Sunday, February 15, 2009

Orchid Love

I went out of my way this year to make sure my husband was not going to spend a ridiculous amount of money on roses again this year. I told him that any type of plant that grows in dirt, and is still alive when you purchase it is fine - I don't need roses - I don't even particularly like roses.

So yesterday he comes home with this beautiful orchid. I love orchids - they are one of my favourite flowers - but my record keeping plants alive inside my house lately has been rather dismal. I have a graveyard of dead plants on my back porch - of things I have killed this winter: a spider plant (who can't keep a spider plant alive?), Pepperomia, A Poinsettia, A Martha Washington Geranium I was trying to overwinter, and something else - but I can't even remember what it even was.

So now, with a record as a terrible plant-mother I have to try and keep this beautiful plant alive. And, I don't even really know how to water it. I predict it will be dead by June. Sigh.

5 comments:

Sunita Mohan said...

What a gorgeous Phalaenopsis! (no, I'm not swearing at you ... thats just the impossibly ugh!-sounding name that this beautiful plant is burdened with).
Now that you know what its called, you can easily search all over the internet for its growing requirements, etc.
By the way, the Orchid forum at Gardenweb is a great place to find help.

breannep said...

I kind or like the name Phalaenopsis - they only reason I didn't include it in the post was because I didn't think I could spell it...ha ha...I have looked up its growing requirements... and the one thing I can't provide it with right now is high humidity... my region is never humid... either hot and dry or cold and dry...

breannep said...

thanks for the tip on the orchid forum - I will be sure to look that up!

Anonymous said...

The orchid looks stunning. It makes such a focal point in the room.
I had to laugh about the spider plant. My spider plant fell 2 m (6 feet) off of a shelf onto the floor, and the soil scattered around. I scraped what dirt I could off the floor and stuck the plant back on top, partly suspended, meaning to repot it later. Well 5 months later I hadn't repotted it yet, and it started to bloom and sent out a new plantlet, all while half suspended above the scraped up soil. I felt especially guilty about its bad treatment when it was trying so hard to be a good sport. It is now repotted and looks exactly the same.

Melanie said...

I'm a little late commenting, but i can't keep spiderplants alive to save my life, even when I manage to keep the cats from getting at them! You certainly aren't alone there.