I love orchids...

I love orchids! They are the prettiest flower and the hardest (most challenging??) plant to grow...at least for me. Which is really saying something considering I lived with my Nan and Grandad (Stibbe) for many years during my adult life and often assisted with working in the greenhouse - Nan and Grandad were prominent members of the Bribie Island Orchid Society.

Admittedly, we dont have a greenhouse in our yard - although there's plenty of room for one, but we decided that a chook pen was higher up my agenda :)

I have, over recent years, managed to 're-house' (read: nicked) several from the bush and have had some (limited) sucess in growing them in the old tree next to the Guava tree (I have no idea what sort of tree it is, but it has really rough bark which is perfect for the baby orchids to grip on to with their tiny roots) This poor tree is kind of laden down with orchids/elkhorns but sadly, my Jacaranda and Javenica trees are just too small to burden with these additions just yet. And although I've had some sucess in keeping them alive (and in some cases they are even thriving!) they have yet to produce a single flower :( *unhappy sigh*

Anyway, whilst Dad and I were fencing last week, I happened into a little grove which had not seen any cattle traffic for some time. As I was wading through the knee high grass (very rare to see grass that long on our southern boundary as the cattle really love it over there!) I spotted a flash of white and backtracked until I could get around to it...turns out, it was a ground orchid!! Very rare in the 'wild'. So, rather than pick the flower (yes, it was flowering!!) only to have it curl up and die in a few days time, I dug up the whole plant and carted it the 6-7kms home and re-potted it. In case you cant tell, Im feeling very pleased with myself! It is currently residing on the window ledge in the kitchen until it recovers sufficiently enough to move it into a more permanent position :)

Husband thinks it now looks dead (this photo was taken immediately after re-potting it) but I prefer to think of it as 'sleeping' or 'resting' :)