Orchid
Phalaenopsis
“The long game of the flower world. One Phalaenopsis on a windowsill will give you months of quiet, unfolding beauty.”
— ROSIE
Rosie's Take
I resisted orchids for years. They felt like office-lobby plants — corporate, polished, trying too hard. And then someone gave me a white Phalaenopsis in a simple terracotta pot, and I put it on my kitchen windowsill, and I understood.
The thing about orchids is that they reward slowness. One morning a bud cracks open and you notice the way the petals are faintly veined in pink, like the inside of a shell. A week later another one opens. They unfurl over weeks, not days, which is the opposite of how most cut flowers work, and there's something deeply calming about that pace.
I've come around to loving the white ones best — there's a purity to them that isn't cold, it's more like clean linen or fresh snow. But the deeper pinks and the speckled varieties have their own charm, like someone flicked a paintbrush across each petal.
They last for months, which makes the price feel more reasonable when you think about it. A good Phalaenopsis will bloom for eight, sometimes ten weeks before resting. And they come back — I have one that's been reflowering on my windowsill for three years now. For something with a reputation for being difficult, they're remarkably forgiving if you just leave them alone.
Where to Buy
If you want to try orchid for yourself, here's where I'd point you:
“The Blossomist do a gorgeous potted Phalaenopsis that arrives looking like something from a magazine — I sent one to my mum last Christmas.”
Order This Flower →“Appleyard's orchid plants come beautifully presented and they last — mine from them is the one that's still going three years on.”
Order This Flower →✿ From the folklore cabinet
The name 'Phalaenopsis' means 'moth-like,' because an eighteenth-century botanist thought the flowers looked like tropical moths in flight. The Victorians were obsessed with orchids — 'orchid fever' caused plant hunters to risk their lives in jungles for a single specimen. Thankfully the ones on my windowsill came from the garden centre.
