Orchid Quotes

“When the Devil was a woman,
When Lilith wound
Her ebony hair in heavy braids,
And framed
Her pale features all 'round
With Botticelli's tangled thoughts,
When she, smiling softly,
Ringed all her slim fingers
In golden bands with brilliant stones,
When she leafed through Villiers
And loved Huysmans,
When she fathomed Maeterlinck's silence
And bathed her Soul
In Gabriel d'Annunzio's colors,
She even laughed
And as she laughed,
The little princess of serpents sprang
Out of her mouth.
Then the most beautiful of she-devils
Sought after the serpent,
She seized the Queen of Serpents
With her ringed finger,
So that she wound and hissed
Hissed, hissed
And spit venom.
In a heavy copper vase;
Damp earth,
Black damp earth
She scattered upon it.
Lightly her great hands caressed
This heavy copper vase
All around,
Her pale lips lightly sang
Her ancient curse.
Like a children's rhyme her curses chimed,
Soft and languid
Languid as the kisses,
That the damp earth drank
From her mouth,
But life arose in the vase,
And tempted by her languid kisses,
And tempted by those sweet tones,
From the black earth slowly there crept,
Orchids -
When the most beloved
Adorns her pale features before the mirror
All 'round with Botticelli's adders,
There creep sideways from the copper vase,
Orchids-
Devil's blossoms which the ancient earth,
Wed by Lilith's curse
To serpent's venom, has borne to the light
Orchids-
The Devil's blossoms-

"The Diary Of An Orange Tree”
― Hanns Heinz Ewers, Nachtmahr: Strange Tales

“What turns an honest, good-looking guy like you into a theif?"
Scott couldn't help but smirk.
"I blame chocolate.”
― Geoffrey Knight, Scott Sapphire and the Emerald Orchid

“Weak sunlight slanted across the table, flecked with glimmering, floating dust motes, some of them swirling around the light blue petals. Confusion spread through her as she saw the inflorescence of glowing blooms. The broad ovoid leaves were clan and glossy, and the roots anchored among the crushed clay pottery shards had been carefully trimmed and kept damped.
The Blue Vanda hadn't sickened in Winterborne's care... it had thrived.
Helen leaned over the orchid, touching the beautiful arc of its stem with a single fingertip. Shaking her head in wonder, she felt a tickle at the edge of her chin, and didn't realize it was a tear until she saw it drop onto one of the Vanda's leaves.
"Oh, Mr. Winterborne," she whispered, and reached up to wipe at her wet cheeks. "Rhys. There's been a mistake.”
― Lisa Kleypas, Cold-Hearted Rake

“Did you know that only older forests grow the sort of fungi that feeds the variety of orchid called Goodyera pubescens—”

“You’re making that up.”

“I promise you, I’m not making up mushroom facts for your amusement.”

“Pubescens? Pubescent orchid?” He snorted. “Has it grown a little stupid mustache? Does it skateboard?”
― Brittany Cavallaro, A Question of Holmes

“Black fire orchid

Meaning: Desire to possess
Pyrorchis nig'ricans|Western Australia

Needs fire to flower. Sprouts from bulbs that may have lain dormant. Deep crimson streaks on pale flesh. Turns black after flowering, as if charred.”
― Holly Ringland, The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart

“Here are three things I know for sure:
1. When I was born, someone- I like to think it was my mother- wrapped me in a blue ball gown.
2. There is a color in this world that was named after a king's daughter, who always wore gowns that were made of exactly the same shade of blue. The stories about her make me wish sometimes I could have been friends with her; she smoked in public (at a time when women didn't), once jumped fully clothed into a swimming pool with the captain of a ship, often wore a boa constrictor around her neck, and another time shot at telegraph poles from a moving train.
3. My favorite story goes like this: once, on an island not far from here, there was a queen who climbed a tree waiting for her husband to return from a battle. She tied herself to a branch and vowed to remain there until he returned. She waited for so long that she slowly transformed into an orchid, which was an exact replica of the pattern on the blue gown she was wearing.
Here's one more thing that I know for sure is true.
On the day June told us she was going to hospital to bring you home, I was in the workshop pressing blue lady orchids. I've always loved them best because their centres are my favorite color: the color of the gown I was once wrapped in. The color of a king's wayward daughter favored. A color called Alice blue.”
― Holly Ringland, The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart

“Okay, fuck the sundial. We'll just go straight and eventually we'll get there. What I mean is that we'll get somewhere. Out of here. I mean, logically, we have to get out as long as we walk straight. I've done this millions of times. Whenever everything's killing me, I just say to myself, screw it, and go straight ahead.”
― Susan Orlean, The Orchid Thief

“He hopes the plants doesn't freeze to death before he can give it to her.
He pictures her face when she opens the bag and sees it. A whole load of dark purple flowers stuck onto a tiny bendy stem like a bunch of butterflies about to fly off. Exposed roots like knobbly toes climbing over the rim of the plastic pot as if the whole thing is planning to get out and do a runner first chance it gets. It's a moth orchid.”
― Ella Griffin, The Flower Arrangement

“He hopes the plant doesn't freeze to death before he can give it to her.
He pictures her face when she opens the bag and sees it. A whole load of dark purple flowers stuck onto a tiny bendy stem like a bunch of butterflies about to fly off. Exposed roots like knobbly toes climbing over the rim of the plastic pot as if the whole thing is planning to get out and do a runner first chance it gets. It's a moth orchid.”
― Ella Griffin, The Flower Arrangement

“The orchid, queen of exoticism, a mute observer slow to reveal the mysteries of her petals. Would that I had such patience, too. -DB”
― Jan Moran, Scent of Triumph

“Blue lady orchid

Meaning: Consumed by love
Thelymitra crinita | Western Australia

Perennial spring-flowering orchid. Flowers are intensely blue and form a delicate star shape. Does not need a bushfire to stimulate flowering, but can be smothered by other vegetation, so periodic burns to restrict taller-growing shrubs are beneficial.”
― Holly Ringland, The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart

“The day on which she turned eleven, Grandfather Bill had presented her with her very own orchid.
"This is especially for you, Julia. Its name is 'Aerides odoratum,' which means 'children of the air.'"
Julia studied the delicate ivory and pink petals of the flower sitting in its pot. They felt velvety beneath her touch.
"Where does this one come from, Grandfather Bill?" she had asked.
"From the Orient, in the jungles of Chiang Mai in northern Thailand."
"Oh. What kind of music do you think it likes?"
"It seems particularly partial to a touch of Mozart," chuckled her grandfather. "Or if it looks like it's wilting, perhaps you could try some Chopin!”
― Lucinda Riley, The Orchid House

“Globe in hand, Grace slowly approached the big orchid, white and fragile and absolutely gorgeous. She very carefully slid the globe over it, and as she was doing so, she put her face into the center of the open flower, smiling as the breathtaking fragrance washed over her- luscious and nectared, candied apricots, airy notes of strange spice.”
― Jeffrey Stepakoff, The Orchard

“I gaze at the orchid sitting on his windowsill. It's wrapped in bamboo and tied with a purple tassel. Its yellow and green leaves are long and narrow, striped like a tiger's tail. The blooms are tiny, white, and fragrant.
"Fūkiran," my father says. "Grown since the Edo Period and collected by feudal lords as gifts to the shogun or emperor." He slides the office doors closed.
"I know." I smile because it's familiar. My mother has a woodblock of it above her nightstand. Neofinetia falcata.”
― Emiko Jean, Tokyo Ever After

“The canopy is high, like a cathedral, and I glide through a landscape of light and shadow. Ferns cascade from the trunks amid pink lichens the size of measle spots, and the cypress knees stick up from beneath the surface like the hats of submerged gnomes. I spot a delicate "Florida butterfly" orchid, with a heart-shaped blotch at its center, clinging to a trunk.”
― Virginia Hartman, The Marsh Queen

“One of the herbals I brought home from the library had a fascinating chapter on herbs and their connection to desire. For Elizabethans, a bundle of rosemary helped arrange an assignation, and an apple suggested libidinous intent. I picture Adlai's reaction to a sprig of rosemary left on his counter, or a juicy Fuji. Better yet, a "Florida butterfly" orchid from the swamp, since the same herbal had an entire page on the sensual properties of the orchid. It called the flower female----"open and inviting"----the root, male----"tuberous and reaching"----and the entire plant "hot and moist in operation.”
― Virginia Hartman, The Marsh Queen

“The necklace we are after is called the Wild Heart," Jack said. "It last sold at auction in November 2015 for $25 million. It features twenty-six oval-shaped flawless pink diamonds and a forty-carat heart-shaped pink diamond. Each diamond is enhanced by a cluster of oval-shaped green marquise emeralds supposedly crafted to resemble the leaves of the phalaenopsis orchid, but which in fact are more like dendrobiums that produce leaves that are opposite one another. The diamonds and emeralds are strategically placed to create a floral effect that makes the necklace resemble Orchidaceae. The gems are set in eighteen-carat white gold and precious platinum."
"He likes plants," I explained when I saw a few blank stares. "We met in the hellebore."
"It wasn't as romantic as it sounds," Jack said. "She trampled it underfoot like a herd of elephants. I had to go back the next night to repair the damage."
"I wasn't trying to make it sound romantic." I heaved a sigh. "I was explaining how I knew that you liked plants."
"They probably understood when you said, 'He likes plants.'" Jack's gaze drifted to Cristian. "At least some of them.”
― Sara Desai, To Have and to Heist