It’s Friday and time to showcase a slice of the beauty from Mother Nature. It’s also the time where we join our furry buddies, Rosy and her brothers from LLB in our Backyard to check out what others in Blogville share in the hop because you can’t get too much beauty from Mother Nature.
The weather has been pretty nice for this time of year with today pushing 60 degrees and tomorrow cresting the 70ºF mark. To which I say, yes please! While I really don’t mind cooler temps, i absolutely love the 60-70ºF range. If there weren’t dried brown leaves, you might think it was spring instead of autumn.
But enough of the weather, let’s get to the pretty. Naturally not much is blooming in the garden this time of year so let’s go into a greenhouse and check out some orchids instead.
Orchidaceae (orchids) has over 20,000 currently known species, and they can be quite showy, with flowers in an array of colors, shapes, and sizes. While delicate looking these guys are hardy inhabitants when cared for properly.
All orchids share some similar characteristics like bilateral symmetry of their flower, where the flowers often appear upside down, supine or upward facing. They nearly always show highly modified petals, fused stamens and carpels, producing very small seeds.
Orchids are perennial herbs and lack a permanent woody structure. Orchids do not flower more than once on the same stem generally. Stems should be cut just above the bottom two nodes, or joints after the flower is spent.
The showy orchids favored by most people are usually phalaenopsis hybrids (known as moth orchids). These plants enjoy strong (but not direct afternoon) light with either southern or eastern exposure. They need high humidity and turbulent airflow around the roots with regular periods of drying alternated with heavy watering (or drenching rains if you happen to in Hawaii where some of these images were taken). Orchids do best in temperatures above 50 degrees and below 85 degrees.
Orchids have graced the Ranch for somewhat limited lives but lack of long term success hasn’t deterred me from being captivated by these beauties. I mean, whenever I see something as beautiful as these exquisite plants, I want to bring those showy flowers home. Who can resist a beautiful orchid in the winter? I know I still look for something similar to this blue orchid (previously shared earlier this year) which I brought home several years ago from the local grocery store. Although it didn’t survive nearly as long as I had hoped, it sure looked lovely while it did.
Have you had luck growing orchids at home?
We hope you are able to get out to enjoy nature this weekend and to find some of the varied beauty Mother Nature offers.
Live, love, bark! 🐾
We have never tried growing orchids but they are just beautiful!!
hugs
Mabel & Hilda
They are especially beautiful when just outside the window is a snowy scene.
the flowers are so pretty! Hey you can have back the white stuff you sent us (wait, ours melted….for now….) tomorrow night we are supposed to have more snow!
Never fear…Mother Nature is an equal opportunity torturer. Our forecast calls for snow either tonight or tomorrow. It was just shy of 80F yesterday-tomorrow’s high may break freezing! WTH?
Thanks for sharing the beauty from the greenhouse. Orchids display such a wide range. Great catches … and enjoy your break from the cold.
Since it’s is expected to be in the mid-70’s today, I’m hoping to get some last-of-the-season yard work done. Snow is forecast for tomorrow night. Talk about c-r-a-z-y!!
Wow. Those orchids are beautiful! I know so little about flowers … but now I’ve got the bug so to speak. I do have a garden …
Gardening can fill the heart with such joy-I highly recommend it, whether it’s inside or outside. Happy weekend.
All my homegrown orchids have died, despite having special food for them. Looks like I, too, have to settle for the botanical gardens.
Orchids come and go around here. They can be challenging at times but they’re always exquisite.
I never really knew much about orchids, so this was interesting! I’m not really that good with house plants, especially those that need specialized care. 🙂
😇
Orchids don’t last long for me either. I think it is our hard water.
The water here was pretty hard too. Water is generally only the problem when there’s too much which happens often. 😊
I don’t even try to keep orchids, but always enjoy seeing them!!
You might surprise yourself if you give them a shot. 😇
Love orchids! Hoping the one I just got 2 weeks ago stays alive for awhile! My Mom has several orchids but she has a green thumb!
Fingers crossed 🤞🏻 for you! I’m told they keys are bright but not direct light and letting them dry out between watering with about 40% humidity. Good luck!
Thanks! Fortunately we have a living room window where a lot of light comes in. I am pretty good at letting plants dry out. LOL!
LOL, got that skill perfected myself! 😂
😃😃
ME<—-well known orchid killer. The Ted Bundy of Phalaenopsis, the Charles Manson of Dendrobiums, the…oh you get it. 🙂
Heh, heh. You’re in good company-there’s a well documented share of victims at the Ranch, yet it doesn’t diminish trying over and over. Maybe one day I’ll figure out how to keep them alive. I may need to save Leo’s recipe-he seems to know the proper tricks.
Never had much luck with orchids. I like them but can’t raise them.
They’re hard for me to keep too but that never seems to keep me from buying more ☺️
Hard to resist
Beautiful…I always find blue flowers to be so stunning!
They are real showstoppers.
I have grown a lot of house plants but not orchids yet. Like orchids I do best in temperatures above 50 degrees and below 85 degrees.
When you add a reasonable amount of humidity to those temps, who wouldn’t thrive? 😄
Wagnificently beautiful.
HuMom is recently tried gardening. Up until now, in house plants were limited to cacti 😉
🐾💜🐾
Cacti and me don’t play well with each other even though I don’t try to murder them. I think I watered them too much. Good luck to your mum with her gardening efforts. It’s always rewarding.
💜nose nudges💜
The orchid didn’t survive because the Knucklehead and/or Ninja ate it.
This time they’re innocent. I kill orchids without any help from the 4-paws contingent.
Leo has managed to keep orchids going for three years so far…he has made a mixture of bone, charcoal and bark which seems to suit them and just sprays the plants every day.
Sounds like the perfect recipe for how to keep orchids alive. Bravo!
He is delighted as you can imagine.
As he should be!
Maybe I should make a note for the next time I plan genocide on the next innocent orchid. 😊
That last one is my favorite. That color blue is just beautiful, although the purple orchids are quite mesmerizing in their own right.
And 70 degrees? Whoa. We got a little snow here this morning, because why not? LOL
Happy Friday Monika
Yesterday was 71 and fabulous but today it’s expected to be in the mid-70’s! Course this will likely be the last time since snow is predicted Sunday night and Monday will barely reach freezing. Yo-yo weather is now the norm. Have a super weekend.
I no likey yo-yo weather, seeing as how the dip sucks so much.
Happy Weekend!
It sure gives you weather whiplash. Hard to figure out what to wear when you go outside. There’s nothing worse than having to carry a coat while walking two Knuckleheads with all their accoutrement because the temps warmed up while you were out. Talk about a challenging balancing act!
And when I run this morning, Imma have to wrap myself up as if I was Peter O’Toole in the desert. Only for the opposite reasons . . because it is cold outside this morning. But I wanna get my run in so’s I can be lazy tomorrow morning.
Sunday is a great day to laze about, or as I like to think of it…rejuvenate. Enjoy your run and enjoy tomorrow’s laze. 🏃🏽♂️
Rejuvenation is what I’m doing . . that’s perfect, thank you! 🙂
Rejuvenate away, friend!
🙂
Orchids are so beautiful but mom knows that if she bought one, it would never make it at our house.
Never say never, Molly.
🐬🐬🐬🌟
So lovely orchids! You also have lovely weather, we have now about 23°F/ -5°C.
I love orchids. They are most beautiful. I had a lovely one for years and then went on a long cruise and my granddaughter over-watered it and it died. So sad.
Have a fabulous day and weekend, my friend. ♥
Overwatering has claimed more orchid lives than anything. I’ve been guilty of that offense more than once.
I keep trying… I’ll buy one, enjoy it, do what they say and, if I’m lucky, it lasts almost a year…
These are lovely.
Happy Friday to ya!
A year is nothing to sneeze at. Bravo!
Might have happened once. Might have.
Better to have experienced once than never at all my dear. 🥰
True ’nuff!
I had one from a grocery store that lasted well over a year. It blooms for a long time on one stem. Then another stem grew with more flowers.
Good for you! That happened to me once-I did the happy dance for months.
Love orchids. My painting friend in Hawaii often shows them growing around her yard.I fondly remember going to Longwood Gardens in PA to their orchid room… so many varieties.
They are really remarkable plants especially since most are pretty much parasitic.
I’m the serial mom when it comes to orchids… sadly… I think they came once from a magic place far away… maybe from a garden of a princess or fairy…
For such a delicate looking flower, they manage to thrive hanging from trees. I wish I had better luck with them too. Still I’m always seduced by their beauty.