Beyond Corsages

I was having such a good time in my art studio this morning that I didn’t want to leave so I’m running a bit late in posting today.

When I was a child I thought that the orchid corsages that all the ladies loved to wear for Mother’s Day and weddings were ugly. I couldn’t imagine why anyone would like yellow green or brownish pink flowers. Now that I’ve gotten to know some of the vast orchid family (the largest genus of flowers on earth), I’m smitten by them. From the yellow green and, brownish pink cymbidiums to the floaty white and fuchsia phalaenopsis or moth orchid, I can’t get enough. I love to paint them—especially the wildly colorful ruffled cattleyas in orange, magenta, red, photographing them at a local university greenhouse.

I attempt growing phalaenopsis—with hope, and I do well with growing their leaves once the flowers are spent. Alas, it’s orchid bloom season but my phalaenopsis isn’t blooming though it did make a new plant. I’m afraid to separate the two but maybe one day I will; I keep hoping the new one will bloom though if it did the flower stalk would come out upside-down. Maybe I can find some fertilizer* that’s not too chemically.

*My botany professor also insisted that, “fertilizer is not plant food—it’s fertilizer!”