My Mother's Orchid Plant from our La Mirada Home

This was one of my mother's favorite plants when I was a kid growing up. My step father Webb planted it into the side of our palm tree and there it grew for many years. When mom moved to Yorba Linda to be close to our growing family it traveled with her there, and then made several more trips with her as I had to move her from independent living to assisted care to 24/7 care as her Alzheimer's disease worsened. She passed away last March 3 and wouldn't you know that her orchid's blooms began opening on that very day a year after she passed. I feel her presence around me all the time, especially in my garden. When I was a teenager I worked at Ann's Flowers in Buena Park and learned to make old lady corsages so my mom would always ask me to make her and my Aunt Elena an Easter Sunday corsage with these blooms. Now this plant sits quietly in our "Serenity Garden" and comes to life once a year with these lovely flowers. I remember when I was ten years old and she brought this orchid back from a trip to Hawaii in her suitcase hoping not to get caught. That was before those x-ray scanning machines :) Thank you mommy for instilling the love of gardening into me and my children.