A Busy Day in Florida
I love visiting gardens and attending flower shows whenever I can - for me, it is such a pleasurable escape from my busy work schedule.
Last week, I was thrilled to find enough time to attend the 23rd Annual Redland International Orchid Festival in Homestead, Florida with my friend, Ilene. Over the years, this three-day event has become one of the most anticipated festivals for orchid fanciers. More than 65-vendors from around the world participate in the exhibit to share their orchids and orchid growing supplies. While I was in South Florida, I also had the opportunity to visit some other sights including the Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden in Coral Gables, the Deering Estate, and the Vizcaya Museum and Gardens in Miami. Over the next couple of days, I'll share photos from all these wonderful places.
Here are photos from the Redland International Orchid Festival - the first stop on my short one-day excursion - enjoy.
-
- This orchid festival runs every year in mid-May, at the end of the regular orchid season – late enough to avoid any conflict with the traditional orchid shows, but early enough to enable the many wonderful late spring and summer blooming orchids to be displayed at their peak.
-
- Here I am with a very tall orchid that caught my eye – it was more than 10-feet tall. The orchids in this tent have been submitted for judging and are on display throughout the three-day event.
-
- This is an orchid hybrid – Cattleya Lily Pons.
-
- This orchid was also on display in the show tent with its beautiful long yellow petals.
-
- Orchids comprise the largest family of flowering plants on earth, with more than 30-thousand different species, and at least 200-thousand hybrids. Orchids can be found in the equatorial tropics, the arctic tundra, and everywhere in between.
-
- The Orchid Inn Ltd. is based in Bloomington, Illinois and specializes in Paphiopedilums, Phragmipediums, and other unique hybrids. http://www.orchidinnusa.com/
-
- Many orchid seedlings are sold in flasks. Because orchids need to be grown in a sterile medium these flasks help in preventing disease during transport.
-
- This bright pink cymbidium orchid is from Joseph Wu, an orchid expert who traveled all the way from Taipei, Taiwan. He is one of 27 vendors who attended the festival from other countries.
-
- Joseph Wu also had some beautiful staghorn ferns in his tent. I love staghorns, Platycerium, and have quite a collection of them in my Bedford, New York greenhouse.
-
- Platycerium grande is a solitary species with upright, fan-shaped sterile fronds forming a nest up to four-feet across and large, drooping, strap-like, unbranched fertile fronds up to six-feet long.
-
- OFE International is a family-run business in Homestead specializing in orchid supplies including growing mixes and media, orchid containers and pots, food and other tools. https://ofeintl.com/
-
- Here is just a sampling of orchid fertilizers. OFE International is constantly seeking new products, new cultivation techniques, and practices to help clients grow orchids successfully, with environmentally responsible supplies that are practical and reasonably priced.
-
- Here I am in the Odom’s Orchids tent with the owner John Odom, who has been growing orchids for more than 50-years.
-
- I loved this Lady’s Slipper orchid in the Odom’s Orchid tent. With over 90-thousand square feet of greenhouses, Odom’s Orchids is one of the largest retail growers and shippers of orchids in the United States specializing in Cattleya orchids, Vandas, Phalaenopsis, Lady Slippers, and Oncidiums. http://www.odoms.com/
-
- Specimens in this tent are from Florida SunCoast Orchids in Myakka, another longtime family-run business focused on orchid growing and care. The key to growing these plants is to keep the root systems strong and healthy. These plants have no bulbs or stems to store moisture and nutrients, so it is important to maintain their roots. http://floridasuncoastorchids.com/
-
- Pots made specifically for orchids have holes on the sides to allow air to circulate through the loose medium and around the leaves and roots.
-
- Cholla wood is the skeleton of a cholla plant after it dies. The cholla wood is made up of a ton of holes and is hollow through the center. It is often used for mounting orchids and other air plants.
-
- Another vendor at the festival was Krull-Smith Landscapes in Apopka, Florida, a leading orchid hybridizer in the world for award-quality show plants.
-
- Krull-Smith Landscapes displayed a variety of colorful specimens in their tent. Orchid flowers come in hundreds of shapes and many different sizes, from very large blossoms to tiny ones. They also bloom in dozens of colors, often combining one or more shades to produce bicolored varieties.
-
- Most orchid genera are epiphytic, meaning they grow on trees and rocks rather than in soil. Orchid roots need to breathe and therefore cannot live buried in dirt.
-
- We also spotted this plant – the shingle plant, a unique and fascinating climber native to southeast Asia. These plants plaster two-inch leaves against any vertical surface. The velvet green leaves with silver veining sit closely on the stem and often overlap. Once it reaches a vertical structure and starts to climb, the leaves increase in size and the internodes shorten up.
-
- There were also several booths dedicated to orchid information – there was every book imaginable on the history and care of orchids.
-
- Here I am with a fun and colorful orchid blouse! What do you think? I had so much fun at the Redland International Orchid Festival – I can’t wait to return. If you love orchids as much as I do, try to make the trip! Tomorrow, I will share more images from my busy day in Florida.
Martha Pins
Martha Tweets
