Orchid updates

Last summer, I purchased some orchids via Ebay and wrote about them here. My Lady Macbeth paphiopedilum made it through the winter and sent up two enormous blooms at once. I must be doing something right!

She has enough dark red spots on both blooms to make even Teller happy!

Here's a photo showing the entire plant. To the right and rear of the paph is a phalaenopsis that continues to hang in there but hasn't bloomed in four years.

At Donzell's yesterday, I walked into the orchid area intending just to gawk. Prices there can be more than I care to spend. But they were having an orchid clearance and I walked out of there with a ten dollar orchid in full bloom! It is a D. Makariki Blue. But the flower is more lavender than blue as you can see in the following picture. I'm not complaining -- the plant itself looks healthy and gives me hope for the dendobrium I bought last summer that still hasn't bloomed yet.

I came across a really neat orchid blog called The Orchid Chronicles. Rafael grows his orchids in Canada and his latest post asks the question, should one put orchids outside for the summer? Find out the answer here.