How about an orchid for Valentine’s Day?

Valentine’s Orchid by LollyKnit

Valentine’s Day is coming and I know all the intelligent male and maybe many of the intelligent female readers of TheGardenLady blog are planning something really special for their beloved Valentine on that day.

Say it with flowers is a romantic advertisement logo- though the florists usually mean cut flowers. I love receiving cut flowers; but if I had my choice, I would prefer receiving flowering plants. Cut flowers last a few days or if I am lucky, perhaps a week or two. However, a flowering plant, if it lives, can give me years of bloom. And if the plant has flowers when it is delivered to me, but it dies, I usually feel that it is still a winning situation because the plant probably cost less or not more than cut flowers which have to be thrown out in a week or less.

Continue reading “How about an orchid for Valentine’s Day?”

2010 Orchid Show at Longwood Gardens, March 26, 27 & 28

Longwood Gardens second Orchid Show (2) by KarlGercens.com

A wonderful orchid show will be held at Longwood Gardens this coming Friday March 26th, Saturday March 27, and Sunday 28th, from 9am-6pm daily. In orchid growers’ opinions, this is the best show on the East Coast, filled with outstanding orchid exhibits, judged by American Orchid Society judges, educational orchid lectures, and numerous orchid vendors from around the world offering orchid plants and supplies for sale. For more information, go to www.longwoodgardens.org and click on International Orchid Show and Sale for detailed information. Stony Brook Orchids will be there all three days, so please stop by and say hello. Say TheGardenLady sent you.

2009 Longwood Gardens Orchid Show

Longwood Gardens Orchids by duck_6872
Longwood Gardens Orchids by duck_6872

The biggest orchid show of the season is coming up on March 27-29, at Longwood Gardens. It is a wonderful show. If you haven’t seen this orchid show before, you’re in for a real treat. For more information, go to the sponsoring orchid society’s website for a listing of lectures, exhibitors, etc. For the price of admission to Longwood Gardens, you get to see it all!

orchids at longwood garden orchid show by paladinsf
orchids at longwood garden orchid show by paladinsf

Susan Gange, whose Stony Brook Orchid Nursery TheGardenLady wrote about, will be exhibiting at this Longwood Gardens Orchid Extravaganza again this year. If you go to the show, please stop by and say hello to Susan Gange and tell her that you read about the show and her nursery in TheGardenLady.org.

Watching Plants Do Their Thing

As the winter wears on, many of us dream of spring and the return of flowering plants.  Some of us are lucky enough to have flowers open or opening indoors.  My amaryllis bud is opening and I eagerly await the brilliant red flower.  But if you don’t have flower buds and dream of your outdoor or indoor plants in bloom, you can watch time lapse shots of flowers opening or plants growing on your computer. There are many sites to watch (see here). Or perhaps you can take your own time lapse photos and send them to TheGardenLady (see here). YouTube has a lot of these videos and they are free.  Sit back and enjoy.

A few that I enjoyed are these:

Showy lady slipper – Cypripedium reginae – flower opening

Hibiscus Time Lapse

Time lapse radish seeds sprouting, top and roots growing

Orchid Time Lapse

Or you might want to watch a creative animation of flowering plants opening.  Check out the first video of this post.  It’s called

Plant techno