AboutOrchids

Worried that a gift orchid might freeze its blooms off? Give an orchid book instead! Orchid books are full of gorgeous flowers, make great holiday presents, and don’t need water or fertilizer. Check out the five popular examples below:

Growing Windowsill Orchids
Master experts from Kew Gardens share their orchid success tips. Short but thorough, with wonderful photos and clear-cut illustrations, this is one of my favorite books for orchid beginners.

The Orchid Whisperer: Expert Secrets for Growing Beautiful Orchids
This book shares practical advice to grow like the pros, and includes lots of colorful photos.

Orchids for Every Home: The Beginner’s Guide to Growing Beautiful, Easy-Care Orchids
From renowned orchid authors Brian and Wilma Rittershausen, this book offers beautiful pictures and good info for beginners.

Orchids
This stunning coffee table book showcases orchid beauty with master photography.

The Marie Selby Botanical Gardens Illustrated Dictionary of Orchid Genera
One of Florida’s best known botanical gardens has put its expertise into this massive work. The book is a comprehensive reference guide to the vast orchid family, with great photos and illustrations.

The next Santa Barbara International Orchid Show will recall how World War II turned the area into an orchid haven. England was the world’s leading Cymbidium grower before World War II. During the war, the UK’s valuable plants were threatened by aerial bombings and fuel shortages. To help save them, orchid enthusiasts in California purchased and imported many English Cymbidium collections. They thrived in the mild climate and relative safety of Santa Barbara. After the war, those rescued British plants became parents of American hybrids, which helped spur growth of Santa Barbara’s orchid industries.  “It turns out that as an unintended consequence of World War II, the center of the orchid world shifted to America.” Santa Barbara now grows more orchids than any other region in the USA, and is renowned for Cymbidiums. It’s home to numerous companies like the Santa Barbara Orchid Estate. Next March, the 70th Santa Barbara International Orchid Show will salute this lucky break for Southern California.

December may be the slowest month for shows, but you can still find orchid events around the world. Many groups have holiday orchid auctions, so check with your local orchid society for info.

With dense clusters of little purple blooms, this looks like a hyacinth. On closer inspection, however, each flower reveals itself as a tiny, perfect orchid. Known as the Giant Hyacinth Orchid, this has been a very reliable bloomer in our garden, opening in late autumn and continuing for several months into winter.

This year’s incredible bloom consists of 30 spikes, each with many dozens of small flowers spiraling upward. I keep this plant outdoors all year. Since our move from San Francisco to Pacifica last winter, it lives in windier and more exposed conditions, but it seems to have adapted pretty well. It did suffer some sunburned leaves during a few hot days in October, when I should have moved it into shade. Despite the damaged leaves, it’s still putting on this great show.

Giant Hyacinth Orchids are native to cloud forests from southern Mexico through Central America, and down into Venezuela and Colombia. To grow them, give some full sun, regular water, fertilizer, high humidity, and winter dormancy. They can tolerate a wide range of temps, but need cool nights to bloom. Our local Anna’s Hummingbirds love the flowers, and pollinate many of them. The Giant Hyacinth Orchid offers spectacular color for our winter garden.

The Rainforest Alliance works to conserve biodiversity, encourage sustainability, halt deforestation, and stop environmental destruction.  With programs in over 100 countries, the Rainforest Alliance takes the approach “that the health of the land is inextricably connected to the wellbeing of those who depend on it for their livelihoods.” To these ends, the group fights climate change, promotes responsible eco-tourism, trains farmers in sustainable practices, and much more. Founded in 1987, and based in New York City, the group may be best known for “Rainforest Alliance Certified” products. These items feature their familiar green frog logo to show they have been harvested in a way to protect biodiversity, and also to protect the rights of local peoples.

By championing rainforests, the group saves the orchids growing within them. To help the Rainforest Alliance in their work, join their community, or make a donation. As a non-profit organization, donations are tax-deductible as allowed by law.

Enjoy these two short, time-lapse videos featuring the blooms of rare Ghost Orchids. It’s easy to see why these flowers inspire so much fascination and intrigue.  In the first video, a small flower spike emerges from the roots of this bizarre, leafless orchid species. The growing spike unfurls a perfect Ghost Orchid flower, revealed in full profile. The second video shows a different flower unfurl over 2½ days. Both of these clips are courtesy of Jay Staton Photography.

I’ve already sung the praises of Honolulu’s Foster Botanical Garden on this blog. In addition to posts about Foster’s orchids, including the biggest orchid in the world, and giant Grammatophyllums, here’s another post with more of Dave’s great photos. For readers who are already feeling winter’s chill, I hope these tropical beauties in sunny Hawaii will inspire warm thoughts.

These warm growing orchids come in a huge variety of bright colors and fantastic shapes. Many have sweet scents, but unfortunately, no photo can convey those.

Whether it’s Leopard Orchids with spots like a jungle cat, or Philippine Ground Orchids with vibrant hues, these floral jewels are the embodiment of tropical beauty. It’s always worth a visit to Foster Botanical Garden, even if it’s only a virtual one.

Dracula orchids may have a haunting side, but these fascinating Masdevallia relatives need your help. Newly discovered Dracula species in Ecuador are threatened by deforestation. Conservation groups are attempting to create a new nature sanctuary in northwestern Ecuador, to be named the Dracula Orchid Reserve. Rainforest Trust and Fundación EcoMinga want to save part of the Chocó region, whose coastal rainforest is considered to be one of the most biodiverse places on the planet. “The Chocó is the richest area,” said Rainforest Trust CEO Paul Salaman. “It’s possible that this small reserve of just 650 acres [263 hectares] could hold five percent of all the orchids on Earth.” Many other rare plants, birds, and endangered creatures like the Spectacled Bear also make their homes in this incredible jungle.

You can help Rainforest Trust with donations, which are tax deductible as allowed by law. They even accept Bitcoin donations. Read more about the proposed Dracula Orchid Reserve at the Epoch Times.

Orchid shows abound in every corner of the planet. All of these events offer great opportunities to enjoy wonderful blooms, take pictures, talk to experts, and buy plants for your orchid collection.

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Boo! There are orchids for every occasion, even Halloween. Here are some spooky orchids to haunt you, if you’re not too scared to go further…

Ghost Orchids (first photo) —
The famous stars of The Orchid Thief earn a phantasmic name from their weird white blooms. Since these strange plants are leafless, the flowers seem to emerge from nowhere, and hover in the air like bizarre, ghostly apparitions.

Dracula Orchids (second photo) —
These orchids hang upside down like bats, wear monkey masks, and smell like musty fungus. In the photo below, the black flower of Dracula vampira leaves a biting impression.

Spider Orchids (third photo) —
Spider Orchids, or Brassias, don’t have eight legs, but their long petals help make them great arachnid mimics. They’re good enough to convince spider-hunting wasps to attack. It’s a freaky, sneaky way of tricking the wasps into pollinating them.

Bulbophyllums (fourth and fifth photos) —
Some Bulbophyllum flowers stink like rotting meat. Others foul the air with a scent which smells like something you scraped off the bottom of your shoe. They’re beautiful blooms with foul fragrances.

Laelia anceps (sixth photo) —
This native Mexican species traditionally decorates graves on the Day of the Dead, or Dia de los Muertos. Would you like these haunting orchids on your tombstone?

Find more spooky orchids at Smithsonian Gardens. Happy Halloween!