I love to multitask. For example, I have three dogs that I walk several times a day. When I leave the house, I tap the round button in the center of my Roomba automatic vacuum cleaner. So while I’m walking with Pez, Pilot, and Wink, I’m also vacuuming.

As I write this, I’m also multitasking. While typing I’m watching my 6-month old moth orchid going through the amazing steps of rebloom. Like my Roomba vacuum, which is engineered to sweep up dog hair from my floors, my orchid is also engineered to rebloom. And it is sitting poised and ready to launch forth a stem of perfect moth orchid flowers.

Just as my Roomba needs to be charged in order to run, so does my orchid, in a way. It has to live in the right light, get the right amount of water, (and get a fertilizer snack once in a while). Read more about how to make your orchids last and rebloom. 

First, my orchid shot out a new stem. When I say “shot”, I’m not totally exaggerating. The new stem seemed to appear from nowhere (actually the base of the plant) and it grew sideways very quickly. Then little nubs appeared along the length of the stem. Every day the nubs grew.

Here’s my orchid getting ready to bloom.

I can’t tell you how unexpected and lovely it is to get up one morning and find that your orchid has decided to gift you with more flowers. Each day the buds grew bigger, like little balloons slowly being filled with air. Moth orchids bloom from the base of the stem, so these buds get larger first.

Here’s my orchid on its way to a full stem of gorgeous flowers.

My dog-hair-devouring Roomba vacuum makes me look like a great housekeeper. And my reblooming orchid makes me look like a superior indoor gardener. 

Oh yeah, it’s great to be a multitasker.

Written by Karen Weir-Jimerson