PRIMA DONNA SEEKS YOUR UNDERSTANDING

By LADYBUG

Much like people who profess to tell the future by gazing into crystal balls or reading tarot cards, palms of clients or tea leaves, gardeners are always “reading” leaves.

For signs of disease, and sometimes for the chances of the very survival of a plant.

I’ve been doing a lot of it lately with my orchids.

Orchids are weird and wonderful. They come in gorgeous colours, lending an exotic touch to any room you place a plant in. 

They also bloom forever, but it can be maddeningly difficult to get them to perform again  – at least that’s been my experience.

Not for lack of trying. I have brought many home, convinced that this time I would succeed when the last so many attempts were consigned to the compost heap. Alas, to no avail.

I was somewhat comforted to hear them described as prima donnas, but then the same article went on to add that taking care of them was actually pretty simple.

As I walked to the compost heap with yet another limp, flowerless plant, I vowed to avoid the misery.

I sent that message out to my sons who come home bearing plants as gifts. No. More. Orchids.

Not one to take his mother seriously, one son showed up last Mother’s Day with not one but two potted orchids.

“Mom, you can make anything grow,” he said, by way of persuasion.

Thus challenged, I had to try again. It’s been over six months and they’re still going strong.

So what changed? What am I doing differently? Apart from praying over them more fervently?

Well, for one thing, I water less frequently. Way less frequently. Having read that they’re not happy in overly damp soil, I am following the recommended less water, less frequently prescription. Though it’s kind of counter intuitive, if you think about it, seeing as how orchids grow wild in jungles in the tropics. Doesn’t get more wet than that.

But Gardening Knowhow insists that “orchids are not thirsty plants, and generally like their growing medium to dry out between waterings” and it seems to work, so I am not messing with that. They prefer tepid water – as cold water can shock the plant.

From the same source I gleaned valuable tips on ideal light conditions for orchids and even how to read the leaves to see if they were happy in the light I had placed them in or needed more or less.

Orchids need repotting once every other year. So I am good for some months – if I can keep them alive until then.

There are tips on propagating orchids, too, and I am excited to try those.

Looking at the luminous blooms in winter fills my heart with happiness and I think it may be time to relax my no more orchids rule.