March and April Orchids

There were lots of orchid blooms in the greenhouse in March and April. These are a sampling. Below is a Cymbidium. They used to have Cymbidium corsages in walmart and like stores at Mother's Day, but I did not see any this year.

I post a picture of this Epidendrum nearly every year. I have been hgrowing it in the same pot for over 30 years. It is a misnomer to say it is in a pot, but there is one somewhere down under there. Many Epidendrons have been killed with too much water, so my solution to that is no potting media at all. The roots just hand in the air. When I water in the greenhouse, I spray it, except from October til I see buds on it around February. I start watering it again then. This just says "Spring' to me!

My slipper orchids (Paphiopedilum) bloomed sporadically this year. I only had 2 or 3 blooms. I try not to let the greenhouse temperature fall below 52F but this year one night it did. This may have effected the bloom or any one of a number of other factors. But this beauty is not to be sneezed at. It is the cultivar called 'Rosy Dawn'.

 I often think the orchids bloom in spite of me, not because of me.