"visit to the sixth annual orchid show at The New York Botanical Garden...
orchid after orchid blooming in the... Enid A. Haupt Conservatory... orchids... 29 of them grow wild on Long Island... the garden's permanent collection... 8,000 specimens... the exhibition... ends April 6... Marc Hachadourian, the garden's curator of Glasshouse Collections, in the conservatory's Upland Forest... "As an orchidist," he says, "that's what an orchid enthusiast is called - that or an orchid maniac [or orchidophile]... I'm fascinated not just by the cultivation of orchids but by their biology and history... With the miniatures, you can have plants from all over the world on one windowsill... I love the species orchids... Stelis reniformis, from Ecuador... Ancipitia, its white-tipped maroon flower looks like a tiny insect... Some people see a dog's face in Paphiopedilum... a mini hybrid Phalaenopsis called Mini Mark. No, it's not named after me. It has flowers that are less than an inch across on a plant that's only 4 inches across"... So what's the smallest orchid in the case? "... It's either the Oberonia - it's named after Oberon, the fairy king in "A Midsummer Night's Dream" - or the Platystele... my bet would be on the Platystele stenostachia. You can hold an entire plant decorated with more than 1,000 blossoms in the palm of your hand." ... Pleurothallis aspergillum... teeny-weeny white flowers and long, narrow foliage. And with the dark raspberry and pink flowers of Oncidium tolumnia, and jeweled minis like Dossinia marmorata with red-veined velvety black leaves and spikes of white flowers... Grammatophyllum speciosum - considered the world's largest orchid plant, which won't flower until it reaches maturity. By then it will weigh more than 1 ton and put out 10-foot-long inflorescences. Each stem will erupt with more than 200 6-inch maroon-spotted yellow flowers... Marc thinks the plant hanging in the conservatory is only about 6 years old. Judging from its size, he figures it could have another three to five years to go. ... "... we'll put out a press release when this baby blooms," ... he told... "I've had orchids start to bloom right after I hold them over the garbage can and say, 'This is where you're going.' " [smile...] ... my lady slipper is blooming. I did yell at it and it may have benefited from spending a month or so in my cold laundry room after I took it in from outdoors last fall." URL: http://www.newsday.com/news/columnists/ny-lfvirag085620791mar23,0,7739097.column ************** Regards, VB _______________________________________________ the OrchidGuide Digest (OGD) [email protected] http://orchidguide.com/mailman/listinfo/orchids_orchidguide.com
