I like orchids, especially the Phalaenopsis and Dendrobium species, and over the years I’ve bought a fair few, including several for my mother (who’s been dead now for almost 8 years) although probably not far into double figures. Growers have bred a huge range of flower colours, and those flowers last for weeks – anything up to 8 weeks – so although the flowering plants sold in supermarkets etc. aren’t cheap, you do get value for money.

But why does everyone think that these orchids are difficult to grow and have to be thrown out when they’ve finished flowering? If you follow a few simple rules they actually aren’t difficult. And they’ll come back into flower, usually once a year, although you’ll probably never get the magnificent flower spikes the growers can with specialised heating and lighting. I wrote about my rules for keeping orchids some years ago. (My rules say to stake the flower spike, but frankly I never bother these days, but allow them to arch gracefully as they will.)

You won’t manage to keep every orchid going and some will resist flowering again. However I still have four which have just come back into flower, and yesterday I took the opportunity to try photographing them – I don’t find them easy; they need a dark background to show well, and there’s always extra flowers your don’t want in the frame. These images are the result.

The small purple stripy orchid above is indeed a small cultivar. It is one I bought for my mother, so maybe 10 years ago, and every year it produces this lovely spray of half-size flowers. The others are “full size” with large flowers around 9cm across; they’re all some years old and mostly produce only a couple of flowers.

These are all Phalaenopsis orchids. By contrast I’ve never managed to get my one Dendrobium back into flower; but I keep it going in the hope it might one day it might forget itself and put up a new flower spike.