Travel

Native Lady’s Slipper Orchids in West Virginia

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Native Orchid Spotting

Last weekend, my husband and I did a getaway trip at an Airbnb in West Virginia for my birthday! I know that some Cypripediums (Lady’s Slipper Orchid) bloom around this time of year, so I Googled to see if there might be an area near our Airbnb where we could find them. We settled on Trout Pond Recreation Area in George Washington National Forest as a spot to explore. I wasn’t 100% sure we would find any orchids there, but I figured we could have a nice little outing regardless.

We parked by Rockcliff Lake and walked the short trail around the lake. It was an absolutely beautiful morning:

Rockcliff Lake, WV

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Orchid Farms, Travel

Orchid Tourism in Florida and Georgia

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Playing Orchid Tourist

Last week, my husband and I took a six-day vacation to Orlando, Savannah, and Charleston. When I travel I always like to find out if there are orchids I can see along the way. John did a little research and found an orchid nursery called EFG Orchids in DeLand, Florida that was only a bit out of our way on the drive from Orlando to Savannah. So we took a tiny detour from our road trip to see some orchids!

EFG Orchids

EFG is fairly small compared to some other orchid nurseries we’ve visited, but they have a nice variety. I of course took lots of photos and wanted to share them here. I didn’t catch the names of all of these, so if you can ID any of them, please let me know in the comments. First up, I particularly loved this Phaleanopsis schilleriana:

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Travel

Orchids in Grand Cayman

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I’m back from a weeklong vacation in Grand Cayman (and I miss it already)! When my husband and I travel, we always like to see if there’s anything orchid-related that we can visit. In my research on things to do in Grand Cayman, I came across a couple of good candidates so we made it a point to visit both. But before I dive in to our adventures with orchids, I simply must share a photo of the stunning view from the beach at our Airbnb condo:

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Orchid Farms, Travel

Visiting Norman’s Orchids in Montclair, California

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My husband and I recently returned from a much-needed vacation in Southern California. He’s from Glendale (a Los Angeles suburb) so we started off there, then spent a few nights in Hermosa Beach. From HB we drove to Palm Desert and stayed a few nights, then returned to Glendale for a night before flying back home.

For some reason it didn’t occur to me to research local orchid growers prior to our trip, but a couple minutes into our drive to Palm Desert I thought, “hey, we should see if there are any orchid nurseries along the way!” So I searched “orchid nursery” on Google Maps’ new pit stop feature…and lo and behold, a whole bunch of places popped up. The first one I saw was Norman’s Orchids—whose website I’ve browsed many times before—and it was only located about 10 minutes out of the way on our drive. The decision was a no-brainer: we had to stop by on our mini road trip!

IMG_6867

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Travel

Wild Fairy Slipper Orchid Spotting in the Oregon Forest

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This past weekend, my husband and I traveled to the Oregon forest for a lovely wedding. The festivities took place in Camp Sherman, but on the drive back to Portland the day after the wedding we decided to take a little detour to Sahalie and Koosah Falls in Willamette National Forest. It hadn’t occurred to me until we arrived at our hotel in Portland the first night that because we’d be staying in the forest we could potentially see native orchids in bloom! I furiously started googling “native Oregon orchids” and discovered that a few species that do indeed bloom there around this time of year.

With all the wedding celebration I didn’t really spend any time wandering in the woods over the weekend, but our little hike to the falls the day after the wedding turned up a really nice surprise…

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