We're in Spike, Again!

And, in fact, it's a double spike. Which means we have a chance for all three orchids to be blooming at the same time.

Oh. Did I forget to mention that when an orchid is getting ready to bloom it's apparently called being "in spike" (because orchids send out a long spike, upon which the blooms appear)?

Orchids are a strange houseplant. Depending on what kind you get (we have two cymbidium orchids and one that we don't know the name of), they're actually fairly basic plants to have around. They just sit there and look green a lot. You water them once a week and wait. And wait. And wait. And then...

One day, you look at this mass of leaves, and there is a straight twig-looking thing growing out of it. And the twig gets longer every day. And you water and wait. And, eventually, you start to see it bud. And the buds grow. And you water and wait.

And then, finally, you get a bloom. Possibly a string of blooms. And the blooms. Well... If you're lucky, the blooms last for a month. Or two months. And you kind of get used to them being in bloom and forget what it's like to wait for them to do anything.

And, unfortunately, then the inevitable thing happens and the stems of the blooms start to yellow, and the flowers begin to sag one by one. So you trim off the pieces which have died and keep what you can. And one day you look and realize that even the spike is starting to wilt.

So you trim it back so that you are left with the green leaves, and you water. And wait.

But, for now, we have blooms on two of our orchids, and the promise of more on the third. (You can see the two spikes in the upper-right-hand section of the photo, below.)

We are in spike. And life is good.