Beallara Marfitch 'Howard's Dream'

[OrchidAddict]

Hello, friends!! Gosh, it's been a while since I've been on here ... I have a lot to catch up on!

(Quick recap on where I've been ... I've been slogging through recovery since getting a botched epidural injection which left me with spinal nerve damage and horrible pain in my feet and legs. It's been a rough couple of months, and the pain of the injury has been magnified by the heartbreak of losing so many orchids because I just couldn't give them any attention. But I shall not linger on the negative, because I have good news...)

One day recently I stumbled down to my greenhouse in the basement (which had become an orchid ICU by that point), and I noticed that among the languishing plants was this orchid, which had stubbornly thrown up a huge spike that had seven big, fat buds on it. She was the only orchid in the greenhouse doing anything other than struggling and/or wilting, so I quickly plucked her up and gave her a good watering. Then I checked on her every few days or so, and one day those buds burst open and I was absolutely blown away by how staggeringly beautiful the blooms were!



This was her first blooming, and I hadn't expected much from her since I hadn't given her any real attention, but she's a spunky gal and refused to let the dismal conditions of her surroundings get her down. And she put on a pretty good show for her first attempt! I'm just mesmerized by her gorgeous waterfall markings!

I'll be honest ... I was getting pretty depressed there for a while. But this beautiful plant reawakened my fighting spirit. She reminded me that beauty can spring up even in the most difficult of conditions, and that life rebounds ... it finds a way to flourish through even the worst situations. There is always hope.

I decided that I must honor her with some photographs. I haven't been feeling much up to taking photos lately and I wasn't up to dragging out my big lights or anything, but her blooming meant too much to me to let it pass without some special pics. So I pulled out the easiest camera I have to operate and just shot her in natural light in front of a piece of black velvet, then did some simple cleanup on my laptop. And I think the photos couldn't have turned out better! Here's another photo of her showing off!



She's a real winner, and she inspires me every time I see her. This gal bloomed just when I needed a sign that things really were going to get better, so she's always going to be extremely special to me. She brought me back to life ... and back to the forum to all of you, so she will always have a very special place in my heart. (And to tell the truth, I think she inspired some of the others in the greenhouse, too! Two other intergenerics that were near her are also throwing spikes ... and one of them is severely injured and barely has one decent bulb!)

Life and beauty are springing out of the sadness, and will quickly eclipse it, I believe.

I'm now making at least one trip a day down to the greenhouse in the basement, and I'm finding that I can do a little more each day. I do have bad days, but the good are outnumbering the bad now, and I can start to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Oh, and the orchids are on the upswing now, too. I'm BARELY keeping up, and I've had to say goodbye to some more plants recently, but if I do a little each day I've found I can keep them alive until I can get them spiking again.

Thanks for reading all my rambling... (or just looking at the pics, LOL)! I'd love to hear your comments!

I'm officially coming out of hiding! It's good to be back!!

[Roy]

Well done, looks great Jenn.

[stateless]

beautiful blooms and photos, it's surprising how much neglect orchids can take and still reward the grower, personally I think sometimes we fuss too much over them and kill them with kindness

[Ron-NY]

I used to have this one and yes it is a beauty!! Wishing you the best Jenn!

[sammywolffox]

Magnificent blooms--simply beautiful--I hope your health sees nothing but up sides.

[Anteater]

Beautiful orchid!

[ksriramkumar]

Fantastic story Jenn. Blooms are great. Wishing you all the very best and welcome back..we have been missing you

[catttan]

A beautiful Marfitch. So glad to hear that you are slowly coping and getting better.

[maggs]

Hello Jenn, there is always hope as long as we have life, glad to see that you are up and about though slowly but surely and taking care of orchids once more, that is the greatest therapy, I would like to share this with you if you do not already know, check the internet about Epsom salts it is one of the greatest things to help with pain and detoxing the body, just fill your bath with water as hot as you can stand, throw about two cups of Epsom salts into it and let it dissolve and lay in it for about twenty minutes or so it can do wonders and relaxes the nervous system, I had gotten knocked down earlier this year when two metal barriers fell over where they were dismantling them and struck me on my right collar bone I only got soft tissue damage, I am doing physiotherapy because I fell on my left side and could feel my insides shake I was scared, but I have used the bath twice so far and it is working wonders for me along with the therapy, all the pain has gone about 95% now and I will be back to first class in a while. I am in no means a young person but gardening and my orchids etc. keep me active cause I love to do that, so good luck to you. Lovely orchid there too

[OrchidAddict]

Hello Jenn, there is always hope as long as we have life, glad to see that you are up and about though slowly but surely and taking care of orchids once more, that is the greatest therapy, I would like to share this with you if you do not already know, check the internet about Epsom salts it is one of the greatest things to help with pain and detoxing the body, just fill your bath with water as hot as you can stand, throw about two cups of Epsom salts into it and let it dissolve and lay in it for about twenty minutes or so it can do wonders and relaxes the nervous system, I had gotten knocked down earlier this year when two metal barriers fell over where they were dismantling them and struck me on my right collar bone I only got soft tissue damage, I am doing physiotherapy because I fell on my left side and could feel my insides shake I was scared, but I have used the bath twice so far and it is working wonders for me along with the therapy, all the pain has gone about 95% now and I will be back to first class in a while. I am in no means a young person but gardening and my orchids etc. keep me active cause I love to do that, so good luck to you. Lovely orchid there too

Oh Brenda, thank you!! I am sorry to hear about your injury but am glad to hear you are nearly back to 100%! I have been looking into all sorts of alternative remedies for this, because so far all the docs have to offer me is pain meds and physical therapy. Unfortunately PT only does so much, and it doesn't help a lot with spinal nerve injuries. The PT is mostly to help me regain the strength I've lost from spending so much time in bed. And the pain meds are BARELY keeping the pain at a tolerable level (I'm having a very bad day today unfortunately. If it were a better day I'd probably be enthusiastically saying that I'm much improved. Pbbbbtttt....)

I have to ask my doc about soaking in baths... I have these pain patches I have to wear on my skin for transdermal medication, and I think I remember something about not getting into super-hot water because it increases the uptake of the drug and you can accidentally overdose. But perhaps lukewarm water will work too? I think I remember reading something about Epsom salts being good for detoxing!

Anyway, I'm probably oversharing here ... sorry to clutter up the thread with all the medical talk! Then again, if anyone has any other ideas about how I can get my nerves to heal faster, feel free to clutter up the thread as much as you want! I'm open to any suggestions, no matter how crazy they may seem. At this point I think I'd be willing to scrub my feet with rabid squirrels if someone told me it would make the pain go away faster! LOL

I do agree that caring for the orchids is fantastic therapy, though! I just wish my body could handle more of it. All in time, I suppose...

---------- Post Merged at 05:56 PM ----------

A beautiful Marfitch. So glad to hear that you are slowly coping and getting better.

Thanks!! You know, I was looking at photos of other people's clones of this same name, and I find it fascinating how the bloom color can range from light lavender all the way to a deep plum like mine. I wonder which factors influence the coloring most... is it light? Temperature? A combination of the two?

I'm curious!