Attribution: WFinch, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
By Bill Stokes
Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that the keeper and Phyllis are struggling with the emotional outfall of having house-sat for neighbor Marsha and Jack’s orchid plant while they were off on a west coast visit. Simple instructions were to give the orchid one ice cube a week.
It had been Phyllis’s hope that the orchid would blossom before the owners reclaimed possession, and to that end she kept a careful watch on several swelling buds and faithfully gave the orchid its weekly ice cube.
The keeper, with his inclination to be more forceful, struck up a conversation with the orchid, telling it that if it did not get busy with blossoming it might not get its weekly ice cube and in fact might find itself out on the balcony with the frozen geranium.
There is obviously some plant psychology going on here in that as once being a “Master Gardener” Phyllis is comfortable in the company of plants; and while the keeper may be at ease in a corn field or with dandelions he feels intimidated by and inferior to an orchid.
When the orchid goes back to its home it will likely blossom in a burst of relief and celebration. Phyllis can go visit it if she wants to but the keeper is not going with her, no offense to Marsha and Jack, but the keeper does not want to risk damage to his fragile ego from an egotistically conditioned plant.
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