A Luminous Halo

"Life is not a series of gig lamps symmetrically arranged; life is a luminous halo, a semi-transparent envelope surrounding us from the beginning of consciousness to the end." --Virginia Woolf

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Location: Springfield, Massachusetts, United States

Smith ’69, Purdue ’75. Anarchist; agnostic. Writer. Steward of the Pascal Emory house, an 1871 Second-Empire Victorian; of Sylvie, a 1974 Mercedes-Benz 450SL; and of Taz, a purebred Cockador who sets the standard for her breed. Happy enough for the present in Massachusetts, but always looking East.

Sunday, April 16, 2006

My Cymbidium

This is a picture of my magnificent cymbidium orchid, taken last year. Most of the orchids you see in shops are cattleyas, with broad, flat leaves, so this foliage didn't look orchid-like to me at first. I thought when I got it that it was an orchid buried in the middle of some sort of palm foliage, but in fact it's one enormous plant. Four feet tall from the base of the pot to the top of the flower spike.

The plant is still green and healthy, but it didn't bloom this Easter. I'm not experienced with orchids, and I hadn't ever fertilized it for fear of burning it.

Cymbidiums are quite hardy. But underwatering or underfertilizing them can set back blooming for a year or even more. So I guess I've got to be a bit braver from now on, if I want this orchid to be all it was destined to be.

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