The Vanilla Flower: They Require Investment but It’s Worth It
Flowers are a splendid creation. They add joy, warmth, and love to our lives. They are found everywhere in the city, farms, houses, streets, and events. There are so many varieties of flowers that can take your breath away.
Among the flowers, the orchid represents the largest family of flowering plants with over 25,000 species and over 100,000 varieties. Some of them grow easily and others need special care such as vanilla flowers that are surprisingly beautiful and intriguing. These flowers smell so good and are used for many purposes, especially culinary ones. All of that makes them very popular and wanted flowers.
In this article, we are going to develop the following points:
* Generalities about Vanilla Flower
* Particularities of Vanilla Orchid
* Can Vanilla Flower Grow in a Domestic Environment?
* Vanilla Flower Fertilization
* Virtues of Vanilla.
Generalities about Vanilla Flower
Vanilla is a climbing vine native to Central America, up to 15 m long that can live 10 to 12 years. It has a woody stem with adventitious roots, oval leaves, and greenish flowers. It belongs to the class of monocots, the subclass of Liliidae, the order of orchids, and to the genus Vanilla.
Among the many species in the genus Vanilla that count around 110, only two are cultivated for commercial purposes. These are Vanilla Planifolia and Vanilla Tahitensis.
Flowers are grouped by eight or 10 and form small bouquets in the axils of the leaves. They bloom only for one day and rarely more than one flower mature at the same time. White, greenish or pale yellow, they have the classic structure of an orchid flower despite having a regular appearance.
Particularities of Vanilla Orchid
Vanilla orchid, also called Vanilla Planifolia, is native to the humid tropics of Mexico. Like most orchids, it is an epiphytic plant: it is attached to plant support usually a tree, using its fleshy aerial roots. The plant produces a flexible and little branched liana, which can reach 20 meters in length. Its leaves are oval, thick and shiny. Flowering takes place during the dry season in a natural environment. However, in a greenhouse or indoors, the orchid can bloom between spring and summer. Flowering lasts three months. Along the liana, you can find slightly fragrant pale green and yellow flowers.
Can Vanilla Flower Grow in a Domestic Environment
It is possible to grow a vanilla flower indoors; however, the beautiful flower is very demanding. It needs a lot of light without direct sun, heat and enough humidity. The dark winters often compromise its flowering, but at least you are going to benefit from its foliage, especially if you plant the variety with variegated foliage.
To put the odds on your side, reserve a very bright location just behind a window, or even better, a heated veranda in winter. You should add a very draining substrate enriched with a little potting soil to keep moist and mist the foliage regularly. Let the liana hang on to a stake. You must be patient because this orchid only flowers when the liana reaches 4 to 5 meters in length, and the overall process is very long and highly demanding.
Vanilla Flower Fertilization
After providing the correct environment, you should place the plant near the chosen stake and guide its stem by attaching it. After a few months, it can climb alone and then produce aerial roots, which can replant naturally on the ground and can cling to the support to climb higher.
Its fertilization could not take place without the intervention of an external intermediary. It is carried out naturally in its region of origin by endemic bees. Far from its original environment, its fertilization must, therefore, be done manually.
After fertilization, the ovary, which served as a peduncle, turns into a hanging pod of 12 to 25 centimeters long. These green and still odorless pods already contain thousands of tiny seeds. They are released by bursting ripe fruit. However, to develop their flavor, the pods are harvested when they are still green before maturity and should undergo a very special treatment.
Virtues of Vanilla
The virtues of vanilla are numerous and yet they are still very little-known nowadays. Vanilla acts on intestinal well-being because it facilitates and stimulates digestion. It can also be an excellent aphrodisiac, capable of boosting libido. It is also excellent for our nervous system. Indeed, vanilla can help us to decrease our stress level but also our physical and intellectual fatigue, while improving our memory and our concentration. If you have a little blues, consuming vanilla may help you calm down.
Besides, by being naturally sweet and low in energy, it can also be a perfect slimming ally to help you lose extra pounds.
In your yogurts or your cakes, it can easily replace part of the sugar that you usually put in, while flavoring them delicately. In cosmetics, vanilla is also recognized for its regenerating properties, as it is rich in polyphenols that restructures the skin by acting against cellular aging.
Vanilla flowers vary in size and shape. Many of them grow in tropical forests and produce delicate flowers in a beautiful greenish color.
Vanilla is a giant vine that is native to Central America where Totonaco Indians used to cultivate it. Although they are hard to grow and take time to flourish, they are worthy of every minute of care for their virtues. They have a sweet amazing taste, especially when added to delicious recipes. Vanilla orchids represent deference and humility, innocence and purity, elegance and beauty. They have a good stimulating impact on our health. Above all their smell is just extraordinary.
Therefore, they are the perfect flower to grow in your home or to buy to cheer your place up and put a smile on your face.
