Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Troy's Orchid

 
Three years ago a good friend of Mark passed away. We went to his memorial, and on the way out Troy's partner handed Mark one of the orchids that were placed around for the occasion. As usual, Mark took it home and left it out in the yard to join the rest of his doomed plants. One day I was tossing out a bunch of dried up plants and I came across the orchid. It still had one green leaf so I took it out to the front yard and wedged it in the crotch of the big live oak tree. It blew down a few times, and I repeatedly stuffed it back in the tree crotch. Finally it grabbed onto the rough bark of the oak and started growing. This year, just in time for the third year anniversary of Troy's death, it sprouted flowers. Now every time I come in and out of the front gate, I think of Troy. He was a bit of a character, but he was alright. I know Mark misses him.


6 comments:

  1. That is just beautiful! What a nice memorial.

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  2. That is incredible. Truly. Last weekend at dinner there was a whole 1/2 hour discussion on the difficulty of growing orchids.

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  3. Orchids are easy Kim. Just move to Florida, and make sure you spray a mist on the orchid every day.

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  4. Orchids are easy up north also... just don't stick them in the crotch of a tree! I have 3 plants at work and only water them once a week, they come back and rebloom over and over- amazing everyone. Not too bad since I seem to kill everything else!

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  5. Peggy, I also have a cactus out on the porch that I can't seem to kill.

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