More Como Conservatory Winter Carnival '12' Orchid Show Photos!

A couple of posts ago you got to feast your eyes on some of the really lovely orchids featured at the Como Winter Carnival Orchid Show.

At the time of the first post I didn't have any specific photos from club members so that we could show them off properly. Now we have a few for you to enjoy.

This is a Paphiopedilum Wellesleyanum displayed by Jim V.

 This is a Dendrobium Maiden Charlotte displayed by Patty K.

 Here's a pretty one! This is Phalaenopsis Timothy Christopher

Steve G. displayed one of my personal favorites. It's Phalaenopsis  Malibu Bistro. I've had one of these plants before and the stripes just jump out and grab attention. Mine however didn't look nearly this wonderful.

 Here's one I'm not familiar with. It's a Stenosarcos Vanguard. It's displayed by Jim V.
















A group shot of the first three all together!

 Meanwhile...... each season the Como Conservatory displays a seasonally themed flower show in it's Sunken Garden Room. The whole room is simply filled with gardens full of flowers usually done in a color scheme. This time, after the really cool poinsettia display around the holidays, they've transitioned into these lovely smelling and eye-popping lilies.

The Sunken Garden is amazing. Click on this link to see more!

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Como Orchid Show

With so many of our friends in the Orchid Society of Minnesota it is only fitting that we get to see a few shots of some of the spectacular things that were on display at the Como Conservatory this past weekend for the St. Paul's Winter Carnival events!

Between the clubs, we have MANY Orchid Society members! I wish I knew of all of the club member's entries so we could have shown off how awesome they were. Unfortunately, I don't know who had which specific entries.

 So... I will show off a few photos and hopefully they will contain the right plants!

The first five photos show some of the plants that were on the main Orchid Society's table. It was a long and extensive table!

 SG, PK, and JV had plants in this display I believe, and if I'm missing any other members, I'm really sorry!

 How about these???

 An interesting hybrid that is considered to be the "most black" of the black orchids.

 Here Mans' Farms had a cool display! What lovely blooms!

And finally... just because I thought this was both cool and funny ... I got a photo of our TV set when Channel 4 had a piece the Como show and about Jerry Fischer and the Peruvian orchid that is so huge and only recently discovered. They've been growing out small ones for the past few years and are now ready to sell young plants.

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Phragmipedium peruvianum

Say "hello" to something really incredible!

The University of Minnesota Landscape Arboretum is currently hosting a display of orchids for our friends at Orchids Limited in Plymouth.



















This is a rare and quite amazing orchid. It's a Phragmipedium peruvianum that was discovered (for the first time ever) in 2001 in the jungles of Peru.

It is called the most important orchid find in the last 100 years.

It is on display only through Saturday Feb 19. The rest of Jerry Fischer's orchids are on display there until March 13.














This orchid is over 7" (seven amazing inches) across and as you can see it is an intense magenta color.

Orchids Limited acquired its legally collected seedling in 2005 and has one of only 10 plants in all of the United States to bloom. This is truly a special exhibit for orchid enthusiasts and for gesneriad lovers who sometimes also enjoy admiring other species of plants too!

Now for the Winner!

How many of you recognize this? Club members will remember seeing this stunning plant at the CBS tour and winter meeting. I think the rather grand backdrop simply enhances the plant, and it's fancy ribbons too!

This Coelogyne cristata is worth the trip over to the show today! Be sure to congratulate our club pres. for displaying it as well!

Como Conservatory Winter Carnival Orchid Show

 There is still time TODAY, Jan. 30, 2011, to to to the St. Paul Winter Carnival Orchid Show at the Como Conservatory!

Why???? Well, if these photos don't explain it better than I would, you just aren't in the mood to be impressed....

 This is a display set up by three of our friends that also belong to the African violet group. SG, PK and JV really display amazing plants!

 I really liked the orchid in the center...

 These are just photos of a few of the hundreds of amazing plants.

 The conservatory also displays part of their own "in house" collections. The scale is hard to tell here unless you look closely, but if the person in the far left is full size, look how incredibly huge the orchid in the left rear section of the photo is.

 This thing was wild.... It had arching stems of these "puff balls" of flowers reaching all over the display.

Sometimes, you just have to be impressed.

May Highlights!

It was supposed to be a typical Tuesday.... but it was a dark and stormy night! The clouds were ominous, what would the evening bring?

Well, now that you ask, people brought a bunch of interesting things...... Clay brought some of the seedling crosses from a strep whose parent features a scent.










This is like it's parent, same flowers but a much larger habit and a stronger scent. This poor plant had it's largest leaves broken so it doesn't appear gigantic, but it gets generously sized!

 The evening brought us more....This is another pretty seedling from Clay's crosses.

 We had species Episcias  for show and tell and ...

 exotic looking "things" from the collections and ...

baby Sinningias! Babies both large and much, much smaller.

Her are baby Sinningias just getting their start in life.

Now don't you wish you were at the meetings more often?









A monster-sized fanciful orchid covered in blooms covered it's friend.

An then after some snacks.... what else did the evening bring? The night gave us pollination by lions and tigers and bears.... No, strike those...... bugs and bats and birds, OH MY.  Here's a little humming bird.








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