Hotel Orchid

May 17, 2011 - 8:47 PM by Jessica

An Israeli orchid

So there’s this new hotel in town, for orchids. Based out of the Wendy Nursery in Modiin, the garden center offers overnight stays for about two shekels per night, and it’s useful for the owners of these delicate buds that can’t be left on their own.

According to several accounts, the pensione began when orchid owners started coming to the nursery with their orchids’ medical issues, which slowly grew into a kind of orchid kennel for orchid owners going on vacation. The nursery offers heat and humidity for the orchids, weather conditions they love most, purified water, appropriate lighting and a special growing soil of tree sawdust and peat soil.

As a current, nervous owner of a small orchid, I appreciate the effort. I’ve been told to talk to my orchid, feed it about half a cup of water every few days and keep it in the same place, without moving it around too much. Given that I knew about another orchid convalescent home, the one in Kibbutz Maale Hachamisha, I knew I could always head there if I was having serious orchid troubles. (They charge NIS 7 per month for orchid guests.) Plus, Modiin’s a little far for orchid hospitality, and it’s not really on the way to the airport.

The thing is, I won’t house my orchid elsewhere when I’m away this summer, because I’m not really the orchid type. Not that I don’t care if my orchid lives or dies, but I’ll just have my sister water it. But most orchid owners? The obsessive ones who belong to the Israel Orchid Society at the Jerusalem Botanical Gardens and meet to compare species? They’ll give these orchid hotels plenty of business, and hey, competition is a good thing.

If you’re partial to drinking sahlab, the hot beverage made from orchid flour, track down the van selling sahlab and other Turkish treats in a glen off Road #443 (just after the Ben Shemen exit when heading toward Jerusalem).

Happy orchid enjoyment.

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