Pansy Orchids, or Miltoniopsis, have brilliant colors, sweet scents, and delightful waterfalls. This popular genus resembles pansies, and features pink, yellow, red, purple, or white blooms. Colorful patterns on their flower lips appear to flow downwards, and are called waterfalls. There’s lots of confusion between Miltoniopsis and Miltonia. Miltonias are a closely related genus, requiring […]
Social media has spawned some very bizarre, and very fake, orchid care videos. They deceive just to get clicks, likes, and ad money, featuring outrageous solutions to grab your attention. I don’t want to share any of these videos here, because I don’t want to give them more views, but it’s likely you’ve seen them. […]
After a wet winter, our spring garden is full of orchids, especially Cymbidiums. Some of the flowers were mangled by strong rains, winds, and hail, but there’s still an impressive display. Along with the Cymbidiums in this post, there are also Masdevallias, a Coelogyne, an Epidendrum, and a Dendrobium. Originating from the Himalayas, the Andes, […]
After years of drought, we don’t typically complain about rainy days in California. More than three weeks of storms, however, led to lots of complaints. From December 26th to January 19th, we received approximately 20 inches (50.8 cm) of precipitation, including a single day when we had over 5 inches (12.7 cm.) We also had […]
Over a dozen years ago, I was at an orchid show here in California, talking with a Hawaiian grower. I remember him saying that his orchids hadn’t gone dormant properly that year because they had a “hot winter.” That paradoxical phrase stuck with me. It seemed like an omen of climate change. Now it’s 2022, […]
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. […]
I love this gorgeous Mexican species, Laelia gouldiana, but our garden pests annoyingly love it, too. The first row of photos above shows happy, uneaten flowers from recent years. In contrast, the three rows of photos below show damaged flowers, the worst from this year, and some milder damage in 2016 and 2018. Whatever chomped […]
Four years ago, many, including me, predicted that Trump would be a catastrophe for the USA. Certainly, he has been. He has failed to face a worsening pandemic, an economic collapse, and climate change disasters. His blatant corruption, incompetence, nepotism, and immorality are on display every day. His poisonous bigotry will continue to do damage […]
With Hurricane Dorian barrelling towards landfall, Motes Orchids in Florida offers helpful info about how to prepare orchids for a big storm. Their tips include: Keep orchids dry, then saturate them several hours before the storm. The water adds weight to the pots, which may keep them from blowing away. It also prepares plants in […]
Meet the 10 rarest orchids in the world. Many are Lady Slippers, but there are also others, like the strange Australian Western Underground Orchid. Habitat destruction and over-harvesting of wild plants have been big problems, and now climate change is a growing threat. Since there are almost 30,000 orchid species, and many are highly endangered, […]
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