I don't know where your friends got the plants, but I would hope that any reputable nursery/greenhouse would not sell standards in an area where they almost surely would not rebloom. And, a couple of standards would generally be a right sizeable gift...☺ if you know what I mean... But again, that's just my guess/hope, and I have been known to live my dreams occasionally.

One more thing to remember, there are no "chiseled in stone" rules when growing orchids......I'll tell you something, others will tell you something a bit different.....neither are wrong....neither have to be correct......You need to be able to read between the lines and generally follow what we are saying to the best you can, and hope for the best.....the plants will generally respond if you come close.

Bill

If you go to the University of Google and look up weather, you will see why Santa Barbara might be a Cymbidium paradise while Corpus Christi is not.

Here, Cymbidiums are garden plants and there is even an orchid society where the only orchids benched are Cymbidiums. There are guys (and a few gals) who have yards full of Cymbidiums.

Go north from Sydney, Australia and other Genera replace Cymbidiums as the dominant Genera in collections. The defining factor is the average minimum temperatures in Summer which should not be above 20C.

Sure you need that temperature drop through Autumn to Winter.... and there are Cymbidiums you can grow that are "wamth tolerant" such as many hybrids developed in Florida and hybrids developed using the three Australian Native Cymbidiums.