Orchids have bravery

Being marooned on the back porch window sill for two weeks all alone didn't faze the orchid. This is the set of potted leaves that I picked up for a couple dollars a year or two ago, when it had apparently finished blooming and was ready to be dumped or carried home; I carried it home. This is the same pot that produced the stumpy growths that Bill told me were probably roots, all green and lustrous, last spring. He said, "watch for it to develop a leaf, that'll tell you; and fertilize it a lot more." and I did.

It had leaves and two four or five inch stems shooting toward the window, last month. Now, glory be! the stems have actual buds, glossy and shaped like a mallow's seed pod, pointed toward the end, chubby and green. Last month, I latched one of the stems to a stick with a fake bird on its end that I stuck in the pot, but the other stem is still leaning to the window. The fastened one has the bigger bud, though. And there are multiple buds on each stem, smaller than the top ones.

Those chubby root sprouts never touched soil, they're still there. I don't think orchids care if they have soil? Because of the way I found it on offer, I have no idea what kind of bloom it may produce, or how it would like to be handled, but I'll just leave it again next week and say prayers for its fortitude, I guess.

Outside, one of the daylilies has persisted in blooming, drought and all; that lovely Esther's Treasure, with the frilly brilliant gold flower. Not all the mallow went to seed, some blooms persist. The bluebells bloomed and quit for the year but the drought may not have hurt their roots. Curiously, the peony leaves, which are often attacked by a blackening by now, have thrived in the drought. The bushes are a lot bigger than the cimifuga this year. My neighbor's lawn and garden beds are just lovely, and because the bushes between us are gone now, maybe in their watering of their stuff, the lilies and peonies have benefited too. God bless diligent neighbors.