Blue is a rare floral color, but the vast orchid family doesn’t disappoint, so it is possible to find true blue orchids. Some feature brilliant tones, while others have subtle hues. There are also imposters. Blue Moth Orchids in the supermarket are actually white blooms which are injected with dye. Many orchid varieties with “blue” […]
Summers on the Northern California coast are typically cool and foggy, and this year has been no exception. That allows us to revel in cool-growing Cymbidium, Epidendrum, and Masdevallia orchids, as well as other plants like fuchsias, poppies, and nasturtiums. Their bright colors stand out against the green background, enticing bees, butterflies, hummingbirds, and humans. […]
Alien-looking Lady Slippers beg the question of how strange flowers from another planet might be. While this Paph comes from right here on Earth, it looks like something from a sci-fi movie. It’s an unidentified hybrid that I bought a few years ago in a grocery store. These photos show various angles of this wondrous […]
About five years ago, I bought this little Sarcochilus hybrid at an orchid show, and it’s been a reliable bloomer. It pumps out brilliant red flowers from a four inch (10 cm) pot for a month or two in late spring and early summer. They’re such a rich red that my cell phone camera can’t […]
Thanks so much to my friend Carola, who has generously let me post her photos of Putty Root Orchids near her home in Virginia. She’s taken pictures over the seasons, so they illustrate a year in the life of this extraordinary North American species. These orchids boast handsome leaves with alternating green and silvery-white pinstripes. […]
Celebrate today’s summer solstice with photos from San Francisco’s exquisite Japanese Tea Garden. It’s the oldest public Japanese garden in the country, and one of many wonders of Golden Gate Park. Dave and I went there recently after we were fully vaccinated. We hadn’t been in years, and we really enjoyed visiting again. It features […]
My indoor orchid shelves don’t have much room to spare, so if I buy a warm grower, it’s got to be a miniature. At the 2020 Pacific Orchid Expo, I spotted this little charmer for sale. Leptotes pohlitinocoi has a name that I can’t pronounce, but this small Cattleya relative is definitely worth the shelf […]
Revel in spring blooms with these native wildflowers growing by the ocean near San Francisco. Mori Point is a 32 acre (13 hectare) park in Pacifica, California with stunning coastal views. It’s part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, which encompasses much of Pacific coastline outside the Golden Gate. Dave and I recently took […]
Mother’s Day is a day for moms, and also a day for orchids. If you’re gazing at a new orchid gift, and wondering what to do with it, don’t worry. Most orchids don’t deserve their finicky reputations, and aren’t tough to grow. The most commonly sold types are Moth Orchids, like those in the row […]
Every now and then, I manage to kill an orchid. Recently, it was my Ada aurantiaca. The species has been renamed Brassia aurantiaca, but I bought it under the Ada name, so that’s how I usually refer to it. After it died, I realized that we didn’t take many photos of it over the years. […]
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