St. Louis Orchid Show—There’s Still Time to Go!

But don’t delay—it ends on Sunday, March 25!




Last year (remember?), I was gypped out it due to inclement weather and a busted ankle, and I all I could do was point you to our friend’s Flickr site full of her beautiful floral photographs. (Indeed, this year, she took more gorgeous photos—and yup, I’m still telling you to see her Flickr page—click here!)

But this year is different—we got to go last week! And I took a few little pictures, myself.






But you really ought to go yourself, because pictures never equal the immediate experience—of flowers, or anything else. The annual orchid show takes place at the Missouri Botanical Garden. Here’s the official website of the show.

And here’s a YouTube advertising it.



The theme this year is “Flora of China,” which is an ongoing project of the research branch of the Missouri Botanical Garden, a multi-multi-multi-volume description of every plant in China. (But the orchids in the show hailed from all over the world.)


Visitors enter the orchid show through a Chinese-style moon gate similar to the gateway to the Missouri Botanical Garden’s Chinese Garden, built to celebrate St. Louis’s sister city Nanjing. (That garden, by the way, is my favorite place at the MBG.)


The use of Chinese lanterns in the orchid show provides a tiny taste of the Missouri Botanical Garden’s big Lantern Festival that it will have this summer. Click here for more on that.


The orchid family is one of the largest families of plants in the world (you couldn’t tell it from Missouri, since most are tropical, and our temperate flora is dominated by composites, grasses, and grasslike plants). Orchids, however, are many and varied. There are about 600 genera, with about 15,000 species, worldwide (plus loads of cultivars).

Honestly, I don’t know what else to say, but GO!


I didn’t write down the names of the orchids I photographed, but many of the people taking pictures there were also photographing the name tags, for later identification. I just know this as “those freakishly bright orange orchids!”


See this little orchid bud? Well, it’s probably blooming right now! Just for you to see! Don’t miss it!

Orchids Vicariously

Hi there! Remember a while back when I told you about the Missouri Botanical Garden's annual Orchid Show (which is going on now)? (Click here to see that post.)

Well, as I mentioned then (it was before that big snow we had), our plan was to drive to St. Louis to see the show once the roads were clear--and we were intending to drive there with two good friends from Boonville, who are very interested in photography.

What a great day it was gonna be! Great conversation during the drive; a chance for photography of both the orchids and the garden's wintertime grounds; and of course, any trip to the Missouri Botanical Garden is a treat.

But then I busted my ankle and had surgery the day before we were going to go, so I had to bow out of the plan. Thankfully, though, our friends went ahead without us, and one of them has been posting her pictures from that day on her Flickr page, under the name "Shotaku."

She takes incredible pictures of flowers, perfectly focused, and with an excellent sense of composition. I almost drool over them.

Below, I show you a few samples of her photos from the orchid show.

To see her many other tasty photos of orchids and other flowers, brilliant shots of birds and other wildlife, plus many neat photos of Boonville and Central Missouri subjects (and much, much more), click here to visit her Flickr page.


Here is one labeled Cymbidium Red Beauty 'Carmen':




And here is Brassolaeliocattleya Liese Pigors:





. . . I would love to show you lots more of her photographs, but then you might not actually go visit her Flickr page. So: leave my blog right now and go look at her pictures!

Here's the link to Shotako's Photostream again.

Another reminder: The Orchid Show at the Missouri Botanical Garden runs through March 27. For more information, here's a link to their Web page. (Hmm. Maybe we can still make it to the show, even if I am on crutches for another month . . .)

Jewel Orchids: Blooming!

If you don’t think you can grow orchids, guess again. There’s hope for you! But don’t get too excited—the types that produce large blossoms of intense pinks and yellows, say, the cattleyas and phalaenopsises, still require special substrates, special moisture, and special temperatures. I’ve tried growing them, and the humidity requirements were always more than I could fulfill.

But you can still grow orchids, if you choose an easy terrestrial type such as the “jewel orchid” (Ludisia discolor). I guess it’s named for the remarkable leaves, which are velvety deep green with pink veins above, and burgundy-rust on the bottom. The flowers, however, are smallish and white—fortunately they form in clusters.






The reason these are “doable,” even for a lackadaisical houseplant grower like myself, is that they are terrestrial, as opposed to epiphytic. (The epiphytes don’t grow in soil like the terrestrial types do—instead they have adapted to life perched on a tree branch or some such, in a tropical situation—which is why I have such trouble with them. They need humidity. And this time of year, especially, the house gets so dry, my sinuses just—well, you don’t want to know.)

If you’ve ever grown a “wandering jew” (Tradescantia pallada or T. zebrina)—these are very popular houseplants—you can grow a jewel orchid. Like them, the jewel orchid roots easily from cuttings and is attractive year-round because of the colorful leaves. We put ours in the backyard in the summer.




Anyway—I’m telling you about this now for two reasons. First, it’s January and they’ve started their annual bloom, so, Huzzah! It might not be spring, but we’ve got flowers anyway!




And second, I wanted to remind everyone that the annual orchid show at the Missouri Botanical Garden starts today. This is your chance to see some of the huge variety of tropical orchids in the Garden’s permanent collection. Here is a link to MoBot’s Orchid Show page.

Each year they have a “theme”; this year it’s “Flora Maya”—thus the Orthwein display hall has been transformed into a Mayan jungle, with decorations evoking Mayan and Aztec ruins:

The Garden’s annual orchid show will feature 800 blooming orchids in lush, tropical display infused with an eclectic mix of Maya-themed accents.

The Garden maintains one of the world’s premier orchid collections and this is the only time of year when a vast, rotating selection from our historic collection is available for public viewing.

Now, doesn’t this look like a perfect way to spit in the face of nasty old bone-chilling winter? We’re planning a trip to St. Louis to see this—well, once the roads are cleared of this next big dump of snow they’re predicting . . .

I’m even thinking of bringing a change of clothes—shorts and a tee shirt—so I can luxuriate for a few hours in the hot and humid Climatron!

The orchid show lasts from January 29 through March 27; here are the show’s hours:

Monday through Friday
9 a.m. to 3 p.m. (last weekday entry at 2 p.m.)
Saturday and Sunday
9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Admission is $5, on top of the general admission to the garden. (Yes, it’s totally worth it. Bring a camera.)