Pretty picture: Beallara Tropic Lily 'Ice Palace'

Sorry about this. I know it's not my best photo. There's nothing new going on in the house, though, and the last few times we've gone out looking for interesting garden center photos, either the garden center in question was closed when we got there, or it was open but they didn't have anything interesting going on either. So with this picture I'm reaching way back to last August, and it's not even a particularly good or interesting photo, though I still like Beallaras in general.

On the up side, we're supposed to get a little snowstorm today (Monday) and then a big snowstorm Tuesday and Wednesday, which between the two of them are supposed to drop 8-12 inches (20-30 cm) on us. It's not East Coast kind of snow (seriously, guys -- so jealous), but it'd be the biggest snowfall of our winter to date if it happens like they're saying it will, so I'm pretty stoked. Alas, it's also going to involve 25-30 mph (40-48 kph) winds and wind chills down to -21F (-29C), but you know: every rose, thorn, yada yada.

Pretty picture: Beallara Marfitch 'Howard's Dream'

Not my favorite orchid picture, but it's one of my favorite orchids.

I don't know why people would, knowing that people are going to be photographing the orchids, set up a black and white grid as the background. No good can come of this; it's just going to mess with people's eyes as they look at the flowers. And that goes triple for a flower that's already this dark -- may as well light it with a pink strobe and have the whole display spinning around, as put it in front of a black and white grid.


*sigh* But I am not bitter.

I've seen this particular plant before, at work, and am surprised at how much darker this flower is than those were. I don't know if this is due to cultural differences, or normal variation between flowers, mislabeling, or what, but it's a pretty drastic difference. I very much prefer the work flower to the orchid-show flower, because of the spots. (And the photography was better, too, as far as that goes.)

The 'Howard's Dream' from work.
They both have nice qualities, though. The dark purple in the top photo is a nice color, and I kind of like the shape better. So, you know. Whatever.

Pretty picture: Beallara Peggy Ruth Carpenter

I like Beallaras. I don't know if they're difficult to grow (I suspect probably they are, or you'd be seeing them by the truckload instead of Phalaenopsis), but they just have a nice look to them. This particular plant is notable for having multiple colors of flower on the same spike: the older ones, like the one pictured, are a dark purple, and the newer, younger ones (you can see part of one in the top left of this photo) are considerably lighter. It's possible that this is a side effect of shipping or some other environmental thing, but even if it was accidental, it was a striking look.

The amazing part was that this one, though it was prominently displayed up at the front counter since its arrival a month ago, never sold. I don't know what people were thinking. Now the flowers are starting to drop, and we're probably not going to sell it at all, at least not until it flowers again. It seems like we were doing okay selling orchids this time last year, so it must be the economy. 'Cause there ain't nothing wrong with that flower.

Pretty picture: Beallara Marfitch 'Howard's Dream'

I've posted another Beallara picture before, of Beallara Tahoma Glacier, but this is a better flower, I think. I especially like the orchids that have complicated patterns of spots like this, but even without the spots, this color is pretty cool.

Random plant event: Beallara 'Tahoma Glacier' flowers

Now that I think about it, it's maybe a little weird and noteworthy that orchids are so easy to hybridize with one another like this. I mean, if the Araceae worked like the Orchidaceae did, we'd have Aglaobachias and Anthuriodendrons and Caladiospathidapsus (which would be fun to say). Maybe some day, all those combinations will be possible, but for right now, only the orchids seem to think we're worth their time. So yay for the orchids, I guess.



This is a Beallara flower, which is Brassia x Cochlioda x Miltonia x Odontoglossum. I especially like the band of light yellow at the bottom of the lower petals; I don't know why.