One of my favorite flowers is a white orchid. The elegant arching stem supporting a cluster of blooms ... orchids are quietly bold, they appear delicate, fragile, but they have staying power. I love the luminscent petals. When I look at orchid petals very carefully, they remind me of microscopic pearls, little beads piled together to form a petal. And the vermillion throat ... unexpectedly frolicsome at the heart of the discreetly quiet white ... am amused laughing red. Orchids seem to express a secret world ... dangling on a stem which emerges from sturdy waxy leaves. I do love orchids.
And gardenias ... with their intoxocating scent. White again, their petals are relatively plumped and diffuse but if you touch a gardenia petal it will immediately begin to brown. Gardenias don't "keep" ... they disclose their beauty generously , but they wear themselves out, and have to be replenished frequently if kept as a cut flower ... gardenias are wildly exuberant. I wish they bloomed year round ...yes, that would be a wish well spent.
And then there is the lovely cyclamen ... a very special treat. The flowers emerge from thelush emerald foliage stretching stems, that seem to gently coax the bud along. Cyclamen are not shy with their wild bursting bloom ... from above they seem like wild horse manes dancing out enthusiastically behind ... unfettered ... but, and this is the surprise, the face of this flower remains private. You really have to want to see the origins of all the apparent abandon, because a cyclamen presents orchid like delicate flowers with delicate petals which appear to be as exuberant as awhole bouquet of gardenias, but cyclamen are demure. Yeah really. The flower looks back to the earth and the hosting leaves. The true beauty of a cyclamen can't be seen at first glance, the initial beauty disguises a sweet vulnerability ... cyclamen. Continuously unfolding ... complexity expressed in a potted plant ... simply breath taking.
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