"The Big Sleep"

Lauren Bacall has just passed on, so I rewatched The Big Sleep for those special feels. I'm not gonna say much about it, because it's been discussed and analysed to death- with good reason. If you haven't seen it, you owe it to yourself, but you already knew that.

The plot is confusing and leaves the viewer with many questions that go unsolved.  What bugs me the most, I think, is this: why does the General grow orchids if he hates them so much?