THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, January 15, 1995 TAG: 9501130209
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 02 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Coastal Journal
SOURCE: Mary Reid Barrow
LENGTH: Medium: 94 lines
The poinsettias are dropping dry leaves and curled petals.
The Christmas tree is gone, but tiny needles keep showing up embedded in the rug. The red candles, burned three-quarters of the way down, beg for replacements.
In short, the house and I are both suffering from post-holiday lethargy. However, this week North End resident Nell Midgett rejuvenated me with her answer to winter's bleakness: orchids.
Midgett's exotic, colorful, sometimes sweet-smelling flowers recently turned a miserable winter day into a tropical wonderland. In fact, her orchids always save their best blooms for January and February.
``After all the Christmas rush, they are a real joy,'' Midgett said. ``I come out here in the morning with my tea and just visit with them.''
We were in her greenhouse where 200 orchids - from big yellow and white corsage-type orchids to small exotic lady-slipper-like orchids - were thriving in humid, warm conditions that fended off the cold day. But the greenhouse is not Midgett's secret to success. For most of her 25 orchid-growing years, she kept plants right in her apartment or house.
She spoke of raising orchids in a breezy, offhand way. I always thought these exotic plants that grow without soil and hang from trees for support were tender and temperamental. Until I spoke with her, I would have said an orchid was well beyond my pale green thumb. Not anymore.
``So much is myth,'' Midgett said reassuringly ``They're not finicky. Roses require a lot more care.''
As an example, she picked up an orchid that she began to re-pot in a larger container early in December and never got around to finishing. The plant, just lying in an empty pot, was sending out new roots and shoots.
Midgett was introduced to orchids when she lived in Tennessee by her doctor who had them blooming in his office. ``I'd never seen an orchid before except on a lady's shoulder,'' she said. ``And I'd had some of those myself.''
The doctor told her about a nurseryman who raised orchids in several greenhouses.
``If I was blown away by the doctor's orchids,'' Midgett said, ``I was absolutely knocked out by the greenhouses.''
She was hooked and purchased that very day a variety of cattleya, a showy colorful corsage orchid. That first cattleya was living proof for 23 years that orchids are not finicky. She lost it two years ago in a move to a new house. ``I think it died of old age,'' she said.
``Cattleyas thrive on neglect,'' Midgett went on. ``I grew them in a window sill for a good 15 years.''
East, southeast, west, anything but north windows worked, she said. When she built her first greenhouse lean-to on her house, it was mainly because she needed more room to house her growing collection of orchids. Now for two years, Midgett has had a real greenhouse, which does help with humidity, she admitted. But for many years, humidity trays filled with rocks and water were adequate, too.
``They like temperatures like you and me,'' she went on. ``It's a misconception that you have to have a tropical atmosphere.''
Midgett also said orchids will die from overwatering. She waters no more than once a week and feeds them once a week in summer and every two weeks to a month in winter.
``Potting takes the most time, and I do that in spring,'' Midgett added. ``Some take re-potting every year and others less often.''
She read somewhere once that if you give a person an orchid, he will enjoy it for a month, but teach him how to grow an orchid and you'll give him a lifetime of pleasure.
``They are so satisfying to grow,'' she added. ``When one blooms for you, you feel like Luther Burbank.
``And once you get one to bloom, it becomes an addiction.''
Now I'm tempted, too.
P.S. SHIMMERING WINGS, a butterfly program by naturalist Teta Kain of Gloucester, is the topic of the Virginia Beach Audubon Society meeting at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at Westminster Canterbury, 3100 Shore Drive.
THE AGRICULTURAL RESERVE PROGRAM is the topic of an informational meeting for farm families at 7:30 a.m. Tuesday in the conference room in the city's agriculture department.
CITIZENS FOR SOLUTIONS to the Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge-False Cape State Park access issue, a workshop, will take place from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Central Library. MEMO: Call me on INFOLINE, 640-5555. Enter category 2290. Or, send a computer
message to my Internet address: mbarrow(AT)infi.net.
ILLUSTRATION: Nell Midgett's exotic and colorful, sometimes sweet-selling
orchids, save their best blooms for January and February. Included
among her 200 greenhouse flowers are small exotic lady-slipper-like
orchids, right.
Photos by
MARY REID BARROW
by CNB