This is an orchid given to my girlfriend by an office mate. It has done fantastically well in it's paper coffee mug. The damned thing won't die! Not that I have tried, but I have forgotten about it a time or two. My orchid loving friend says that a lot of people throw orchids away after having received them as gifts, because they lose their flowers. That doesn't mean that they are dead! Don't throw out a living orchid! Put it in a coffee cup, give it to a friend.