Oysterville Christmas Turns Exotic!

Christmas Cheer in Oysterville!

Oh my goodness!  An orchid in my living room at Christmas!  In my mind (and experience), it doesn’t get much more exotic than that!  Not here in Oysterville, anyway!  And certainly not in this old house.  I am gobsmacked!

For several years now, my neighbor Linda — who lives some of the time in far off Oregon (and wrongly in my opinion) — has stopped on her way to the beach at her favorite Trader Joe’s and picked up a couple of those waxed amaryllis plants at this time of year — one for her and one for me and probably others, as well.  Care free, fast growing, with bright red blossoms in time for Christmas.  Yesterday she called as she came through Long Beach.  “Are you home?  I’m dropping off our annual Christmas flower but they didn’t have any amaryllis this year.  So we are each having a white Christmas!”

Memories of Vanda Orchid Corsages…

Orchids!!  A gorgeous white spray of orchids — on the hoof!  The only orchids I’ve ever really experienced (besides seeing them in the wild in Hawaii) are those small, purple orchids (Vandas?) that were so popular for corsages in the 1950s.  If you got one of those (instead of baby roses or carnations) it was almost a declaration of true love!  But, although I do remember keeping those corsages in the refrigerator long after the prom — why? I wonder now.  Sentiment, I guess. They weren’t alive and I didn’t really have to worry about them… but I oohed and aahed over them for a long, long time.

An Exotic White Christmas!

Yesterday, after this gorgeous spray’s arrival, I went straight to my computer and looked up how to care for it.  Wow!  Misting and spraying and soaking the roots and feeding it special orchid food!  I right away spoke to it up-close-and-personal and told it I would do my best but not to have very high expectations — especially not beyond Christmas.

Meanwhile, though…  I feel that little glow of high school prom love!  And for the first time in all my years, a walk through my Oysterville living room feels like a vacation in the tropics!  Wow!

One Response to “Oysterville Christmas Turns Exotic!”

  1. Nataly Roberts says:

    I was the class of ’82 and we had the same convention for prom, carnations for a date but orchids for true loooove.

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