CCJC Audio Podcast Episode 00033 Season 2
Ghost Orchid Plant Tales
Cajun Chronicles Podcast Corporation’s very own Francoise LeBlanc, is a force of nature as one of our podcast Co-Producers. Her mother, Madame Estelle has been gone for decades, but she left her much pampered Ghost Orchid (Dendrophylax lindenii) for Francoise to tend to. They named her Gigi as a delicate, ethereal bloom that defied cultivation and was moved around to many locations. It now thrives in her Francoise’s courtyard garden, proof again that inherited New Orleans green thumbs thrive in certain families regardless of where life takes them.
Francoise’s mother, Madame Estelle, a real Cajun sorceress of the garden, had whispered secrets to the orchid for years before it was in her care. She was coaxing it to bloom with the scent of a thousand sweet nothings incandescent starlit nights. Now, it's one of those secret unseen orb protectors of her daughter and Gigi, she still watches over it.
The orchid itself, however, has a secret life. Every night, when the moon hangs at its lowest and the Crescent City sleeps, it would unfurl its ghostly luminous pearly petals, revealing a tiny, mischievous smiling face. Backlit by translucent pure white other worldly petals, was Gigi, the Ghost Orchid Guardian, a playful sprite born from the orchid's own high vibration spectral essence.
Gigi, with a mischievous glint in her ice jade eyes, would flit around the overgrown Maidenhair Ferns, playing pranks on the neighborhood feral cats. She'd weave shimmering webs of silver moonlight, tripping up unsuspecting Rock pigeons. Pity the gardener who dared to prune the overgrown jasmine without Francoise’s permission – Gigi would shower them with a torrent of hallucinogenic pollen, turning their world into a pulsating and throbbing blaze of Mardi Gras colors.
One night a young, ambitious courtyard neighbor who fancied himself a gardener named Jacques D’Entremont arrived, determined to conquer the Ghost Orchid. He scoffed at Francoise’s instructive whispers, dismissing them as old school garden tales. He erected a complex system of lights, humidity domes, and nutrient drips, convinced he could outsmart nature and force Gig at her age to step up her seed dispersal.
Gigi, enraged, retaliated. She summoned her Giant Sphinx Moth pollinators and ordered them to help her create courtyard garden chaos. The irrigation system malfunctioned, showering Jacques with rain barrel water. The lights flickered ominously, casting grotesque shadows that danced across his face.
Then, the pièce de résistance was when she summoned a swarm of mischievous flashing Photinus and their femme fatale girlfriend fireflies, blinding Jacques with their dazzling light. Just for the heck of it, she also summoned a swarm of glowing Pyractomena fireflies to really confuse him.
Defeated and soaked, Jacques fled the garden, muttering curses. Gigi, triumphant, curled up her orchid's ghostly petals, humming a mischievous tune. Since she was blind, the old lady Francoise couldn’t see all that transpired. But her mother Madame Estelle was watching from the ethereal realm, smiled. Some things, beings like her she knew, were best left undisturbed.
Jo-El, Francoise’s Golden Retriever guide dog, ever watchful, was a tongue wagging tornado of approval and agreement, "Wag wag! Let the sun shine! Let the rain fall! It's the natural way! The small things in life we shouldn’t disturb, don’t mess with Mother Nature.”
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