Had a great time at the orchid society today: great talk and a fabulous range of orchids in the table show.
The talk was about a society visit to Ecuador. Loads of pic of orchids (generally growing on the ground/rocks/banks near to roads!). It was also facinating to see pictures of the hotels, food etc. They also visited Ecuagenera's various sites, so there were pictures of their greenhouses. It was amazing how big a part of the local community they are: on one of the sites they run a school, and they have their own hotel.
I wish I'd taken my camera for the table show, but I'll include links for some that were surprises for me. There were lots of species phals and paths. I fell in love with a phal lueddemanniana.
One's I'd not come across:
Huntleya Burtii
Couldn't miss that! The petals and sepals have a 3d bumpy texture. The throat has hairs (on the one on show they just about met) that look like a venus flytrap. Some people felt it was creepy because of the 'eyes'. Seemed to smell nice though (there were a lot of smelly orchids together, so it was difficult to be totally sure what you were smelling!)
Doriticentrum Pulcherrimin 'Kodama'
Really nice compact plant...
Dendrophylax funalis
I had to slap myself for not really spotting this one at first. There were so many attention grabbing orchids! Luckily it was pulled out for special attention at the end. Anyway, it's the corded ghost orchid, from Jamaica. Apparently it can take dryer conditions than the Florida species. Still hard to grow and flower, so a treat to see it. I did hold it too *G* Reading the web there seems to be debate on whether it smells nice. Again, there were some very strong orchids around (it was in the same group as a neo and a sedirea and another, I forget what, that well and truly outscented both!) but it smelt ok to me. I think it was quite a deep, not very floral scent, but seemed ok to me. There was a joke made that if it was taken to (not sure of the letters...) for judging they'd mark it down for having no leaves.
It had also been suggested to me that I talk to the guy who'd been giving the main talk. Definitely a good idea... I now have an invite to visit the national collection of maxilarias, which he holds. He also told me that I'll come home with my collection of max's (6 species) doubled!
I actually managed to not come home with any orchids... but right now I do need to do some organising of what I've got (and rehome a few) before I can get more, so that's not bad. I think I might have to order some for my birthday that's coming up though...
Amazing Orchid Society Of Great Britain Meeting
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