Bruce Peninsula Orchid Festival

Next weekend, May 30 and 31, we are headed north to the Bruce Peninsula Orchid Festival. Looks like the weather should be perfect for the event - so far looks like sunny skies and not too hot or too cold - and hopefully we will find see some native species in bloom!

The Orchid Festival website has a list of 42 species of native orchids that can be found on the Bruce Peninsula. I'll be sure and post pictures of any orchids we see.

In the meantime, Flickr has a nice bunch of wild orchid pictures in their Wild Orchids pool.

UK orchid news this week

There has been quite a bit of talk in the UK news this past week (Shoreham, West Sussex) about a patch of 200 or so rare wild bee orchids (Ophrys apifera) that were accidentally mown down by a city worker.

In other UK orchid news, a number of Cayman Island ghost orchids were supposed to go on display at the Chelsea Flower Show this weekend in London. The ghost orchids, however, along with some banana orchids, were intercepted en route to London in the Netherlands by customs agents, according to the Cay Compass News Online, "because of European regulations restricting the trade of rare and endangered species of plants". The ghost orchids were collected on the Cayman Islands two years ago from land cleared and slotted for development.

Yvonne's Orchid Fancy / Schreiber's Orchids

Yesterday we finally made our trip out to a greenhouse north of the city - we had been planning on going before Christmas, but it seemed that every weekend this past winter there was a snow storm that would have made travel difficult and dangerous.

Yesterday was a warm and sunny day and we headed out of town with my little list of Paphiopedilums. I managed to stick pretty closely to what was on the list and I was only swayed by two additional items. Here are the new acquisitions:

Paph. acmodontum
Paph. bellatulum
Paph. henryanum
Paph. venustum
Paph. venustum album
Brassavola digbyana
Tolumnia henekenii

Shortly after we arrived, I was surprised and saddened to learn that Gary, who I had been in email communication with before Christmas regarding our list and who I had seen at one of the vendor stalls at the orchid show in Toronto in February, had passed away suddenly in early April. My condolences again to his family and friends - from the little communication I had with him I know that his passing has left a significant gap in the orchid world both around here and no doubt further afield as well.

Here are some pictures from the Schreiber greenhouses.