Dare I hope that this time the cochleanthes amazonica will have more than
one flower open at one time? I probably should not speak loudly of this hope
in its presence or it will once again bud blast just to spite me. :-) This
is my most "temperamental" orchid. It has always been fairly vigorous,
putting out new leaves, albeit accordion shaped once, since it would love to
live in an extremely high humidity environment, and I am not willing/able to
oblige it. It puts out buds on a regular basis, oodles of them, and then it
bud blasts almost all of them with an occasional flower making it. This
season it has already flowered with one flower open throughout September. It
has also already bud blasted several buds both before and after this flower.
BUT now it has 3 buds that are decent sized, and showing no signs of
blasting, so I think I do dare hope again for more than one flower at a
time.

When I leave my orchids for friends to take care of while I am on vacation,
I tend to leave them instructions, and since they have a 5 year old daughter
(or is she 6 by now?), I also personalize the orchids that I leave with them
explaining that they have different personalities for the daughter's
amusement, imagining what each orchid would say if it could talk. This is
what I had written for this one the last time I went for a trip:

"Oh, don't mind me. I will be fine whatever you do. What is that fruit bowl
doing here though, don't you know that I cannot stand to have fruit around
me? Would you mind turning on a humidifier, how can you humans stand it in
these dry houses anyway? Hello! We have a problem here! What do you mean
what kind of problem? It should be obvious to anyone. No, I am not going to
bother explaining it to you. That bud that I started though, you can forget
about it. But I am going to start another one, and if you are good, I may
flower, or then again I may not. I am thirsty. Haven't you heard that a
watched orchid never blooms? What do you mean that you watch your other
orchids, and they bloom anyway. You can't compare me with those other
orchids. The nerve! I am thirsty again. Those young people nowadays, no
respect. That Joanna for example, she mocks me by putting words into my
mouth, even though I have no mouth. Shocking. I am so looking forward to a
vacation, I remember the last time, it was very soothing. May I have a glass
of water?"



Has anyone else here ever written dialogue or stories featuring their
orchids?



Joanna