Gardening with Galligan: The care of orchids

Moving indoors now, we can spend some time on worthwhile houseplants to entertain us through the colder months. One of my favorite houseplants  is the  orchid and Susan Schrott, an almost-full-time Islander, loves them even more than I do.

Susan’s roots here are deep. She is the daughter of Leah and Victor Friedman of Strawberry Lane and a year ago, she and her husband, Jonathan, bought a home nearby. They spend Tuesday and Wednesday in the city at work and come back Thursday night; being “bicoastal,” Susan can have plants in both places and she does.

Her office is filled with light. She’s a certified social worker in clinical practice, with a specialty in eating disorders, and she likes to think that both her plants and her patients find an atmosphere in which they can thrive.

The more we talked about our orchids however, the clearer it became that we represent two opposite poles when it comes to plant care. The reader should discern which camp he or she is a member of and then proceed accordingly. Some people really nurture plants; they tend them carefully, chat with them, are sometimes known to sing to them, and when they are ill, they nurse them carefully.

They are also endlessly patient and find it very hard to give up on a plant, especially when they have had it for a long time. Susan is a card-carrying member of this group; a good friend of mine is as well, and I dump any sick plant I have onto her lap. She once remarked that it was a fortunate thing that my children were good looking.

The other camp is the one to which I belong — I give my best to humans and animals, all fellow mammals.

From my perspective, indoor plants have one task and one task only and that is to please me by blooming profusely and not complaining while doing so. No griping, no demands. Or else.

The issue that orchids present to orchid lovers is that they have long periods of dormancy between bloom cycles. This is, as Susan points out, more than understandable, since they bloom so fully and so beautifully without stop for such a long period  — at least three months. But a non-blooming orchid is not a lovely thing; it is a pot full of low, fat, green leaves.

If you have a lot of space, somewhere to keep these pots while they regather their strength to bloom again, and you enjoy taking care of them during the process, then you can join group one; I don’t. I throw them away when they have finished blooming. Actually, now I won’t. I’ll bring them to Susan.

I see that I’ve used up my word count on the philosophy of growing orchids before I even got to telling you about their general care. But we have some time left — next week.

Carrot report of the week: They grew three inches and then died. Sad. They had grown no roots at all.

So I went back online and I’m starting over. I had only about a half inch of carrot, so I’m going to try a little more than one inch as the site recommends.

I’ll keep you posted. Note that the site suggests this is a good thing to do with children, since results come quickly. While trying not to take that personally, it did occur to me that it would be a fun thing for grandparents to do with grandchildren.