Orchids with a sense of humour.

[Izzie]

I know you guys have some stories.
Those times where your orchids had you doing double-takes.
Or when you KNOW a particular orchid started a spike just because you were having an awful week.

Or, like a recent thread I saw, started a keiki, changed it's mind, and decided to bloom instead.



My story is more sweet than funny. My very first orchid, which is now my largest and best specimen (phal), didn't bloom for two years after I first got it. This christmas, which was easily one of the worst times in my life, it decides to finally put out a spike. Maybe coincidence, maybe compassion, who knows.

in any case, I'm happy they exist.

[Angurek]

My orchids are weird. If they were people, they'd be really offbeat. I think I'm growing an insane asylum of plants here.

They seem to like doing things in secret, or freak me out in one way or another.

Here's an example of their secrecy. Most of them have been doing nothing for the past three months. No growth, no flowers, nothing. Almost from one day to another, everyone decides, "Oh! I think I wanna grow today!" I swear...leads appeared on everyone overnight. Now almost everybody is growing like a weed. I wouldn't be surprised if they got together behind my back and decided to bloom all at once. They're quite the conspirators.

And for a freak-out story, I went to the restroom one night (combine a tired Carl and pitch black in his apartment at night and you have a recipe for clumsiness), and I forgot I had hung my vandas on the shower curtain rod (it was during a cold front). I saw the shadowy figures and I thought, "Arrgh! Giant centipedes are all over my shower curtain!"

I think you get the idea of how stupid I felt when I turned on the light and saw my plants hanging there innocently. Oh, the embarrassment.