Determined to Bloom
 

I hate it when this happens. My hubby was helping me bring my plants in a few nights ago when our Central Florida temps. dropped into the danger zone. I cautioned him to be very careful because several of my babies are in spike, bud or bloom. After hauling everyone indoors I was dissappointed to discover that one of my Cattleyas was missing her solitary unopened bud. :( Today the chids went back outside and as I was clearing the table of plants I found this little bloom lying there. :cloud9:I guess you could say this little flower was determined to bloom.;)

Awww, that's so cool! At least you got to see the flower (which is amazing, btw), even if it won't last as long as on the plant.

Don't you wish our family members were as careful as we are with our chids? Poor things just need a little indoctrination into the world of orchids!

I had a similar thing happen to me with my very first orchid. I got this NOID phal (done blooming, so I didn't even know what color, but I didn't care) from Fred Meyers and my mom knocked it over and broke the old spike while it was still on the cashier's conveyer belt! Amazingly, the old spike still branched to form a new spike, but then my brother came home from college and broke THAT off! Needless to say I was ready for some head bashing at that point. I didn't know what color my first orchid was until it finally bloomed while sequestered in my room 2 years after I got it!

I've forgiven them, sort of. But my revenge was to fill the house with plants, including more orchids! At least, that's one of my excuses for my obsession...

Hope you get a good show from that catt. next year!

Thanks Evan. I was totally surprised when it bloomed, especially under the circumstances.

My hubby isn't the only one who knocks off spikes and buds. I've been guilty a few times myself. I have a noid Onc. that waited 1 1/2 years to produce spikes and when she did there were 5 of them. Only 2 managed to flower. The other tender spikes were accidentally destroyed by "little old me". I broke them by accident but I was so annoyed with myself. I also have one particular Dend. that always seems to be the one that gets blown over, knocked over, or sun burnt. It's down right frustrating sometimes.:_(

WOW! That is SO cool!

That is awesome! And what a stunner it is. So happy you were able to see it's bloom even in those circumstances.

That is so cool that is decided to bloom anyways! :banana:
Maybe if you change the water regularily it might last a few weeks.

I really hate it when I break off buds, I'm ready to scream. The worst was last summer, when my 1 year old cousin snuck into the room where the orchids were, and pulled all the blooms and buds off one of the phals, one by one, and lined them up on the floor..... :_( I had put the orchids in a box (on the floor, of all stupid things to do) to bring them back to the netherlands with me the next day.

:evil:Did he live to tell the story?:rofl:

I corrected my post,I made a typo. It was the 1 year old cousin who did that. The six year old had wrecked plants outside that same summer, which was just as bad.

For the orchids, everyone said it was my fault, I shouldn't have left orchids were the cousins could get to them. As for the six year old, she got yelled at, and I was secretly a little bit happy.

Wow, I didn't know a fallen, unopened bud could bloom. Beautiful flower!

Thank you. I wouldn't rate the flower as being spectacular but it's determination to bloom mystifies me.

Incredible...just goes to show you how strong the will to survive is with our orchids!