Orchiditis

Last Christmas, Chris and Leane gave me an orchid. Pink and cream, it was. I'd never kept an orchid before. My house plants tend to be leafy green confections. Things with flowers tend to die on me. I take green and leafy plants to school for my classroom. The students don't quite get why I want to be surrounded by plants. I've tried explaining the whole removing-toxins-from-the-air theory and the fact it's nice to see greenery around the place, but the closest they get to understanding my appreciation is the fact I'm vegetarian so clearly I must nibble on them occasionally. They don't understand the vegetarian thing either. Or my aversion to the X Factor/ soap operas/ Macdonalds/ mobile phones.

Anyway, back to the orchid. It was very easy to maintain. Dunk it in water occasionally. Keep it out of draughts. The flower stem bloomed until April. Then the flowers fell off. Nothing much happened for a couple of months. Ah well, thought I. It was good whilst it lasted.

And then a pair of new leaves sprouted. And, what's this? A new flower stem? No! Three new flower stems!! One grew very quickly and has a curve of flowers on it, longer and larger than the first flower stem. And in the last two weeks, the other two flower stems have begun a growth spurt and I think they will be all a-flower by Christmas.

I think I may like orchids. I went and bought another one last week-end in a deep, plum colour, with a little yellow eye winking from the centre.

Good things about orchids:

1) they seem easy to keep

2) they seem difficult to kill

3) the cats leave them alone

4) they look lovely in any setting

5) they have nice fat leaves

6) they come in many different colours

I'm going to get another one this week-end. I'm going to find out more about orchids. Maybe orchids could take my mind off saying good-bye to the allotment.