AboutOrchids

In Defense of Plants has a great podcast about orchid diversity with Dr. Tatiana Arias, who is a botanist at Marie Selby Botanical Gardens in Sarasota, Florida. Arias is trying to understand why orchids are so diverse, and what drives their evolution. Orchids boast incredible variety among 30,000 species worldwide. She’s particularly interested in her […]

Dave and I have been so fortunate to vacation in Hawaii over the years, but we’ve only been to Maui once. It was in 2005, before this old blog began. Maybe it’s a cliché to call it paradise, but it’s truly deserving of the title. These photos show a tiny fraction of the botanical wonders […]

In Turkey, Greece, and parts of the Middle East, salep is a beloved food. For thousands of years, the roots of local orchids have been used to make salep, which is turned into hot drinks, and also a type of thick ice cream. Almost two centuries ago, novelist Jane Austen described the delicious appeal of […]

Last weekend’s Orchids in the Park event was impressive as always. Even though it was smaller than San Francisco’s main winter expo, there was plenty to enjoy. For myself, having grown orchids for over three decades, it’s exciting to find something I’ve never seen before. The final photo in the third row shows a species […]

Among August’s shows, auctions, walks, and talks, I’ve listed the first orchid event I’ve ever found in Alaska, Gardening with Native Alaskan Orchids. It’s a workshop offered at Pratt Museum & Park in the small town of Homer, and it sounds like an amazing opportunity to learn about very hardy orchids. August 2 – 7 […]