Orchids

So, this is the time of year when gardeners turn indoors. It is also the time of year that my mother's orchids seem to love. She first started with some moth orchids prior to the "Sweet Sixteen Move" to CT. I remember, because my dad took them up early and kept them in his office. That was the first time they rebloomed and my mom missed it. I'm not sure if she still has those particular plants.

She, like many people, saw them in the grocery store severely marked down and took them home. I think she was looking for something more hardy, for her, than African Violets. She really only has luck with phals. My uncle got her a different type one time, and while the plant itself is barely hanging on, it hasn't rebloomed.

Oh, she's had her fair share of losses. And there were a few that are in perpetual states of dying. But the hardiest ones seem to be the ones I've bought for her. (Aside from that pesky white one.) And the interesting thing is, that the ones I had bought for her were from Home Depot and the like. Why is this important? Because they were all yellow ones. Yellow is my favorite color, and I got her yellow ones. Although, that was more because I knew she wouldn't buy yellow ones and I could never remember which pink ones she had. We have a running joke that the yellow cultivars are just come from a more hardy parent.

Her orchids love winter. She keeps them in the front window where they get the best sunlight. And the winter chill through the window. But they seem to adore the cold. Even if they couldn't survive on the other side of the window. She had several flower stalks starting to come up at Christmas. Including the two most recent ones that had to get a little more growing time in before flowering. She's at the point where she only gets replacements if she loses one. That's a lot of orchids to water!