Friday, January 21, 2022

Parenting Matilda, Georgia and Jeannie.

Meet Jeannie...

I was getting some daily steps in Costco the other day and I bypassed a display of live plants. I'm not really a plant person. Oh, I love greenery and plants and trees and all things summer, but I kinda rely on God to provide them for my enjoyment.

Shortly before our new home was ready to move into JimE and I had a conversation about orchids. We both liked the look of them and thought they would suit our contemporary-clean-lines-simple-decor new home.

I knew nothing about them other than a cut orchid will live for months and months in the fridge if there are no ripe apples or other fruit nearby. (A fact I learned when I was 15 and worked in a flower shop.)

But I bought one for JimE as a house warming present on June 10th last year when we got possession of our new home. Orchids have always reminded me of the artworks of Georgia O'Keefe and I wanted to name our new plant Georgia but somehow the name didn't fit. And she became known as Matilda.



And Matilda bloomed for months. But in the fall her blooms faded and began to drop off so I bought a companion for her who would bloom during Matilda's off season.

Her new companion seemed more suited to the name Georgia.

A bit of googling taught us that they needed the equivalent of four ice cubes once a week to keep them watered and healthy.

And so every Sunday morning Matilda and Georgia get fed four ice cubes.

JimE and I will often ask each other on Sunday afternoon, "Did you feed the girls yet?"

Early in December Georgia began tp drop her blossoms, but she has continued to hang on to two of them. Then just a few days after Christmas both Matilda and Georgia showed signs of new life and shoots of new blooms started to manifest.





...And so, back to my pacing the aisles of Costco to get in some winter steps.

As I passed the display of live plants which included a large number of orchids in various shades of whites and purples with a few yellow ones amongst them, one of them just jumped out at me and practically strangle holded me.

"My name is Jeannie!" She shouted out to me. "Will you adopt me?"

For $16.99 did I have an option??!

And so Jeannie joined Matilda and Georgia in their cluster behind the kitchen sink in the corner with North-east and East-south facing windows. Ideal for orchids. Tons of light without much direct sunlight.

And Granny ordered a book from Amazon.



I don't expect to become an expert orchidist (I don't think that's actually a word, that's how expert I am) But I am loving the bit of colour and life they add to the corner of our kitchen. And I'm pleased that we've kept them alive and thriving thus far.

And I invite you to come and have coffee and hang out with Matilda, Georgia and Jeannie. And if it's a Sunday maybe you can even feed them each their four icecubes.



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