Winter is the season in which many Phals display their full potential. While it actually doesn’t feel so wintery in NYC these days, my Phals are responding to the season as they should. I have a few orchids in bloom that I want to share with you! One of them is the Phal that opened up in mid January; a few more buds have opened and there are still more to come:
So many pretty flowers!
The second is a beautiful, colorful bloom on a side shoot of the Phal that my parents sent me for my 33rd birthday last summer:
Birthday orchid
And possibly the most exciting of the three, my Tolumnia from Lowe’s is finally beginning to bloom again!
Tolumnia bloom opening up
Another one of my Phals and two of my Phal keikis (one potted on its own, one still attached to its mother) are in spike too, so there will be blooms aplenty in the house soon. 🙂
Dave Horak, BBG Orchid Curator with a lovely orchid. Photo by Elizabeth Peters
Attention all Brooklyn orchid lovers-slash-party people! On Friday, February 10, Brooklyn Botanic Garden is throwing what sounds like an incredibly fun bash called Lush. The party is being held in the BBG Palm House and will include the following:
Live music from boogaloo band Spanglish Fly (I actually have no idea what “boogaloo” style music is, but I imagine it’s festive)
Custom cut leaf silhouettes by artist Aaron Birk (this in particular sounds really cool and I’m curious to see the end result!)
But the most exciting part? I’ll let the event’s press release speak for itself:
“BBG curator Dave Horak will bring guests behind the scenes of BBG’s orchid collection, introducing some of the world’s most remarkable tropical specimens in BBG’s care. Guests will also have a special chance to see the orchid nursery, usually unavailable for public viewing, and learn about the critical conservation of tropical orchids.”
Dave Horak, BBG Orchid Curator. Photo by Elizabeth Peters
The events runs from 8pm to midnight and tickets are $65 a pop. I’m going to try to swing it, though being mostly unemployed makes it a hard for me to spend $65 for an evening out. The party does sound like it will be well worth it, though. Anyone out there planning to go?
Correction: I originally stated that tickets are $75, but they are in fact $65 apiece.
I have some exciting news! Exciting to me, anyway. You may or may not have noticed that my blog has begun redirecting to a different URL. That’s because I now have my very own site: http://bklynorchids.com/.
My blog looks basically the same as before, only now I have my own URL minus the “wordpress” part. I have my wonderful boyfriend to thank for helping me get this site set up properly, because if I tried to do it myself it would probably look like a website created in the 1990s.
What does this mean for you, Constant Reader*? Not much, as the site will redirect to bklynorchids.com if you point your browser toward my old URL, brooklynorchids.wordpress.com. But if you happen to have my site bookmarked or you subscribe to it in an RSS reader, you’ll want to make sure to use http://bklynorchids.com instead.
Why “bklyn” instead of the full-on “brooklyn”? Well, brooklynorchids.com was already taken—though no real website exists for that domain (booo, hiss!). Some folks use “BKLYN” to abbreviate the borough’s name, so I decided to go with that. It’s not hard to remember; just think “Brooklyn” without the “roo.” 🙂
So that’s my big announcement! If you see anything funky, please don’t hesitate to let me know by commenting here or emailing me at brooklynorchids [at] gmail [dot] com…though it should theoretically be smooth sailing from here on out. As always, thanks so much for reading my little ol’ blog!!
*Yeah, I just used a Stephen King reference. I’m 4 and a quarter books into the Dark Tower series, so King is in my brain right now…just call it ka.
Just a bit more than two weeks into 2012 and I have the first new bloom of the year! It’s a pretty little Phal that I bought at Trader Joe’s, probably about a year ago.
My first bloom of 2012!
This is one of the orchids that I’ve been experimenting on with Keiki Grow Paste. I’ve already separated a baby orchid from this plant and potted it on its own…and the baby is also in spike! Can’t wait to see the blooms on that little one. But for now, I will enjoy the blooms that are opening up on this pretty white and peachy-pink Phal.
Just a bit more than two weeks into 2012 and I have the first new bloom of the year! It’s a pretty little Phal that I bought at Trader Joe’s, probably about a year ago.
This is one of the orchids that I’ve been experimenting on with Keiki Grow Paste. I’ve already separated a baby orchid from this plant and potted it on its own…and the baby is also in spike! Can’t wait to see the blooms on that little one. But for now, I will enjoy the blooms that are opening up on this pretty white and peachy-pink Phal.
I just did a little shopping at the downtown Brooklyn Trader Joe’s because a few friends are coming over tomorrow to not celebrate Christmas. None of my orchids are in bloom (sad!) so I figured I’d look for something pretty at TJ’s while I was there. And they had a few Masdevallias…for $7.99 each! I picked out this pretty yellow orchid:
There are four open blooms and two that should open soon if this little guy remains happy. Plus, I see at least two more spikes growing as well as some new shoots. Woohoo! This is my first Masdevallia. Let’s hope I can treat her well!
