Down the Rabbit hole: Your very first orchid

Many of us are gifted our first orchid. Or maybe we buy a Phalaenopsis from the grocery store on a whim during checkout. In either case, we’re not really in it for commitment, and we are usually only drawn in by the appeal of big showy flowers for longer than they would last in a cut vase, maybe a few weeks if we’re lucky. A single orchid can really class up our home / apartment / loft / student basement suite. So why not?

We don’t really expect the orchid to live past a few weeks or maybe months. We’ve heard they’re kind of fussy. Or really fussy.  Or maybe we have a bit of a brown thumb, and are prone to killing any plant. Either way, once it’s done blooming, it’s probably a goner.

But then something odd happens. Every once in a while we try to remember to water it, certainly we can’t do it every day, but every once in a while is okay. And then it surprises us by surviving. And then maybe it doesn’t just survive, then maybe it does something crazy like bloom again the next year. It sticks around.

Flowering twice? How lucky!

Then it sets in on us that orchids are actually very good friends. Really they are in it for the long haul and don’t judge us on our Netflix guilty pleasures.

Then you decide, hey, why don’t I get another orchid? Maybe another Phal but this time a mini or white/magenta/chartreuse/spotted.

Before you know it, you’ve become an orchid pusher. Gifting them to not just family but friends and coworkers and acquaintances, random people you want to impress maybe – mothers in laws?  Then maybe you attend your first orchid show and there are orchids hanging sideways off some bark!! How can they live without a pot? And so many kinds??!! What do all these words mean?

At least that’s what my orchid journey looked (sort of).  I’m definitely currently guilty of pushing.

Up Next:

What to look for in grocery store and hardware store orchids and also

What to look for in garden store orchids