I am an orchid superhero.

I discovered that my local supermarket is an excellent place to pick up beautiful bargain orchids.

The new arrivals are truly spectacular and I am especially partial to the purple and yellow mini orchids. However supermarkets do not have a good track record for looking after their plants.

Since I became a fanatic a few months ago I have spotted several desperate specimens on the point of death. I hate to see orchids suffer so I feel compelled to buy them and try my best to restore them to health.

It was a couple of months ago when I spotted three orchids on the point of death. I went to customer services and bartered them down to one pound each. As I put the orchids in my trolley the jeering started from the staff. “I wouldn’t buy those love. They look like they’re not long for this world.” As I went through the checkout with my miserable looking plants the assistant commented that they looked like they were dead. “How will you bring them back to life?” she asked. I left the store to chuckles from male staff standing near the door.

Now all three orchids have shiny green leaves and stalks with prominent buds about to burst forth in the coming weeks. I have a dream of waiting until they are in their full glory and then taking them in to the supermarket to show all the doubters.

Today I was at the supermarket again and against my best judgment could not resist checking out the orchids. They had them outside in full sun – an instant killer for orchids. However as they were still in their plastic packaging it had shielded them partially from the rays.

There were some that were still lovely but once again my eye caught two dead looking plants that had been marked down for 35p. This time the assistants made no comment as I left the store also clutching two beautiful mini orchids in yellow and purple.

You may remember the film Death Becomes Her where two aging Hollywood divas become immortal. They look good in a weird sort of way but when anything touches them bits start falling off them. It was the same with the purple orchid. When I took it away from the store it had flowers and leaves. After I watered it all of the leaves but one fell off leaving a bare stalk. But I have faith it will survive. Watch this space.

What you know about gardening would fit on the back of a postage stamp my mother said.

I always thought I had the kiss of death where plants were concerned. A work colleague gave me a beautiful pot plant to celebrate a house warming. Within weeks it was dead.

Other pot plants I owned over the years succumbed to a similar fate regardless of how much I watered them.

It was when I inherited three orchids from my mother that things changed.

My mother suffered a major stroke, which left her with dementia and other serious health problems.

She was incapable of looking after her orchids, which had been her pride and joy.

At first it was a hassle to be left looking after them with all the other things I had to deal with.

The orchids were left to fend for themselves for months.

Then one day I was at a garden centre when I spotted a beautiful purple and white Phalaenopsis orchid.

I instantly fell in love. I just had to have that orchid. After a long conversation with the staff I took it home and took loving care of it.

That loving care then extended to the other three orchids I already owned but which had languished until now.

Once a week I would religiously water them under the tap for a couple of minutes before allowing them to drain off for the rest of the day.

I graduated to feeding them with specialized orchid spray every few days and even took to spraying them twice a day with water.

It was not long before I realised that my local supermarket sold orchids for a fraction of the price charged by the garden centre.

Every week I started snapping up bargain price orchids, all Phalaenopsis but of the most amazing colours – yellows with pink centres, whites with pink, deep purples, lime greens and mini orchids.

I now own 17 Phalaenopsis orchids which crowd the windowsills of my small northern semi-detached home.

There is something almost addictive about orchids.

Maybe I did inherit my mother’s green thumb after all.