Central Virginia Organic Gardener

"And 'tis my faith that every flower enjoys the air it breathes." - William Wordsworth, 1798

Saturday, March 26, 2011

Love it or Hate It? (Number 2)

This is number 2 in my new occasional feature "love it or hate it?"
I saw these phalaenopsis (moth) orchids first being unloaded at the floral section of a local grocery store and had an immediate reaction (below). I took this photo at an orchid display in the conservatory at Ginter Gardens on March 15. The label has the name of the plant, then reads "color enhanced by chemicals" meaning that blue dye or a chemical that eventually turns blue was added to the plant. Moth orchids are becoming very inexpensive to buy due to cloning- most every one you get at a grocery or big box store is a tissue cultured clone. So, what do you think? Love it or hate it? My reply:
This is a definite hate it. I have never enjoyed artificially colored or enhanced flowers- nature does a great job and we just muck it up. Green carnations on St. Pat's Day, glitter poinsettias at Christmas- you can keep 'em. And keep this blue orchid too. This is one effect of cheap orchids-they are so cheap we can now make them look cheap, too.
Happy gardening!

2 comments:

Anita said...

Natural is better...unless it's my hair color - salt and pepper. I'm afraid to let it grow out to see how much salt there is now. lol

Judy Thomas said...

I was probably not as harsh about this fake blue orchid in my post as I really feel. I like Ginter, and I like going there, but!!! This was atrocious!
(I stopped fussing with my hair years ago- the salt is getting sprinkled more and more!)