Orchids Spring Eternal

Another year, another leap of faith.

No matter how many orchid plants I kill, I come back for more.  To be exact, I return to the annual orchid show at the local mall.

I look at some of the prize winning displays and then go to the seller's tables.  Various orchids sit there for sale, all mocking me.  "Someone can grow these. But not you.  You've killed, how many orchids?  Is it 6 plants, now?  7? And did you not kill the one you bought last year even before it had stopped blooming, when your spouse knocked it over?"

At least, if I kill an African Violet, and I seem to once a year or so, they don't have that same mystique.

This year it is a pretty moth orchid that catches my eye.  It is small, and it is only $12.   A woman comes over and looks at the same plant.  She offhandly mentions that she has about 200 orchids.

I am too embarrassed, so spouse talks to the seller, a middle aged lady, about my problem.  They conclude I overwater.  She shows me how not to feel the soil (orchids grow more in a bark mix than "soil", anyway) but to lift the plant and weigh it.

I buy the orchid.  Will it join my other orchids in the great compost heap in the sky?  Or will I bring it safely through the year, to rebloom for me next year?