Thursday, November 30, 2006

Orchid Blooms in Winter

Today I would like to offer up a meditation on orchids. My great fascination with these plants stems directly from their affront to Winter. When I moved to Minneapolis from California I craved something green and flourishing in the face of the January cold. In the dead of winter the house takes on the sense of a living organism, enclosed and warm. However, the orchids add that living matter into the equation. Outside the window, the cold dark door of winter slams shut and inside I can curl up with a book, a warm cup of tea and admire my orchids while the snow falls on the lawn. To be honest, there are few things I enjoy more. Ever since I was a child I’ve loved an evocative contrast. In a way this reflects an infantile desire to defy the natural world by creating my own microcosm. If, like me, you enjoy the bloom of an orchid on a windowsill in the midst of February, here is a short list of winter blooming orchids.

  • Oncidium Ornithorhynchum
  • Oncidium Twinkle
  • Oncidium ‘Sherry Baby’
  • Cattleya Percivaliana
  • Rhynchostylis Gigantea

3 comments:

Blue said...

what a stunning picture!

Anonymous said...

Wow, until I noticed the photo credit, I thought this was the view from your window yesterday! What an amazing and beautiful contrast!

I heard on the news this morning that the midwest, including St. Louis, had been hit with a huge snow and ice storm. I wondered if you and Chris were enjoying snow today.

JWL said...

Unfortunately here we didn't get any snow, it all went off to the south. Here it's just super cold.