If, like me, you’re very unlikely to make it to London in time, you can still enjoy this article about the show in The Baltimore Sun. They have a nice photo gallery that includes 4 pictures of Phals.

This BBC article features an award-winning Miltonia display. There’s a good photo gallery there, too.

AsiaOne News has a story about Queen Elizabeth admiring some Taiwanese orchids during her visit to the show.

Also check out this article from the Telegraph, “Guns and chainsaws highlight plight of the rainforests” about an award-winning display that pleads for conservation. It’s an essential message, even among all those dazzling flowers.

There were lots of Lady Slippers on display, too. The next photo shows a Paphiopedilum, or Paph, with the pouch that gives it a classic Lady Slipper shape. The second photo shows a Phragmipedium, or Phrag (pronounced “frag,”) another genus that falls in the Lady Slipper family. This species’ petals can hang down 2.5 feet (76 cm,) making them some of the largest flowers in the world. The third photo shows a Cypripedium, or Cyp (pronouced “sip.”) This species is commonly called the Kentucky Lady Slipper, and has a native range that stretches from Louisiana and Texas north to Ohio.

A few members of the bizarre Bulbophyllum family were also on display. Many flowers from this genus have unusual shapes and moving parts. Some species have foul scents to attract pollinating flies. Admire the flowers, but stick your nose in at your own risk!

Of course, most of the orchids smelled just fine. Other varieties on display included a Laelia, a Masdevallia, and another Vanda. Maybe I’ll need to rethink this orchids-with-ice thing after all.

This Ghost Orchid was part of an exhibit by Kim and Edgar Stehli of Windswept in Time Orchids. They’re located in Broadview Heights, Ohio, and can be reached by phone for sales at 440-838-5757. Ghost Orchids amaze with their stunning, fragrant white flowers and lack of leaves. They grow by using chlorophyll in their roots. Some of these photos show the greenish-white tangle of roots dangling behind the exotic flower. Ghost Orchids are native to swamps and coastal forests in South Florida, the Bahamas, and Cuba.

I’ll post more photos from Erie soon, but this remarkable bloom is my choice as the highlight of the show held in an ice rink. Even if I’m lucky enough to see another Ghost Orchid flower again, I’ll bet it won’t be so close to a Zamboni.

Have you ever seen a leafless orchid? Like the famous Ghost Orchid, the small Chiloschista orchid in the next two shots has chlorophyll in its roots. In the third photo, an unusual Australian Pterostylis does have leaves, although you can’t see them here. It’s known as the King Greenhood, and it’s related to the smaller greenhood species I keep.

These Masdevallias were also among the show’s spectacular specimens. Also in the Masdevallia family, the frilly and colorful leaves of this tiny Lepanthes compensate for its minuscule flowers.

Finally, strange Gongora flowers give the impression of flying birds. With petals stretched back like wings, they fly around their flower spike. These sweetly scented flowers last less than a week, and like the annual orchid show, require patience for next year after they’re gone.

Whether it’s new hybrid colors on a Cymbidium or an Epidendrum, or a fascinating Dendrobium species, each one is its own special delight. This year’s ‘Carnaval’ theme also added to the show’s flavor, as seen with an eye-catching Mardi Gras mask made from Cymbidiums.

With remarkable individual orchids and breathtaking mass displays, it’s easy to become engrossed by tens of thousands of orchids at the show. So if I saw you there and didn’t say hello, sorry about that. I was just a kid lost in a candy store.