Several months ago, my dad surprised me with a wonderful gift. “I bought you a miniature orchid for your desk,” he said.

It joined a growing (pun intended) collection of plants on my desk, though I’m not sure those other plants are sufficiently challenging for me to claim a green thumb yet. My jade plant, snake plant, money tree, aloe, and succulent are all low maintenance. 

I’d never taken care of an orchid before, and when I read about it online, it sounded almost as difficult as a bonsai I’d had many years ago that had not lived very long.

But the orchid’s delicate purple flowers were beautiful. After they had all fallen off, I was determined to try to keep the orchid alive. Hopefully, I could encourage it to bloom again.

I watered it with ice cubes according to the instructions. I bought a plant fertilizer. And I even tried my hand at pruning the stems.

Then something horrible happened. The stems turned brown and shriveled up. 

Had I done something wrong? Was the plant dead?

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