Orchid

It's battered and more than a little tattered, but the strength, resilience and dogged survival instinct of this flower is to be admired.

Many years ago there was an orchid warehouse along the road from me.  It comprised many, many long greenhouses and the company grew these exotic flowers mainly for the export markets.  

Like all living things, orchids have a finite lifespan.  When the plants in the warehouse were past producing their best and so were no longer suitable as export blooms, they would occasionally be put onto the verge with a price tag.

Over the years I bought quite a few plants and dotted them around the front garden.  They like being root-bound so there was never a need to actually plant them.  Instead, they remained in the plastic containers they were raised in, which I often stuffed into a 2 litre ice-cream container.  Over the years the plants became more and more overgrown with other bits and pieces and have long since faded from my memory.

Today's pottering was focused on cleaning up the front garden and as I delved deeper into the overgrown mess, I was delighted to unearth 4 orchids still alive, including this one that actually has a healthy spike of blooms :)  I'm amazed!  Seriously, I'm sure it must be well over 15 years since these were rescued from the roadside.  15+ years of looking after themselves, dealing with the heat, cold, drought, wind........15 years of scavenging for food......what absolute wee Trojans!   

The rest of the garden is now a lot tidier - some people will be coming round in the next few days to dig out some native self seedlings and agapanthus then I will have a much clearer view of the garden and can start to think about what newbies I can plant in there.  

I'm just loving having the time and space to do all the things that have been neglected for the past few years.  I feel a new energy rising in me.  It's taken time but it's fresh and exciting.  I'm looking forward to 2018 being a year where I, like the orchids, step out from the undergrowth  and smile at the bright world that lies ahead.

Happy new year everyone :D