First Visit to U.S. Botanic Garden + My Latest Orchid Blooms

Well, here I am again with yet another apology for having neglected my blog. But I have some lovely orchid photos to share with you, so hopefully I’ll be forgiven.  🙂

Over Memorial Day weekend, my husband and I went down to D.C. for a little weekend getaway and some sightseeing. Our first destination was the United States Botanic Garden, which was the first-ever visit there for the both of us. And it was oh so glorious! First of all, it was a gorgeous day, and we strolled around the outdoor rose garden, sniffing the heavily scented blooms. From there, we went on into the Conservatory, which is just a wonderland for plant lovers. While we enjoyed every part of the Conservatory, you know what my favorite portion was. I spent quite a bit of time in the orchid room, marveling at the displays of orchids both familiar and unfamiliar to me.

Of course, I took tons of pictures so I could share them with you. Here are some of my favorites:

Vanda Doctor Anek ‘Fuchs Guoy’

The center of this orchid looks like a little cartoon person wearing pantaloons and standing with their hands on their hips:

Vanda Robert’s Delight ‘Somsri’

I can’t get over the amazing octopus-like nature of these:

Prosthechea baculus

An orchid I’ve never seen or heard of before!

Trigonidium egertonianum
Paphs with wings!

Adorable little blooms on this mounted Phal:

Phalaenopsis braceana
Tolumnias

For scale, my husband next to a huge Dendrobium:

In the jungle room of the Conservatory

Look at all those creeping stems:

Vanilla orchid

This next one makes me smile, because it looks like a happy kid going down a slide in the center of the flower on the right. WHEEEE!

Dendrobium finisterrae

When we first spotted that orchid, this exchange happened:

Husband: It looks like a spider.

Me: WHY WOULD YOU SAY THAT?!?!?!?

(I am terribly terribly afraid of spiders.)

Enjoying my time in the amazing orchid room.

If you live in D.C. or happen to visit the city, definitely make it a point to go to the U.S. Botanic Garden. It is FREE to enter,  but even with an entry fee it’d be well worth it!

Now it’s June and my Phal blooms have faded, but my Oncidium Pacific Sunrise ‘Hakalau’ has recently bloomed for me! This is the one that began to open up on my birthday last year. This year it bloomed about a week and a half before my birthday (which, BTW is Friday the 13th this year!), and it is just so lovely:

Buds opening
Buds opening

I was amazed at how quickly the blooms opened up in succession—all of them opened up within two or three days of the first bud opening!

The blooms smell faintly like roses
The blooms smell faintly like roses

Oh, and because I’ve been so rotten about blogging and never posted a photo of my Burrageara Stefan Isler ‘Lava Flow’ from Whole Foods find with all of its blooms, here is a very belated pic (all of the blooms have now faded, but it was fun while it lasted):

IMG_1079
Burrageara Stefan Isler ‘Lava Flow’

So that’s what’s been going on here. No new spikes to report, but hopefully soon! There’s definitely some growth going on with the above Burr. and some of my Oncidums. One of these days I’ll finally get around to responding to your questions and comments! Please bear with me in the meantime, and I truly do appreciate you reading my blog!

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1 comment

  1. I have a very healthy phal orchid. In the fall it produced two spikes. One grew out and produced two beautiful blooms but the other stopped growing. It’s still healthy and green but it just froze in its growing. How can I help it or give it a push to grow? I’ve already cut down the other spoke that grew and bloomed.

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