what is (are) the coolest orchid you got in an unlikely place?

[Ray]

When I was a brand new grower, I picked up a $5, meter-long tree branch at a farmers market south of the Atlanta airport - it was completely covered with Encyclia tampensis and had been collected in Florida.

A couple of years later, in Louisville KY, a nursery near my office, where I purchased an unheard-of number of tropical plants, had a 24” diameter pot, overflowing with a “mule ear” oncidium and no label. They let me have it for $20. Turned out to be a ~80-bulb specimen of what is now Lophiaris microchila. (Photo from orchidspecies.com)

[JScott]

Once at Home Depot, I picked up a cheap little Phal. It has white flowers with tons of magenta spots. I think it must have been an unregistered seed grown hybrid, because the only information on the tag was the two parents, with no clonal name.

Anyway, I've had it for years and it has really impressed me. The flowers are on the small to medium side as far as size, although the plant is typical Phal size. The plant makes up for the smallish flowers with sheer number. It grows multi-branched spikes, and it is not unusual for it to have twenty to thirty flowers at once. Then, once all the flowers fall off, the spikes start growing again and I get a second (tho smaller) flush of blooms.

I think it is an especially fine specimen, just as good as any awarded clone you could get, and all I paid for it was 8 dollars. In addition, if it is seed grown as I suspect, that means that it is the only one in the world, and it's mine.