What the Orchids Remember
Well, hello there! You are new, aren’t you?
Yes, yes, I arrived yesterday.
And they placed you here? With us? The Phals?
Well, I don’t know… You call yourselves the Phals?
Yes, you know, we, the Monopodials.
The what? What are you talking about?
Oh, you know nothing, right? Don’t worry, you will learn quickly. We, all the ones sitting in this part of the lanai, we are Monopodial Orchids. We grow upward from one place. We don’t make those fat little reservoirs those others across the Void carry.
You are a professor?
Oh, no no. It is just that we have lived here for a while, and our caretaker is usually very talkative about us and where we come from and all that, we learn from her.
I only saw her for a moment, when she took me up from outside, yesterday.
And who are you, then?
I am Vanilla, Vanilla planifolia.
You are one of those? Wow!
Why, what is wrong?
No, nothing, you are an important one. Apparently when you flower you give birth to a very nice fruit. Welcome then, to our neck of the Orchidarium.
Thanks, and who are you?
Oh, I am the Oldest one. I was the first the caretaker brought home, I have seen all of these others arrive. Tell me, did she keep you on the kitchen counter before bringing you outside?
I think she did, if what I remember is what you mean. There were some other ones there, small ones in tiny homes.
The Old one perked her leaves at this.
Small ones? Did you hear their names?
I heard the caretaker refer to them as ‘poor Twinkle’.
Oh my! So that is where she went! When she disappeared from her place, we feared she had died. So she is in ICU.
In what?
Oh, that’s something else we learned from her. ICU is something like emergency care, for those of us who are getting sick, she takes us inside to monitor us.
And what happened to that Twinkle one?
That was horrible, she was kidnapped by the deliverers, spent many suns, days in the Great Darkness, lost all her children blooms, and apparently has not recovered yet.
Yes, didn’t look too good, but there were three in three different homes, as I remember.There was another, a very large one also, but I didn't hear her name, one who spoke in sounds I could not understand.
Oh, three? Then caretaker has done some major surgery.And another one? A different one?
Yes, different. But you use so many words I do not know. What are you talking about?
Well, probably, while trying to save Twinkle, she took her out of her home and separated them. She has done that previously. I truly hope poor Twinkle survives. And you, you are so large! Where did you come from? Did you also come through the Darkness?
I don’t know what you are talking about. Darkness?
Yes, when you came here, did they cover you with lots of stuff, in a way you couldn’t see the light, almost suffocating you for a long time?
No. No. I never lost the light, or air, in fact, it was all very sunny all the time.
Oh! Was it that she went to your first home herself?
No, no. I never saw her before.
Interesting. Said the Old one, moving her leaves in something that could have resembled shrugging.
Tell me about this place, Old one.
Oh, we are very many. I know it is not as the home where I was born, probably also not as your own home, but there are a lot of friends here. All we, in this shelf, we are Phalaenopsis, and we are only arranged as the Large Ones, those three over there, and the Small ones, like myself and those there. We are named only by order of arrival. But across the void, there, you see? Nearer to the sun, those are the Sympodials.
The whaat?
The Sympodial Orchids. There are a lot of different ones: Oncidium, Bulbophyllum, Brassavola, Cymbidium, Paphiopedilum, and many others. Those there grow sideways and carry those swollen water vessels to drink if there is no water available.
They look very different, not like all of you here.
Oh, yes, and they ARE different. That one there is White Knight, do not get him started, he is very opinionated. Those there are Brassavolas, the came together and we call them the Three Sisters. That other is also Brassavola, but she is a Senior one. Then that’s Yellow Bird, this is Bulbophylum…
Stop! Stop! You are making me dizzy! How can you know all their names! I never knew the names of the ones in my birth home.
Oh, You will get to know them, as soon as they get into their usual arguments. Do not worry.