Dragon's Orchid Garden

It has been about 7 years since the orchid bug bit us and we have gone completely and irrevocably bonkers for orchids.  Thank you so much, Carl and Gladys, for giving me my first orchid that did not die.  This is that dancing lady oncidium after a few years.  It is in bud now, and has been divided into three plants. From orchids I am not one of those fastidious collectors who carefully label each plant.  No...tags which come with them get lost.  Squirrels steal them.  I'm sure of it.  The lack of documentation makes it a pleasant surprise each time one of the unlabeled orchids bloom.  This cattleya was a gift without a tag.  It had buds which ended up opening up into beautiful ruffled peach blossoms.  It has a faint sweet smell. From orchids Last weekend found us at the USF Botanical Gardens annual Spring Plant Show & Sale.  Our intention was to buy some landscaping plants for the front yard, to which we pay absolutely...

Two years ago, we bought a Dutchman's Pipe Vine, or  Aristolochia at the USF Botanical Gardens .  I'd admired the large vine they had climbing the trellis at the entrance to the plant sale area.  I'd seen another one at Sunken Gardens in St. Petersburg, as part of the butterfly garden.  The flowers were so elegantly strange that I wanted one.  Often, when I visit these gardens, I think about just pinching a bit of this or that, and rooting it when I get home.  I was a good garden visitor, and bought a plant instead.   Ours struggled the first year.  Then we had our killer freeze this last winter and I thought it was a goner.  It came back and has rewarded us with its first flowers.  I expected them to stink, like the carrion flower we have, but they smell very much like lemons.  But, if you crush the leaves...stink-o-rama.  The plant is larval food for the Pipevine Swallowtail Butterfly .   Chemicals from the pipevin...

We treated ourselves to three orchids when last visiting Louis Del Favero's Orchids on July 18th (and I'd link to their web page, but they don't have one, they're at  6601 Gant Road Tampa, FL 33625 ).  Two are in bloom.  This is a beautiful Dgmra. Memoria Jay Yamada, 'Kauai' From orchids These are easy outdoor growers here in central Florida.  Just be careful not to overwater and protect them from our infrequent freezes.  The next one is  a little one, but not the littlest of the collection.  I love these tiny bloomers!  It is a Phal. cornu cervi. From orchids We also purchased a "surprise" orchid, by which I mean they didn't have a blooming specimen, but I knew from the name (It's a brassia hybrid) that it would be beautiful.  I'll post a picture and the name when it blooms.  We just went for orchid potting mix...really, we did.  I justified buying the orchids by saying it's my birthday (and it was, almost).   On t...

This afternoon, Wayne and I headed out to the USF Botanical Gardens for the last few hours of the annual Butterfly and Herb Fair. We scored a six pack of assorted flowering butterfly plants to fill a planter Wayne made out of the bottom of an old compressor tank. We found a Tibouchina to replace the one we lost in the freeze, and an amorphophallus bulbifer . Since the voodoo lily bloom, I've wanted more of these. This one will eventually have a jack-in-the-pulpit type bloom. After the hot and sweaty work of planting our finds, we sat on the patio with a cold beverage to enjoy the view.  Here are a few pictures of what's blooming now.  Clicking on them will give you descriptions and bigger pictures. From orchids From orchids From orchids From orchids