John M. Setzler, Jr.

This photo has been over two years in the making. It’s not a great photo either. This is a photo of the first orchid bloom from a plant I raised myself. Someone gave me this orchid over two years ago, and it was almost dead. The media in its pot had deteriorated into something that almost resembled black dirt, so the roots weren’t getting enough air and they were being over saturated at the same time. When I received it, I took it out of its pot and re-potted it with fresh sphagnum moss and started trying to revive it.

I have had other orchids in the past and never managed to keep them alive. Most of the time, I would simply forget about them and let them dry out. At this point, I have two orchids that I have kept alive for over two years, but this is the first one that has produced a bloom for me. This bloom is not nicely positioned on the stalk for photos, but I wanted to make the shot anyway. It’s been open for less than 24 hours, so it’s color will continue to develop. The bloom stalk has 10 buds on it at the moment, and I’m hoping it will have more later. It’s a rather large orchid so hopefully it will bloom for quite a while. The next bloom that will open on this plant will be in a lot better position to photograph, so hopefully I’ll have a nicer image soon…