eat you up

if you've seen how to lose a guy in 10 days, you'll remember the 'love fern'. it's a plant a girl gives a guy to see if he can keep it alive, signifying their relationship. 

the boy and i went on our first date the first week in february (he says it wasn't a date, but it was), so valentines came really quickly. he gave me a beautiful orchid. i was thrilled and also freaked out because i had killed one once before. 

it lived on my desk happily for a couple of weeks until each flower fell off, one by one. but i read online that if you just let it do that, if you can manage to keep it alive for another year, it'll die back and then bloom again.

i had the 'dying back' part down. after the flowers fell off, the spikes started to turn brown on the edges and work their way down, drying out and shriveling up.

while that was happening, new leaves started to sprout.

we ran into a minor orchid emergency when i left it in my 100+ degree car for 6 hours the day i attempted to move it from one office to another and forgot to take it out of the car. at that point, all of the leaves wilted and almost died.

the other day, i noticed a new spike growing just below where the old one had stopped turning brown.

and wooooo, look at those new buds! honestly, this ranks among my top 5 life accomplishments. did not think it could be done.

so what did i learn?
-misting it every day with a spray bottle is way easier than remembering to water it once a week, and it seems to like it
-they don't like to acclimate to new environments. it only sprouted a new leaf once i brought it home and left it in front of a sunny window with the blinds shut all day
-can't hurt to praise it for its new growth every time i walk past it