orchid | Brooklyn Orchids

My Visit to Cal Pacific Orchid Farm

August 4, 2011 2 Comments

Two weeks ago I visited Cal Pacific Orchid Farm in Encinitas, CA and I’m finally getting around to posting about it. Better late than never, right? My boyfriend and I were out in San Diego for ~~NERDFEST 2011~~ Comic-Con and had a couple of free days before and after the con, so we made it a point to go see some orchids. We had breakfast plans in beautiful La Jolla, which is a bit south of Encinitas, so it was a convenient drive on up to the orchid farm afterward.

New York Botanical Garden, Orchid Shows

Vote #24 for Orchid Board 2012 Calendar

August 1, 2011 1 Comment

I’ve been terrible with blogging…again. Sorry guys! I visited an orchid farm out in San Diego and I still need to sit down and write a post about it, which I WILL DO this week. But for now, I’m going to do a totally shameless plug. For those of you who are OrchidBoard.com members, voting is up for the 2012 calendar, and the photo that I submitted is in the running!

My photo (seen here) is #24 and I’m very proud of it, so PLEASE VOTE for it! We can each vote for 13 of the 43 entries, and there are plenty of great ones. But let’s be honest, I like mine the best. 🙂

I took the photo at this year’s Orchid Show at the New York Botanical Garden. It’s an xOdontocidium Sunlight ‘Pacific Punch’ and I absolutely love the burgundy-fading-into-peach coloring on the petals.

I’ve cast my votes. Voting ends in seven days, so be sure to make your choices ASAP. Thanks in advance for your support!

My Orchid Garden

Blog Neglect and Orchid Collection Update

July 12, 2011 1 Comment

Dear Orchid Blog,

I’m aware that I’ve totally neglected you as of late. I promise to be a better blog caretaker.

Sincerely,

Me.

With that out of the way, I’d like to give a quick update on some of the growth that is going on in my orchid collection, starting with my NOID Oncidium that is going to bloom soon!

Orchid of the Week

Orchid of the Week: Dendrobium Green Lantern

June 17, 2011 2 Comments

This week’s orchid is the Dendrobium Green Lantern, in honor of the movie that comes out in theaters today. Okay, so this is just a good excuse to post a picture of Ryan Reynolds in costume:

On to the Green Lantern orchid. The Dendrobium Green Lantern is a lovely hybrid of Thai and Vietnamese species (Dendrobium Dawn Maree x Dendrobium cruentum) with a furry coral-colored lip and white petals with light green striping.

I’m not really sure where the “Green Lantern” name came from, because there are certainly much greener orchids out there (like the Aeranthes grandiflora, which I featured awhile back). But hey, it’s still gorgeous no matter what. And who knows—maybe it has some sort of superpowers. 😀

Orchid of the Week

Orchid of the Week: Platystele jungermannioides

June 3, 2011 3 Comments

Last week I featured the tallest orchid in the world, so this week I’m going to talk about the smallest orchid in the world: Platystele jungermannioides. This little guy was discovered accidentally by American botanist Lou Jost as he was inspecting a completely separate plant from Ecuador. He found it growing among the roots of the other plant! According to an article in The Independent, this orchid is 2.1 mm wide; here’s a photo with a ruler for reference:

My Orchid Garden

So Much Orchid Growth!

May 31, 2011 8 Comments

I have a bunch of good news about my orchids and one bit of bad news, so I’ll start with the bad news first: I lost my Paphiopedilum Wizard of Oz ‘Hausermann’s Toto’ AM/AOS x [Paph. Candy Apple x Paph. Pulsar]. It had been doing very poorly for quite some time, and just didn’t seem to want to recover, so two weeks ago I sent it to the great orchid farm in the sky. 🙁 Orchid kill count: eight (I think??).

In much happier news, I have a lot of good growth going with a bunch of my orchids! Let’s take a look:

My Dendrobium aggregatum has 2 new sprouts