I feel like a new parent
Sep. 10th, 2006 17:55![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
torquillI'm looking at a green thing in a pot, and though I spend most of my time and energy on green things, this one is small and Different. In theory it should work the same way as everything else, and I know the basic ways to keep a plant happy, but this one is still Different. It doesn't react as I expect it to. It doesn't grow as I expect it to. Its motives are a cipher to me.
My next door neighbor says that I'm being silly. Granted, he's good with these guys. The fact remains that until Salim gave me an orchid for my birthday, I knew next to nothing about them. I still feel like I know very little, which is an unnerving sensation for an experienced gardener.
So it sits on the window ledge, in its new pot. I fortunately had a pot and a bag of orchid mix from a year or two ago, when I was thinking about giving one as a gift; I checked with Art to make sure that the mix would suit my little guy, and it does. He said I have a Phalaenopsis, which is apparently a good choice for a novice -- I keep seeing sick Cymbidiums at the plant clinic, but these are much more hardy. So I potted it up, looked up its needs (simple ones) in the book he lent me, watered it sparingly, and set it in a light but not sunny window.
I just got back from buying food for it. I feel a little like I'm getting all the stuff I'm supposed to give it, but I'm still flying blind; the leaves are fleshy and can wilt, but don't normally, and I'd be hard-pressed to diagnose it if they do. The individual flowers may last for months. So far as I can tell, it's the living equivalent of a plastic flower, growing and developing on a different, more glacial timescale than anything else. I'm used to "grow or die" in the plant world, but it doesn't seem to apply here. It's like a cactus.
It's alien, and different, but it was given to me to care for and I'll give it a shot. I used to keep fish... this is about as ornamental, and needs a little less care. Why the hell not.
My next door neighbor says that I'm being silly. Granted, he's good with these guys. The fact remains that until Salim gave me an orchid for my birthday, I knew next to nothing about them. I still feel like I know very little, which is an unnerving sensation for an experienced gardener.
So it sits on the window ledge, in its new pot. I fortunately had a pot and a bag of orchid mix from a year or two ago, when I was thinking about giving one as a gift; I checked with Art to make sure that the mix would suit my little guy, and it does. He said I have a Phalaenopsis, which is apparently a good choice for a novice -- I keep seeing sick Cymbidiums at the plant clinic, but these are much more hardy. So I potted it up, looked up its needs (simple ones) in the book he lent me, watered it sparingly, and set it in a light but not sunny window.
I just got back from buying food for it. I feel a little like I'm getting all the stuff I'm supposed to give it, but I'm still flying blind; the leaves are fleshy and can wilt, but don't normally, and I'd be hard-pressed to diagnose it if they do. The individual flowers may last for months. So far as I can tell, it's the living equivalent of a plastic flower, growing and developing on a different, more glacial timescale than anything else. I'm used to "grow or die" in the plant world, but it doesn't seem to apply here. It's like a cactus.
It's alien, and different, but it was given to me to care for and I'll give it a shot. I used to keep fish... this is about as ornamental, and needs a little less care. Why the hell not.
