AboutOrchids

Can you believe that scientists didn’t discover this large purple flower until the 21st century? Phragmipedium kovachii, conveniently abbreviated as PK, hid in the Peruvian Amazon until 2001. After their discovery, it took several years for plants to legally enter cultivation, and now they’re starting to appear at orchid shows. Dave and I found this gorgeous lady slipper making its debut at last weekend’s Pacific Orchid Expo. This remarkable flower was almost 6 inches (15 cm) wide; some PK blooms can be as large as 9 inches (23 cm.)

Orchid pros consider PK the most exciting discovery of the past hundred years. The brilliant, oversize blossoms on these Paph relatives can make any flower lover swoon. However, the species requires precise watering and potting conditions, and it’s difficult to grow. Fortunately, hybrids are easier to grow, and some crosses are already entering the market. They’ll bring traits of this magnificent flower into more common cultivation. Hybrids will also lower prices. At the show, some of these seedlings cost $150 each. In coming years, hardier and more affordable varieties will reveal some of PK’s mysteries from deep in the Amazon.

The 59th Annual Pacific Orchid Expo is off and running! This year’s theme is “Natural Wonders,” and there are plenty to be found. Dozens of exhibits contain countless treasures. Here’s a small sample:

Bay Area residents and visitors have until Sunday to catch this year’s show at Fort Mason. The largest orchid show in North America has plenty to offer, including exhibits, books, art, potting demos, and a silent auction. Knowledgeable vendors from around the world can help you find the right plant for your conditions. Enjoy the show, and check back here soon to see more natural wonders.

Illinois College biologists are bringing some rare orchids home to Hawaii. Like I blogged last May, this Platanthera species, also known as the Fringed Orchid, is one of the few true island natives, and it’s endangered. Habitat destruction, invasive plants and animals, and theft from the wild have severely reduced the wild population. In 1992, Hurricane Iniki almost wiped out all the Fringed Orchids on Kauai. Only one remains there, with a few dozen more on Maui and Molokai. Illinois College and the National Tropical Botanical Garden have been collaborating to grow them and return them to the wild. This weekend, they’ll plant about 90 seedlings from an Illinois lab back in their native Hawaiian habitats. While celebrating this success, Chipper Wichman, director of Kauai’s National Tropical Botanical Garden, added that “This does not ensure the survival of this species. What this does is it gives us a huge step forward.”

This lengthy list illustrates the global popularity of orchids. Shows span the world, especially as the northern half of the planet eagerly awaits spring. Major orchid shows are happening in San Francisco, Santa Barbara, San Diego, London, and Taiwan.

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San Francisco hosts the largest orchid show in North America this week. The 59th Annual Pacific Orchid Expo starts with a Gala Benefit Preview on Thursday, March 3. The show is open to the public Friday, March 4 – Sunday, March 6. Tickets are available online. With 150,000 orchids under one roof, you’re guaranteed to have a jaw-dropping good time. Dave and I will be there with our cameras.

A tropical escape is closer than expected for New Yorkers. “The Orchid Show: On Broadway” promises to dazzle at the New York Botanical Garden. The exhibit runs from March 5 – April 25. Tony award-winning set designers showcase over 5000 orchids and the Great White Way. The exhibit also provides activities for kids.

From March 5 – 13, the City of Brotherly Love hosts the 2011 Philadelphia International Flower Show, the world’s largest indoor flower show. This year’s theme is “Springtime in Paris,” and includes plenty of orchids. Tickets are available online.

In addition to these and other long-running exhibits, Cleveland Botanical Garden offers “Orchid Mania – Purple Reign” from February 26 – March 27. It’s an orchid tribute to the most royal of colors. Along with beautiful blooms and wonderful scents, the exhibit includes a photography contest.

Vallarta Botanical Gardens has orchids, chocolate, and vanilla to enjoy, but it also has a painful side. Pointy cactus spines and sharp yucca leaves abound. Bougainvillea flowers crown vines with large, nasty thorns. No matter how beautiful, they can puncture and pierce. The gardens are perfectly safe, as long as you stay on paths and pay attention. However, with my camera distracting me, I usually manage to stumble into something prickly.

Of course, these desert growers are just defending themselves in the hot, arid climate. Thorny plants may not have the opulence of orchids, but their barbed exteriors can’t hide their beauty. They endure the Mexican heat that slows me down, even with a water bottle by my side. Yet, that doesn’t matter much when the saw-edged leaves of a Blue Agave scratch my arm. At least the cut provides a medicinal excuse to drink the agave’s tequila.

Many of these are great choices for gardeners in desert and semidesert areas who don’t mind pointed plants. If it’s tough for you to provide high humidity for orchids, plant succulents and cactus instead. For example, try growing this tree with prickly bark, which looks like an invention of the Spanish Inquisition. Floss Silk Trees are native to South America, and related to Africa’s fascinating Baobab trees. I’ll stick with orchids, thank you, and save on the bandages.

During our recent visit to Vallarta Botanical Gardens, Dave and I took lots of Epidendrum photos. Mexico has many native varieties. It was easy to see that they’re tough plants like my own, and reliable bloomers. Some of the most colorful ones were growing in full tropical sun.

The Epidendrum species known as the Greenfly Orchid is less colorful, but no less fascinating. It’s native to eastern Mexico and the southeastern USA, where it grows in a wide range from Louisiana to North Carolina and south to Florida. This species can tolerate light freezes. Its masses of small, greenish-yellow flowers have a sweet scent. Botanists changed its name several years ago from Epidendrum conopseum to Epidendrum magnoliae, but the nickname Greenfly Orchid remains the same.

Without a name tag, I’m not sure what this next species is. It may be Epidendrum atroscriptum, which is native to southern Mexico. But it also looks like Epidendrum paniculatum. Fortunately, the Mexican Hermit Hummingbird in the final photo didn’t care about long Latin names. Paused on a branch at Vallarta Botanical Gardens, it appeared to share our appreciation of these beautiful blooms.

Australian scientists recently celebrated the successful cultivation of the bizarre Eastern Underground Orchid. Now, they’re learning about plant genetics from its close cousin, the Western Underground Orchid. This weird plant is also a Rhizanthella species, and lives below ground, except when its flowers peek through the soil. Without green leaves for photosynthesis, it survives by feeding off a fungus. It has fewer chloroplast genes than any other plant. The shrunken genetic code will help scientists better understand chloroplasts, and how plants lose genes that they no longer need. Those are big contributions to science from such a strange, small orchid.

If valentine romance is turning into worry over your new orchid, take heart. With a few care basics, orchids are as easy as common houseplants. Check out these tips, and then you can turn your thoughts back to your valentine.

• All orchids need high humidity. Dry air can lead to wilting flowers, drying leaves, and pests.
• You’ll eventually have to remove ribbons, wrapping paper, or decorative containers if they block the holes in the bottom of the flower pot. Orchids need good air flow and water drainage around their roots. They’ll quickly rot if left sitting in water.
• It will help to identify your orchid so you can learn specific light, temperature, and water needs. You don’t need to figure out its exact name, only the family of orchids where it belongs.
• Phals, or Moth Orchids, are the most common varieties sold. If the shape of your flowers look like the first photo below, then that’s probably what you have. Other common varieties include Cattleyas and Oncidiums.
• If you can’t identify your orchid, use these basic care tips.
• Established orchid growers should continue to maintain winter dormancy, keep up humidity, and watch for pests. When new roots or leaves start to appear, check to see if it’s time to repot.

Chocolate is a Valentine’s Day requirement for chocoholics like me, and is made from the seeds of a small tropical tree. It’s not an orchid, but it is a fascinating plant that’s long been cultivated in Central and South America. My favorite food comes from cocoa pods, the fruit of Theobroma cacao, also known as the Cocoa Tree. Beans from the pods are dried, cleaned, roasted, and pressed to remove their bitterness, and turned into edible cocoa. Then, they’re just a recipe away from being a delicious confection.

Chocolate’s cultivation and history share close ties with that famous orchid vanilla. By the time Montezuma greeted Hernan Cortes with a vanilla-flavored chocolate drink in 1519, the peoples of Central and South America had been cultivating both crops for several millennia. Ancient Mayans and Aztecs drank chocolate mixed with chiles, cinnamon, honey, peanuts, or vanilla. They also used cocoa beans as currency. The conquistadors brought chocolate to Europe, where the fruit became the treat of royalty, always flavored with vanilla extract. It wasn’t until the court of famous sweet-tooth Queen Elizabeth I that English confectioners tried vanilla with different sweets.

Fresh cocoa beans are very bitter, but have a sweet, pulpy coating that tastes just like chocolate (just don’t bite down!) Nowadays, farmers grow the crop throughout the tropics. West Africa and Southeast Asia supply most of the world’s cocoa beans. Vanilla remains a common flavoring in chocolate. Consider it a bonus that when you eat chocolate, you may be tasting a drop of orchid, too. Now bring on that Chocolate Valentine!