Bustin' Out All Over

I have triumph to report.†

[SUMMARY: Ta-daaa!]

My cousin Tani, who gave me my first orchid and is a seasoned orchid-grower herself, told me once that if your orchid re-blooms, that's the sign‡ you're doing the right thing.

Now, my phalaenopsis orchids§ re-bloom like bunnies,@ but my two non-phals¶ sat dormant these last couple of years, until last Tuesday.%




[SUMMARY: *POW!*]

I swear I'm not exaggerating; I watered the sink-adjacent plants in the morning as I grabbed the kitchen trash to go out for garbage day. I removed something dead-looking on this particular plant, so I got a good and memorable look at it.# There was no bloom, no bud, just plant.

When I got home, I put Cat for Scale's bowl on the counter to give him his daily dose of canned food†† and there was a full-blown, vividly dressed, life-size orchid.

The next morning, the second was nearly fully open.

This is unretouched colour‡‡:



I bought this plant almost two years ago and it hasn't bloomed since right after I got it home.

[SUMMARY: Still waters run deep?]

This must be a metaphor for something.

*************

In other amazing orchid news,§§ the two orchids I made you look at last year are in bloom again as well.

[SUMMARY: Call me June...¶¶]

Actually the Fireworks orchid, the one Tani gave me to start my collection,^ hasn't stopped blooming.

If you do it right,## if your orchids are happy and you prune them judiciously post-bloom, they'll often bloom twice.$

Fireworks budded last February, bloomed, re-bloomed and just re-bloomed again,††† with new and tiny buds showing up every other day. It may never stop blooming.

[SUMMARY: It's ALIVE!]

That has to be a metaphor for something too.

Hell of it is, it really needs to be re-potted, but one is only supposed to re-pot during non-blooming cycles.

OK... that. That should definitely be a metaphor.


†FOOTNOTE (crossed): Which must be a welcome change for you after the bitching about work in the last post. You may also note I am changing the footnotation colour to green to match the new blog scheme and the coming season of floral wonder.

‡FOOTNOTE (double-crossed): Not just A sign, but THE sign.

§FOOTNOTE (swerved): The kind you generally find in the grocery store. The easiest orchid to grow, and I'm living proof.

@FOOTNOTE (atted): It's a multiplication thing, right?

¶FOOTNOTE (paragraphed): The one pictured is a Cattleya. The other, still not blooming since eBeth gave it to me almost three years ago (though I nearly killed it at one point and have been nursing it back to health, so that may have something to do with it), is - I think - a Vanda. You're welcome.

%FOOTNOTE (percented): Yes, Columbo, I know it was Tuesday because it was trash day.

#FOOTNOTE (pounded): 'Cause as long as I was grooming, I gave it a good once-over to see if there were bugs, mold, dead leaves, buds, new leaves, a leprachaun...

††FOOTNOTE (ddouble-ccrossed): As I am wont to do.

‡‡FOOTNOTE (doubble-crossssed): Forgive the Georgia O'Keefeness of it all.

§§FOOTNOTE (look at you, you're just beside yourself): Since I know you're on the edge of your seat.

¶¶FOOTNOTE (hit me with your rhythm stick!): 'Cause I'm bustin' out all over. Surely at least ONE of you (if not ALL of you) listened to Dr. Demento back in the day.

^FOOTNOTE (carated): The pink and white one in last year's post, as opposed to the yellow and pink one.

##FOOTNOTE (let me pound the point home): And by "you," I mean "I."

$FOOTNOTE (cashed): Like, in a year. Usually for three or four months, then the plant goes dormant for about six months. All previous re-blooms in my world have had a month-long break in between as the plant takes a little vacation between projects.

†††FOOTNOTE (must be Easter soon. Look at all them crosses.): Seriously... just as the last two or three blooms would hit that sad, wet tissue look and drop off, a new bud would fatten up on another stem and off it'd go.