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Tropical Orchids
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| Although I grow some hardy, terrestrial orchids in my garden, I thought I'd try my hand at a few of the tender, indoor varieties. |
| The photos below are of plants I had before my current "serious" interest in orchid culture began. I still have a couple of them, one of which is getting ready to bloom again. In the meantime I've grown several more plants. As I'm running out of space on this server for images, I've created a couple of albums at Webshots to house my orchid photos. I apologize for the popup windows that site uses. |
Webshots Orchid Albums
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| The first orchid I ever owned was this one, Cymbidium 'Glory.' It was beautiful and fragrant, but just too big to have around all the time. After it finished the flush of blooms seen here I had it divided and ended up with four of them! So I gave one to my mother, auctioned off the other two and eventually pitched the remaining one on the compost pile. Until I have a greenhouse of my own, a plant can't be too large if it can't stay outside all year. |
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| I know to a real orchid grower, this is probably no big deal. But to me
it was pretty cool. I bought this Paphiopedilum callosum plant at
an Orchid Guild auction and then kept it outside nestled among the culms
of one of my potted bamboos. One day I came home after a thunderstorm to
find the bamboo blown off the deck and the orchid and it's medium scattered
across the driveway. I got it repotted and it lived. Other than that, it's
gotten no special treatment for me and it bloomed the following spring!
So, if you have an orchid that's reluctant to flower, I suggest you throw
it on the driveway. |
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| This Paphiopedilum Hamana Wave x Red Hawk was an impulse purchase at an orchid show. I got it in bloom to guarantee that I would see at least one orchid flower in my house that year. I also purchased several other small plants in this genus that have not yet flowered. |
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