I once had a women’s studies professor whose personal goal was to raise orchids, indoor ones. She’d spend hours feeding them special foods at different times of the year, repotting them, getting the best bark because, of course, you shouldn’t plant them in soil. I don’t know if she ever got a bloom.
AC brought me a couple of orchids about 18 months ago, in little 4” pots. Naturally, the blooms were lovely. Orchids, as you know, bloom for a long time so they’re a great flowering plant.
So eventually the blooms fall, the long stem withers at the tips. I trimmed everything and took them to my office and watered them all winter. In April I caught my breath one morning – I didn’t want to believe that one out two plants was re-blooming.
All I did was water pretty regularly. They’re still in their little 4” pots. I see some of the roots clinging around the clay and I have no idea how to un-cling them; I’m afraid that if I re-pot something terrible will happen to those roots.
So, the bloom is a purple, like a midnight purple. So deeply purple I get mesmerized.
All I did was just water them, and I’m happy that one of them bloomed.
Benign neglect.
I find I thrive best with benign neglect as well. My favorite flowers are blooming weeds. There are black-eyed susans in two or more locations near the house. No one planted them that lives here now. No one tends them. I just admire them, sensing kinship.