Time for a new Contest!

Yes, It's that time again! Diane has a surplus orchid to donate to some eager forum member! It's FREE!!!!! I am asking for 2 senior members to be the judges for this contest... Tim? Julie? Gin? Hoa? PM me

Here is the deal. I ordered some 4" plants from a grower I buy from quite frequently, because 'blooming sized' plants are just getting too expensive. This gentlemen sent me my plants, and all 4 were in sheath/spike/bud!! Amazing!! Anyway - one of the plants was not the item I ordered, but an Slc Ken Dream. Now I have one of these - a huge one - from RVO. So I don't need another. So I am offering it as the prize.

By the way, it is in bloom right now, lovely fragrance. I will send it to the winner after I return from my current trip to Japan on the 27th. (sorry - it will be through blooming, but is a very vigorous plant, I'll try to get a picture before boarding the great silver bird in the morning...)



Here is the contest:

Write down in detail how you would describe the orchid of your choice (please list the orchid you are describing) to a person who is blind.

Really think about it folks, what do these plants evoke, what texture, smell, color (many blind people have had vision so they do know colors), etc.

You have one week to submit your entries. Then the judges (who will be announced) will pick one to be the winner. This should be an education for all of us.

I can't ship overseas, but our international friend are welcome to participate, and I will try to find an appropriate reward should one of them win the contest!!

Nice one, Diane!

Please gladly consider me for judging.

Julie

Here, Diane, is my humble submission. Your prize flower is mouth watering and I can't believe I'm not fighting off tons of competition!

Here, examine this amazing orchid plant, it’s an Iwan. Appleblossom ‘Hihimanu’. Feel the delicately sculpted ruffles on the petals? They are of a color and substance much like ivory silk crepe de chine—not shiny, but lustrous, catching the light like diamonds on the snow. And feel this ruffled scoop like lip? It’s of a heavier, more ivory substance—and this depression right in the center?—it is brushed with the softest yellow glow, as if touched by a fingertip dipped in sunshine. So elegant and simple!

Notice that there are several of these lovelies on each blooming spike, and they all open around the same time, so that the plant carries mounds of flowers. Each cluster is borne well above the foliage on a stiff green spike. And feel these wonderful leaves! They are so dense and slick and twisted; and so stiff that it’s hard to place two plants close to each other! They are the perfect counterpoint for the ivory flowers. And if you follow the leaves on down you’ll notice the pseudo bulbs which store nourishment for the plant—they are fat and firm and growing as thickly as a forest. And just below them is the guy wire network of roots reaching down into the media. And twisting around on the outside of the pot—just feel these aerial roots—fat and white and slick like a giant’s dental floss!

But I’ll bet I know what you noticed first about this orchid. It’s the fragrance, isn’t it—filling the whole room with perfume. What do you think it smells like? Heh—I hadn’t thought of that, but now that you mention it, you’re right. It does kind of remind you of cherry cough syrup!

Mehera

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WOW!!!
Beautiful pictures and a beautiful assay to boot!
Diane, give your pretty pretty plant to her!!! Hehehehehe!
Cheers. Hoa.

Oh, stuff it!

I always seem to be breaking rules...so I will again!

Diane's contest is such a lovely challenge, and was so poorly attended in number (although richly attended in the quality of the one participant!), that I'll butt in.

But rather than competing for the prize, I'll pose my submission as yet another quiz. PM me with the orchid I've described. This shouldn't be too scary newbies, so feel free to hop in and give it a try!

Ok...but I have to go compose it now...I'll be back!

Julie

Oh! Do my feathery tendrils tickle your face?
My beard is tender – not the stiff bristles of a grey, old uncle.

Breathe in my scent! But not until night falls.
Its lime-citrus deliciousness will tease your nose as you enter the room.

Could you see my color, you’d know I was a child of the night.
No boldness. Yet, not plain, either. Lovely in a soft, pale hue.

My leaves are my hands. Rough and callused like a farm worker’s.
When beauty springs from these, it’s beautiful indeed!

Julie

Your poem is so lovely!!!
In fact, I think that it is much better than those of Sue Fordyce! She just brutalized the English language and the orchids with her poems!
But doesn't the plant that you refer to in the poem is a bit obvious? Hehheeehe!
Cheers. Hoa.

Thank you, Sir Speedo!

I'm not aware of Sue Fordyce - sounds like I'm better off that way!

I wasn't trying to choose a tricky plant. I was hoping that by description alone one could identify it. Isn't that the goal of Diane's competition? And for those less familiar with orchids, it introduces them to one of my personal favorites!

Julie

Sue Fordyce is the daughter of Frank Fordyce, one of the premier catt hybridizers in the US. She took over Frank's orchid business and ran it for many years. She was very active with various orchid organizations, especially orchid publications. So if you read through things like Orchid Digest and etc... you would run across one of her poems and it's just brutal... I was screaming in my head, please PLEASE let this poem ends soon ... hehehhhehee!

do we submit the entries to this thread?