Leopard Print Bee: Folksy Friday- Orchid Care

When I lived at home, my mum had (well, still has to be frank) what can only be called an addiction; orchids. She has around 30 in her conservatory and being entirely honest I just thought she was going a bit mad. Yes, they are beautiful when they flower. Yes, they do flower for long periods of time. But the rest of the year they’re some mildly ugly leaves and a couple of twigs. No attraction there!

But the second I moved out, my inner domestic side flared! I say flared, it was like Blackpool illuminations. I did not give two hoots we were in a flat; we were going to be growing our own food! So I left B&Q armed to the gills with pots and seeds and plants and all sorts! We had rosemary and basil and mint and sage and tomatoes and pea pods and roses and daisies! And yes, even an orchid!

But systematically, it’s just all fallen apart. The tomatoes and peas were looking hopeful in the office! We had one ripe tomato and a few pea pods, and then I noticed the spiders. OK they were the size of pinheads, but there were (no lie) thousands of them! So they went straight to my parents. (we did eat a few pea pods and a single tomato though, and they were lovely!)

The rosemary was overtaking the kitchen window ledge. The sage was dying. Can’t possibly kill mint, can you not? Yes you can. Then the roses got the spiders; straight to my mother in law's! (Not really “mother in law” but close enough for jazz!)

So now we’re down to a Venus fly trap (not mine….) a basil plant (we have to regularly replace. We did have a long-lasting basil plant but it got about two feet high, then suddenly died….) and some orchids.

Yes! I caved! We have 8! Two are still flowering from November 2009 (!) when we moved in.

The strangest is this hanging triffid thing which is hideous, I agree, but when it flowers it gets massive purpley-blue flowers for around 8 weeks and it’s stunning :]

But this morning, while trying to care for one, that’s been growing buds for weeks and weeks, I snapped it. :[ clean off.

That’s said orchid, that should have buds. (Ignore the dying daffodils to the right and then enormous thing that I have no idea what it is, to the left. Both presents.)