Orchids!

The days after Christmas, many people head to the shops to find Christmas bargains. Ornaments. Wrapping paper.

I head out to Lowe’s and look for houseplant bargains. Christmas money in my hot little hands, I found their houseplant area so picked over there were only a few stragglers left. But upon close inspection….orchids!

I snagged a Phaelaopsis for $2 and a Dendrobium for $2.

I’ve never grown orchids before. My sister Ann grew them in our house in Floral Park. We had a weird house. It was built as what they used to call a “Mother Daughter House”. The mother had an apartment upstairs, but used the same entrance as the daughter, who presumably lived on the first floor.

When my parents bought the house, they sealed off the gas line and water pipes in the old kitchen but left the cabinets. My childhood bedroom led into a kitchen, then a bathroom. Well, we had kitchen counters and cabinets, which we used as the linen closet. My sister Ann was pretty ingenious. She loved plants and wanted to study botany. She hung up plant lights under the old kitchen cabinets and used the top of the old counter as her plant laboratory!

She ordered orchids mail order and grew so many different types under those lights. I learned something from her about them, but I plan today to do a little sleuthing on the Internet to make sure I care for my new beauties.

They sure need some TLC. There’s a reason they were on the $2 table! But the phael is blooming still, which is a nice plus. He’s tucked behind the radio in my office. I’ve always wanted an orchid in my office. The other is next to the tabletop fountain in the plant room.

I also scored a second Christmas cactus, this one also marked down from $10 to $2. They should have priced it at fifty cents. The poor thing. Talk about taking a beating. It looked as if it had been dragged through the snow. I bought my peach colored one before Christmas, a healthy but small plant. This one is a hot pink color, as evidenced by the dead blossoms trapped in the silvery wrapper around the pot. Half the plant is dead, rotted away, and I spent a little time this morning pulling away dead portions. I’m left with half a plant. I’ve got it safely tucked in on my plant able in the plant room, nestled between the wintering geraniums and the African violets. Hopefully it will recover.

If anyone has some good orchid care websites, share links!