Happy orchid weekend!

Well it's a rainy weekend here in Toronto but this past week we were treated to our first fine spring weather. The end of winter is in sight! The ground is no longer frozen and it didn't take long for the tulips to poke the first signs of new green growth up through to the light. And three cheers for more daylight!

On the orchid front, things are going really well! It's definitely been my best orchid blooming season to date and I've had something in bloom non-stop since my Maxillaria meleagris bloomed for the first time and my Dendrobium monoliforme started blooming back in October! First time bloomers for me this winter include Maxillaria meleagris, Coelogyne cristata and currently, Dendrobium kingianum and Jumellea arachnantha. The latter two have amazing smells, too. The kingianum, with a tulip-like fragrance, smells strongest in the morning and the harder-to-pinpoint arachnantha frangrance is strongest at night. And the spurs on the arachnantha are so incredibly long!

Now if only my Sedirea japonica would bloom :) No sign of anything there, not even any new growth yet for the coming spring season.

Orchid show wise, after 3 years I'm feeling a bit burned out by the SOOS show crowds and scene, so am thinking about checking out the Toronto Artistic Orchid Association show next month.

I have a fresh batch of new orchid fertilizer and should dig out the tree fern soon. Happy orchid growing and hunting to all :) This coming season I'm hoping to hit a few new locations to search for native orchids: Okanagan, Adirondacks, New England. We'll see how those plans go and what hidden treasures are waiting to be found.

Here are some pix of my kingianum and arachnantha currently in bloom.