Orchids are supposed to be really easy to grow. You put them in their special potting mix, sprinkle some 'herbs and spices' on top, say a few encouraging words and stand back to let it all happen. When it doesn't, you wonder what you've done wrong.
Well, mine were telling me they didn't like their situation at all. They didn't care that they overlooked a water view many would pay a fortune to possess, they weren't at all fussed with their palm tree habitat, and were frankly unimpressed with the colourful lorikeets screeching in the trees or the large floppy butterflies loping from flower to flower.
They were exceedingly annoyed with the bright hot sunshine from cloudless summer skies. They curled their leaves and cried 'ouch' as the heat burnt their extremities. They gave me an ultimatum - shift us or we'll turn up our toes completely.
But where? When you live in a small townhouse with a postage stamp deck, even if it does look over the riffled waters of a Gold Coast lake, there isn't much room to do much in the way of agriculture.
So we went to the department store and bought the biggest white umbrella we could find. It's like a canopy and stands there on guard, sheltering the orchids - and a fold-up chair where I can sit and watch the ducks on the lake and kayakers out for some exercise and water birds and butterflies and...
...And read and nod off. And there's a new flower on one of the orchids.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
I was in Hawaii one year and sent my mother an orchid for Mother's Day. It immediately developed some sort of illness in transit, and she had to get on AOL and go into orchid chat rooms and buy special food to save it.
Glad to hear the umbrella is working. Some of them prefer the shade.
Post a Comment