How to Grow Nun Orchid From Bulbs in India: The Complete Guide (The Easiest Ground Orchid You'll Ever Own)

Most people give up on orchids after one attempt.

They bring home a beautiful flowering plant in a pot of bark chips, water it like a normal plant, and watch it slowly decline over four months. The conclusion is always the same: orchids are not for me.

Here's what nobody tells them. That failure wasn't about skill — it was about type. Most orchids sold in India are epiphytes: plants that grow on tree bark in the wild, with roots that need air more than soil. Treat them like a hibiscus and they rot.

The Nun orchid is different, and that difference is why it deserves to be far more common in Indian gardens than it is.

Phaius tankervilleae — the Nun orchid, or Nun's Cap orchid — is a terrestrial orchid. It grows in the ground. It has broad, pleated leaves like a young banana plant, and it sends up a spike of large, dramatic flowers that can carry a dozen or more blooms — chocolate-brown and maroon inside, pale outside, with a trumpet-shaped lip that gives the flower its nun's-hood name.

And crucially: it grows in a pot of soil-based ground orchid mix, in shade, watered like a normal plant. If you can grow a peace lily, you can grow this.

Let me walk you through it properly.

Why the Nun Orchid Suits Indian Gardens So Well

This isn't an imported exotic struggling in a foreign climate. Phaius is native across tropical and subtropical Asia, including India, and it is genuinely at home here.

• It wants shade, not sun — which makes it perfect for the shaded verandas, balcony corners, and north-facing spaces where most flowering plants disappoint.
• It tolerates our humidity — the monsoon that ruins so many plants is the season this orchid grows hardest in.
• It's a substantial plant — mature clumps reach 3–4 feet with lush pleated foliage, so it looks good even between bloom cycles, unlike bare-stemmed epiphytic orchids.
• The flower spikes are extraordinary — up to 3 feet tall, carrying many long-lasting blooms, sometimes fragrant in the morning.
• It multiplies — a single plant becomes a clump over a few years, and can be divided.

The one thing it truly refuses is direct afternoon sun. Everything else is negotiable.

Step 1: The Potting Mix — Ground Orchid Mix, Not Bark

This is the entire secret, and it's where most people go wrong by treating Phaius like a Phalaenopsis.

Do not use pure bark or epiphytic orchid mix. Chunky bark holds too little moisture and gives terrestrial roots nothing to anchor into. The plant will slowly starve.

Do not use plain garden soil or regular potting soil either. It compacts, holds water around the pseudobulbs, and causes rot.

Use a ground orchid potting mix — a blend built to hold moisture and drain fast, with enough structure that roots get air. A good terrestrial orchid mix will typically be built from ingredients along these lines:

• Organic matter for moisture and nutrition — well-rotted leaf mould, compost, or coco chips
• Coarse structure so it never compacts — fine bark, charcoal, or coconut husk chips
• Drainage material — coarse sand, perlite, or fine gravel
• A mineral component for weight and root grip

The test of a good mix: squeeze a damp handful. It should hold together loosely, then break apart when poked — never form a dense ball, never fall through your fingers like sand.

If you're buying rather than blending, a ready-made ground orchid mix saves you the guesswork and is calibrated for exactly this kind of terrestrial orchid. Use it as-is; no need to amend.

Step 2: Choosing the Pot

• Size: Start with an 8–10 inch pot for a single plant. Mature clumps do well in 12–14 inch pots. Don't over-pot — excess wet mix around a small root system invites rot.
• Material: Terracotta is excellent because it breathes and dries evenly. Plastic works if you water more conservatively.
• Drainage: Multiple large drainage holes, non-negotiable. Add a 1-inch layer of gravel or broken terracotta at the base.
• Never place the pot in a water-filled saucer.

Step 3: Planting — Keep the Pseudobulbs High

The Nun orchid grows from pseudobulbs — swollen, cone-shaped storage bulbs sitting at soil level, with roots below and leaves above. How deep you set them decides whether the plant thrives or rots.

1. Fill the pot two-thirds with ground orchid mix.
2. Position the plant so the base of the pseudobulb sits at or just above the mix surface — roots buried, bulbs exposed. Burying the pseudobulbs is the number one cause of failure.
3. Fill around the roots, firming gently. Don't compact it hard.
4. Leave 1 inch of space below the rim for watering.
5. Water thoroughly once, then move the pot into shade and leave it alone for a few days.

Best time to plant or repot in India: late winter to early spring (February–March), just as new growth begins, or immediately after flowering finishes. Monsoon planting also works well in most of the country.

Step 4: Light — Bright Shade Is the Sweet Spot

Think of the floor of a forest: bright, but never with sun striking the leaves directly.

• Ideal: bright indirect light, or dappled shade under a tree. A covered veranda or an east-facing balcony that gets gentle morning sun only.
• Acceptable: filtered light through a shade net (50–70% shade cloth is what growers typically use).
• Avoid: direct afternoon sun. Leaves scorch into brown patches and yellow quickly.
• Too dark: deep shade gives you lush leaves and no flower spikes.

Reading your plant: rich medium-green leaves mean the light is right. Dark, floppy, oversized leaves mean too little light. Pale yellow-green or bleached patches mean too much.

Step 5: Watering — Like a Normal Plant, Not Like an Orchid

This is the freedom the Nun orchid gives you. It is not a bark-dwelling orchid that wants to dry out completely.

• Keep the mix consistently moist during active growth (spring through monsoon), but never soggy.
• The finger test: push a finger 1–2 inches into the mix. Water when the top feels dry; wait if it's still damp.
• Water at the base, not over the crown. Water sitting in the leaf crown or between new growths causes rot — especially in humid weather.
• Water thoroughly until it runs out the drainage holes, then let it drain completely.
• Reduce watering in winter, when growth slows. Let the mix dry more between waterings.

In peak Indian summer you may water every 2–3 days; in winter, once a week may be plenty. Let the plant and the pot tell you, not the calendar.

Step 6: Humidity and Temperature

• Humidity: loves 50–70%. Most of India delivers this naturally for much of the year. In dry North Indian summers, group plants together or set the pot on a tray of moist pebbles (pot resting on the pebbles, not in the water).
• Temperature: comfortable in 18–32°C. Handles Indian heat well in shade with adequate moisture.
• Cool season: tolerates cool nights but protect from frost in North India — move pots to a sheltered veranda in December–January.
• Airflow matters. Stagnant humid air invites fungal spots. A gently breezy shaded spot beats a still, closed corner.

Step 7: Feeding for Strong Flower Spikes

Nun orchids are heavier feeders than epiphytic orchids because they draw nutrients from the mix.

• During active growth (spring–monsoon): a balanced liquid orchid fertiliser at half the recommended strength, every 2 weeks.
• Before flowering (late autumn): switch to a bloom-booster formula higher in phosphorus to encourage spike formation.
• Winter: reduce or stop feeding while growth is dormant.
• Every couple of months, water heavily with plain water to flush accumulated salts from the mix.

The golden rule with orchids: weakly, weekly. Diluted feed often beats a strong dose occasionally — full-strength fertiliser burns orchid roots easily.

Step 8: Flowering — What to Expect and When

• Bloom season in India: typically late winter into spring, around February to April, though timing shifts with climate and care.
• The spike emerges from the base of a mature pseudobulb and can rise 2–3 feet, carrying many flowers that open in sequence over several weeks.
• Flower colour: classically brown-maroon inside with a paler cream or white reverse, and a trumpet-shaped lip; the species has produced a range of cultivated colour forms.
• After flowering: cut the spent spike near the base with a clean, sterilised blade. This is also the ideal moment to repot or divide.

If your Nun orchid isn't flowering, run down this list in order: too little light (most common), too much nitrogen and not enough phosphorus, a plant not yet mature enough (young divisions may need a season or two), or root disturbance too soon after repotting.

Step 9: Repotting and Multiplying Your Plant

Repot every 2–3 years, or when the clump fills the pot, the mix breaks down and stays soggy, or growth visibly slows.

To divide:

1. Do it right after flowering, in early spring.
2. Slide the clump out and loosen the old mix from the roots.
3. Separate into sections, keeping at least 3–4 pseudobulbs per division — smaller divisions survive but take much longer to flower.
4. Dust any cut surfaces with cinnamon powder or a fungicide and let them dry an hour.
5. Repot into fresh ground orchid mix, water once, then keep in shade with reduced watering for 2 weeks while roots recover.

Phaius also produces plantlets, called keikis, on old flower spikes in some conditions — an easy free plant if it happens to you.

Common Problems and Quick Fixes

Yellowing lower leaves — Normal ageing of old growths if it's one or two leaves at the bottom. Widespread yellowing means overwatering or poor drainage.

Brown or black soft rot at the base — Water sitting in the crown, or buried pseudobulbs. Remove affected tissue with a sterile blade, treat with fungicide, repot higher in fresh mix.

Black spots on leaves — Fungal or bacterial spotting, usually from stagnant humid air. Improve airflow, avoid wetting foliage in the evening, remove affected leaves.

Brown, crispy leaf edges — Sunburn, or salt buildup from fertiliser. Move to deeper shade and flush the mix with plain water.

Leaves lush but no flowers — Almost always insufficient light, or too much nitrogen fertiliser.

Mealybugs or scale — Wipe leaves with a cloth dipped in mild soapy water; treat with neem oil for persistent cases.

The Orchid Worth Starting With

If an orchid has defeated you before, this is the one to come back with.

The Nun orchid asks for a shaded corner, the right mix, and water when the top of the pot dries. In return, it builds a clump of broad pleated leaves that look good all year, and once a season it sends up a spike so tall and so heavily flowered that visitors assume you've been growing orchids for a decade.

You'll have simply given a ground orchid what it always wanted: ground.

Explore our orchid collection and ready-to-use ground orchid potting mix —  and start planting your first Nun orchid this season.