Let me preface this by saying I am a gardener. I grow perennials in the spring and plant annuals in window boxes and in various sized planters on both the front and back deck. I have flower urns on the front steps, and hanging baskets with flowers on the back deck, and I manage to keep them alive from early spring until the first frost in the fall. I've been doing this for over 25 years. I've gotten pretty good at it by now.
Orchids - I know nothing about. So when I received one as a gift, I read the little paper tag attached to the stem, and followed the instructions to a T, promptly killing the plant, or so I thought.
I placed the dead looking plant on my back deck behind a chair with every intention of throwing it into the compost heap behind the far garden, but totally forgot about it. Yesterday as I was preparing to clean off the deck and get all of the furniture put away for the winter, I came across the pot that held the remains of the orchid. I placed it on the railing of the deck, simply to get it out of the way so I could move furniture, and totally (once again) forgot about it. This morning, I looked out and saw that this once dried out bamboo looking thing had sprouted leaves and was beginning to "green up" from the stem. I am stymied. Should I re-pot? Does it have bugs from being left outside all summer? How much water does it need, should I feed it? This is stressing me out, considering that I had already admitted my failure with the orchid earlier this summer. I have decided to bring it back in, not to re-pot it, and to water it on a weekly basis. We'll see how it goes. If I get this thing to once again flower, I am going to name it my Resurrection Orchid. I enjoy a plant that seems to thrive on total neglect!
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