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Great expectations and first flowers.

At the beginning of March everything slowly wakes up from winter slumber, and day by day we can see colourful spots of purple, yellow and snow white showing unexpectedly between gloom shadows.
It is also the time that many orchid species and hybrids start flowering again or have been in flower for a while now, and opening more and more flowers due to the increasing hours of day light.

There is a house I pass walking to work everyday and I'm in such an envy seeing their front window filled with freshly bought orchids, their first year at that house and magnificent blooms, but then I think that's the first months and then the real fun, the real test of patience and strong will begins.

Saying that I can't complain, my beautiful Phal Baldan's Kaleidoscope is in bloom, it's third time and it's probably bigger than ever and the colours are so juicy and vivid!


But more importantly, after a year and a half of patient care, reading, more care and hopeful wishing, constant looking for new signs of growth and so on...
Giving up a few times, forgetting to do checks, pretending I don't care... hah, yes the seedling of a Beallara Peggy Ruth Carpenter grew and grew bigger. The two new growths took a long time to show the pseudobulbs, in full honesty it took a whole year for them to do that and then suddenly within 3 months these new growths plump up to a very big size and one of them sent out two months ago a flower spike.

Why am I excited? I think when growing something from such a tiny size it grows with us, the patience and the knowledge of signs and then the surprise. 
I never grew a orchid from such a young age, furthermore I never grew it to the point of a first flowering and I have read a few times it's something important.

And after two month of waiting, yes two months, I think it took so long because it was cold and I don't have the heating on in my room, and the temperature stays around 16 - 18 degrees and also because the lack of sun. But now the sun looks into my windows a lot more and the indirect light is brighter too for all of the orchids.
So the show began yesterday, and in the morning today two petals opened and the rest followed when I was at work.
So it was a happy surprise when I came back home.



Somebody will say, it's just a bloody plant. Well yes, and no. It's a living thing and after this long time we care, and although it's just one flower it gives me a great sense of achievement. 


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