Archive for the 'Photos' Category

More Photos from Orchids in the Park

Monday, September 9th, 2024

Every year, Orchids in the Park has plenty to offer. I’m always amazed by the flowers, so diverse that it seems impossible that they’re all related. In addition to my earlier post, here are more examples of their incredible variety. With so many stunning blooms, sweet scents, and friendly orchid lovers, it was another successful […]

Big Crowds Attended Orchids in the Park 2024

Friday, August 9th, 2024

The San Francisco Orchid Society put on its annual Orchids in the Park show at the end of July. It was a great event, crowded with plants and with people. The displays included lots of amazing flowers, like the Lady Slippers shown in the first row of photos above. An impressive variety of orchids, from […]

Head to Orchids in the Park This Weekend in San Francisco

Tuesday, July 23rd, 2024

San Francisco’s annual Orchids in the Park sale happens this weekend! It will be held on Saturday, July 27th and Sunday, July 28th, in the SF County Fair Building at 9th Avenue and Lincoln Way. There will be lots of vendors, orchid care demonstrations, activities for kids, and loads of amazing flowers. These photos from […]

More Photos from the US Botanic Garden

Tuesday, July 9th, 2024

A dozen orchids in my previous post about the US Botanic Garden (USBG) were just the start. The first row of this post includes three more. There’s a great Pabstia species, and then a sunny, dangling Dendrobium. The third picture shows a very unusual orchid. Eulophia petersii is a desert species. Few orchids live in […]

Hot Summer Orchids

Thursday, June 20th, 2024

Mark Twain didn’t actually say “the coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco,” but that quirky quote certainly describes our unusual weather. With chilly fog blowing in from the cold Northern Pacific, today we’re greeting summer in Pacifica with a high temperature of 52°F (11°C.) While other parts of the country […]

Capital Orchids at the US Capitol

Sunday, June 9th, 2024

Did you know that you can find remarkable orchids only a few steps from the US Capitol? The United States Botanic Garden (USBG) sits on the National Mall, just across from Congress. It’s the oldest botanic garden in the country, and has great outdoor and indoor plant collections, including orchids. Dave and I recently visited, […]

A Sparkling White Masdevallia Orchid

Monday, May 20th, 2024

These stunning white Masdevallia flowers are remarkable for their beauty, and also for what they show about orchid variability. Masdevallia coccinea is native to Colombia, where it lives high in the Andes from 8000-11,000 feet (approx. 2500-3500 m.) Known in Spanish as la banderita (little flag,) this species comes in a range of distinct colors. […]

Orchid Show Shines in San Mateo

Friday, May 10th, 2024

At the end of April, Dave and I enjoyed attending a little orchid show in nearby San Mateo, south of San Francisco. The Peninsula Orchid Society and the Gold Coast Cymbidium Society joined forces for an event that was full of winning orchids. Elegant, exotic, weird, wonderful, large, and small were packed into wonderfully diverse […]

A Lovable Little Lepanthes Orchid

Friday, April 26th, 2024

For years, I’ve needed glasses to see small things. Despite that, I bought this lovable little Lepanthes orchid at February’s Pacific Orchid Expo. I knew that its blossoms would be tiny, colorful specks. A month after bringing it home, it popped open a flower, then another, and another. It’s kept going ever since. The charming […]

Spring Equinox Orchids

Tuesday, March 19th, 2024

As spring begins today, these orchids have been flowering in our garden over the winter. Regular readers of this blog won’t be surprised that this post is heavy on the Cymbidiums, which are in the six photos below. The non-Cymbidiums in the six photos above include a Zygo, a Laelia, an Epidendrum, a Giant Hyacinth […]