So Many Dishes

When I took the master gardener course, we had a lecture about raising orchids. Growing orchids is very popular locally; I’ve posted pictures of orchids in the trees that we’ve seen on our walks. The woman who spoke to us gave each of us a piece of a phalaenopsis orchid to take home. But I knew that I didn’t have any of the things I’d need to mount it in a tree. I simply stuck it in between stems of an old, relatively neglected potted palm on our patio and promptly forgot about it.

When I finally got around to looking at the orchid weeks later, I saw that it was growing very nicely. I told the extension agent who ran the master gardener program about it, and her response was, “orchids benefit from benign neglect.” Well, that’s a perfect description of my gardening philosophy!

The plant blooms on a very erratic schedule. It seems to me that it’s been every other year that I’ve seen it flower, but I’ve never documented it. I don’t pay much attention; the palm is on the portion of the patio that extends beyond the roof, so I don’t have to bother to water it. We had a strong thunderstorm Tuesday night, however, and I noticed in the morning that the wind had blown the pot on its side. As I set it upright, I saw the flower buds. This morning, when I checked, they had begun to open. No question what I wanted to share today!