Pink Fairy Orchid of Our Very Own
John and I got up early on Saturday, on a brisk Western Australia morning and headed for the King’s Park plant sale in hopes of getting a pink fairy orchid of our very own.
We were early as the area hadn’t opened its gates yet, we waited in a growing line for our orchid for an hour in a morning chill.
Why would we do this?
20 or so years ago, John showed me one of his dreamy photos of this flower, and I fell in love with it. I even painted a version of his photo with watercolors. (It now hangs in our entrance).
Clearly this is an important flower to us. To me. I snuck ahead and scouted out its location among the flowers and saw the price. Suddenly it wasn’t as important to John anymore.
You should have seen me when a man (in jest) came up to me and told me I had grabbed the very thing he wanted held in my hands! I suddenly held it tighter.
I got to see my very first pink fairy when Laura and I visited Australia for the first time in 2010. It was at the Kings Park flower show. Over time, I’ve seen them in the wild. To have one of our own has always been a dream. And to be truthful, not just one. I want many – a field of pink fairy orchids to go with our field of everlastings. A girl can dream, and I do.
We got our plant, and suddenly, the closest I can remember to ever gingerly carrying something home like that before was that of a newborn baby, coming home from the hospital.
So here is our ‘baby’. It’s not the pinkest, not the biggest pink fairy orchid I’ve ever seen. But it’s sweet, it’s delicate and it’s ours!
In making my selection at the plant sale, we found one with many flowers.
A view you don’t often see. They are usually in the ground, not in a pot, so I thought to take a photo with a sky view.
Our pink fairy sparkles in the sun!
And now for its care. Supposedly at the plant sale we were to be given a sheet on how to take care of it, but that didn’t happen. After several e-mails and phone calls, we have received a sheet explaining what to do, only, it is a bit vague. We do however know a little more about it than we did. Suddenly, we have a flower AND responsibility!
