By Deanne Burch
I have been raising orchids for years. Almost twelve years ago, I moved into a condominium which had the perfect window for growing orchids. I watched them bloom and then rebloom months later. This brought me a lot of joy when I was going through a difficult period of my life.
A year after I moved to my condo, I had the screened in porch (adjacent to the basement) glassed in; this was to be used as my art room. The room was on ground level and light poured in through windows, perfect for raising plants; this became my hospital for orchids that were not blooming and sometimes looked as though they were dying.
One day, last fall, I noticed an orchid that looked strange. The leaves were shriveled and the plant was just plain ugly. Nevertheless, I kept it on the main floor watching what was going to happen. What happened next was not a surprise; it kept getting uglier with roots protruding into the air. I was on the verge of throwing it out. In fact, my son in law, who is an avid orchid grower, told me I should. I decided to persevere and took it to the hospital area of the house.
The orchid was watered whenever I felt like it — probably about every 10 days. Perhaps because of my benign neglect, I started to notice a difference. The roots were still growing upwards but suddenly I thought that some of the roots looked more like the beginning of buds. As time went on this winter, the buds grew larger.
I was excited to see this change in a plant that I thought was dying. What color were these buds going to blossom into? Or would the buds shrivel and die before the orchid actually bloomed?
I started treating my ugly duckling with loving care and three weeks ago I was rewarded for my perseverance. The blossoms were exploding with color and there were two shoots full of buds.
I don’t know what is going to happen when the blossoms die off. For now, I love going to my art room and looking at my orchid. Some might say this is to be the swan song of this plant. I am patient waiting to find out, hoping it will bloom year after year. Now it joins the other orchids that are blooming in my “hospital” area. It is, at this point, in time no longer a sick bay but a place to watch plants grow and thrive.
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