Orchids and childhood memories

photo source

photo source

Orchids! 

Yes I’ve been thinking about a wedding bouquet for some time and no I’m not getting married…yet. It comes to mind when I see Stargazers since they are my sisters’ wedding bouquets. I want something different and I also want it to be the same. My eldest sister’s bouquet is white Stargazers while my other sister’s bouquet is pink ones. They are both very pretty and sweetly fragrant. However, the available colors left are not to my liking. My sister said the other colors are orange and yellow. Uuuhh… not really my type. If only there are bluish-white Stargazers then I would definitely go for them! Instead, I decided to go for orchids. I know they would be expensive but they are really beautiful. Orchids are also part of my childhood so they hold such sentimental value for me.

When I was young, our mother had an orchid garden which she tends to meticulously. She sells them to people who will resell them at markets. She spends most of her free time tending to them, fertilizing them (which resulted to her hands getting “poisoned” due to the chemicals from fertilizers) while singing. I would sometimes follow her around but stopped when she went deeper into the garden because I hate bugs and the more plants there are the more bugs and creepy crawlies lurk at the sideways.

We don’t have that garden anymore because the effort of growing them took a toll on mother so she sold the last of the orchids and stopped. She still maintains a garden with low maintenance plants which she enjoys taking care of without the strain similar to an orchid garden. She also has little vegetable “gardens” for our consumption because she really wants to go organic on our diet. I kinda wish I have a green thumb like hers. I haven’t really tried my luck yet but maybe in the future I will. I also like organic food but it’s really expensive.

Anyway, so there’s the background on why I would like to have orchids as my wedding bouquet. It’s nostalgic and I want mother to remember the old times she took care of her beauties as her daughter walks down the aisle. I still catch her looking longingly at orchids sold at markets or malls. She must be remembering the happy times she spent at her orchid garden.