My Oncidium Pacific Sunrise ‘Hakalau’ Has Bloomed!

One day after my birthday, my Oncidium Pacific Sunrise ‘Hakalau’ really opened up! It’s actually not at all the orchid that I thought it was…but it’s still very lovely. This is what happens when you buy an orchid that’s not in bloom and then you don’t Google the orchid’s name. You think the flowers are gonna look like this:

And then the buds start to form and they look much smaller and darker than you’d expect:

You don’t really think anything of it until it’s your birthday and the buds are just starting to open and there seems to be some brown and pink coloration going on:

Then it’s the day after your birthday and you’re recovering from your engagement-slash-birthday party and you do a double take when you notice that almost all the blooms are already open and they are totally not big, yellow, or white!

But the blooms are beautiful and they’re a nice surprise. So you take a bunch of photos to document your new little friends.

These blooms are a tad fragrant at night, but not so much during the day. They’re about three or four times the size of Oncidium Twinkle Fragrance Fantasy blooms and the color reminds me a bit of an Oncidium Sharry Baby. Here’s how this plant compares in size to a couple of my Phals that are currently in bloom:

I’m not sure where I got the idea that the yellow and white orchid at the top of the post was the same type as the one that I bought. They must have been sitting next to each other on the bench or something. So this is why you don’t make assumptions. I don’t want to sound like I’m complaining. I love my newly-bloomed orchid unconditionally, like all of my orchids.  🙂 Now I’m wondering how long its blooms will last!!