All flowers are beautiful.

I love them all, from the humble wild flowers growing in meadows and in little patches of dirt along our busy streets to blooming rose bushes in curated gardens. My mother is very gifted with plants and flowers and since I was a little girl wherever we lived we had flower pots on the balconies or blooming plants in the garden. We had calla lilies, we had roses and we had geraniums. Lots and lots of geraniums, red, pink and white. On the terrace of my apartment I have petunias, with vibrant purple flowers.

Some flowers are simply beautiful to look at, others also smell divinely, others yet are delicious to eat (have you ever tried fried zucchini flowers? I will post the recipe in the next days)… flowers are beautiful, but orchids have a special place in my heart.

When I was living in Singapore in 1980 I had the chance to start falling in love with orchids. They were so different from the flowers I was used to at home, their colors and their forms were fascinating. At the time there were not a lot of orchids available commercially to be cultivated at home in Europe, surely not in Italy for a girl of my means.

It was only a long time later when I was able to finally have orchids to care for in my home – and in the office as well.  Now that I don’t work anymore I have a corner of my living room completely dedicated to my 24 orchids.

Most of them are Phalaenopsis – the easiest ones to care for – some of them are new and some of them are more than 12 years old.

I have a couple of Cymbidium plants as well, but I seem to get along with Phals better …

Mostly my orchids have been given me as gifts: the people in my life know that I love potted plants above cut flowers and that orchids are my absolute favourites. I love the colors and the shapes of the blooms.

The newest addition to my army of orchids is a perfumed Maxillaria Tenuifolia – also called Coconut Orchid – whose flowers smell like coconut to some and like Piña Colada to others.

The flowers are not as beautiful as the Phal ones in my opinion, but it is really something to look at, fascinating and exotic.

This year for the first time I have had a total of 6 Keiki -little orchid clones that the plant generates and that can be replanted. I have started studying the best way to go about the replanting and I am excited about trying it!

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