Name: whiole-plant.jpg Views: 340 Size: 367.7 KBName: lit-from-below.jpg Views: 229 Size: 455.5 KB

Bad days and good days - more of the former than the latter for me for a few years now ( my wife is in poor health - just one thing after another - replacement hip joint, replacement heart valve, breathing problems, then another hip replacement, and so on . My life is as her carer...but that has meant we have not been away this year apart from our trip to Rio in January ( on a cruise ship which she did not get off until we got to Rio), not been out much, and that has also meant that I get to spend an hour or so , sometimes even two hours, almost every day,
looking after my orchids. As one of the greatest experts I know says - if you want to grow good orchids, you have to put the time in ; there is just no substitute.

But it was my nearest Orchid Show having their Autumn ( Fall to you ) show on Saturday, and I pretty well scooped the pool - the Dendrobium Cup, the Cattleya Trophy, Best Phal, and this plant collected 5 trophies - best Pleurothallid, best New World Orchid, Best Species, and Best in Show, plus a cultural award - 5 trophies for one little plant ! It is growing in a two inch pot, the number of flowers is difficult to tell - they are all round the plant and in the centre too - various people told me they had counted so many ( every speaker had a different number -one even said 65 ! ) seen here with the pot centred in a 4 ½ inch pot with the space filled with gravel for stability.

The funny thing is I only added it to my show entry at the last minute - I had not noticed the flowers ( they were not out when I sorted out the entry a few days earlier) and my pleuro' entry was a Dracula cordobae with four flowers - and I spent some time making a stand to lift it up and allow the downwards hanging spikes - 4 flowers - to be seen from below ; and carrying the plant out to the car to take it to the show I caught it on a rose bush and stripped off two of the flowers. So I went back to look for something in its place and spotted this one.
Thats serendipity I think.
This was aa good day . Will show some of the other winning entries in further posts, later.

The second pic has the flowers lit from below with a little spot lamp.