I heard that my neighbour who lived in America had recently returned to her country house for a long holiday. She was originally from this village but she had gone to work in the US and married an American engineer. They had a son and a few grandchildren in the US. As she got older she began to think about coming back home for her retirement. So, she built a big comfortable house two years ago on her family land by the river. The house had a big garden as she’s a keen gardener. She bought lots of expensive and rare trees for her garden.
Whenever I cycled past her house, I would see if my neighbour was around in her garden. I would stop for a chat and a tour of her garden. She loved to show off her new trees and pot plants. She knew so much about trees and gardening so I would ask her many questions for my own benefits. I have been trying to accumulate more knowledge on gardening so that I could have more fruits and flowers in my garden. My neighbour did give me five small orchid shoots last year. I told her that three orchids had died as they just refused to grow; perhaps they didn’t like the trees upon which I attached them with some string.
My neighbour found it illogical that these orchids would die so easily. So, she showed me her small orchids which grew profusely on the mango trees. They just kept expanding into much larger cluster with lots of flowers. None of her gifted orchids gave any blossoms even though I watered them regularly. This remained a big puzzle to me and I wanted to know what I had done wrong for these orchids.
My neighbour was also puzzled and told me she would come to plant new orchids for me on my mango trees. She wanted to show me the proper way of doing this orchid transplant! It could be that my hands were too ‘hot’ as we often said only people with ‘cool hands’ wouldn’t make plants grow beautifully. In other words, I didn’t have ‘green fingers’. Those poor small orchids, they just kept looking poorly and dried to bits. Could it be a kind of fungus that ate up all the roots and leaves? It might be that these orchids didn’t want to be separated from their parents so they just lost the will to live!?
Other orchids which I bought myself seemed to be doing alright though they were rather neglected by me. I didn’t give them any fertiliser for such a long time so they all looked skinny to me. If they could talked, they would probably scold me many times a day for their malnourishment. I promised myself to give them some nourishment next time I was at the countryside.
Orchids came to my attention very late in my life as I was only interested in fruit trees. If we could eat orchid blossoms, I would have been more enthusiastic about orchids and paid more attention. Then, slowly I changed my mind about orchids as they showed me their patience and delicate nature. Waiting for one orchid to blossom almost made me very impatient and angry for their intentional reluctance to blossom. They taught me to be patient and to wait quietly for the sudden surprise of orchid blossoms. They had earned my respect and admiration.
My neighbour was very kind and kept offering me new shoots of orchids. But I had to decline as I still had several orchids to look after. I was afraid that these would die on me and I wouldn’t know how to report the news to my neighbour. She allowed me to take as many photos as I wished, so I had a nice time with these orchids. I felt that they were afraid to be separated from their tribes and forced to live in my garden. I wondered if these orchids had any emotions and feelings like cats or dogs. My neighbour was on the middle of replanting some border plants with her gardener. So, I took my leave and thanked her for her kind offers of more orchids. I was glad to have nice and kind neighbour who was fond of flowering plants, trees and orchids.
Wishing you peace, good health and prosperity.
Stay strong and cheerful.