Jackie's orchid

In this posting you can see pictures of Jackie's orchid. I got Jackie her orchid for her awhile ago, nearly 2 years ago, when she had her kidney removed. At the time, I felt that a real plant as opposed to flowers would be better. She always had a love for orchids so I thought that this plant would be a nice gesture especially since the first orchid that she had didn't last that long.

I believe this orchid is called a Sherry Baby orchid....whatever that means. Anyway, to make a long story short, the orchid's flowers lasted a long time...probably over two months. After the flowers and the stem died we didn't know what to expect. Did that mean that the orchid was dying? Were flowers supposed to grow from the stem? To get it to flower, a tropical plant specialist suggested leaving it outside in the summer. The cold at night might help it to flower because it would stress it. However, that only resulted in the orchid getting sun burned leaves.

One day in October, Jackie noticed that her orchid was starting to grow a stem. At first, it was believed that it was just a new bunch of leaves. Instead, the stem just kept growing and growing until it got to about two feet long. Then little purple/pink buds started to grow. Then it began to bloom. These pictures were taken about a month ago. The flowers are still this nice looking.

Who knew something so pretty could grow out of what I would call a really ugly plant?