Our magnificent Coryanthes bruchmülleri has been flowering regularly since it reached maturity last summer. C. bruchmülleri is the Goliath of the genus, with flowers four to five inches in d...
http://www.theorchidcolumn.com/2019/09/another-fantastic-bucket-orchid.html
We've produced a bumper crop of Coryanthes seedlings that are now reaching flowering size. Coryanthes, with their provocative morphology and intense fragrances are simply the best teaching t...
http://www.theorchidcolumn.com/2019/04/now-opening-coryanthes-macrantha.html
LYCOMORMIUM SQUALIDUM One of the most frequent comments on our visitor survey is 'Why aren't all of your plants labeled?' I totally get this. After all, an important function of plant collec...
http://www.theorchidcolumn.com/2019/03/where-are-all-labels.html
Good morning! Ready for an early walk through the Fuqua Orchid Center? Those of you who are buckling under the summer heat can head straight to the High Elevation House to cool off. Everyone el...
May and June are two of my favorite months in the Orchid Center. It's a photographer's paradise. Because we're inside a greenhouse, the 'golden hour' for photography, in which light assumes tha...
Some of our wonderful Polycycnis species are flowering this month. Polycycnis is a genus of Euglossine bee pollinated orchids in the Stanhopeinae native to Central and South America. The flowe...
http://www.theorchidcolumn.com/2018/05/polycycnis-muscifera.html
The most elegant Tulip Orchid in our collection is Anguloa cliftonii. The lovely curvature of the lateral sepals make it instantly recognizable. Just visible between the pale yellow sepals ar...
http://www.theorchidcolumn.com/2018/03/anguloa-cliftonii.html
Spring is in full swing in Atlanta and nowhere is that more evident than here at the Atlanta Botanical Garden, where Orchid Daze 2018 and Atlanta Blooms are running concurrently. If your life s...
http://www.theorchidcolumn.com/2018/03/orchid-daze-2018.html
This was a surprise. The sort of thing that happens in your dreams (especially if you are a plant breeder), but only rarely in real life: a novel color form in a batch of seedlings. Last Aug...
http://www.theorchidcolumn.com/2018/03/hey-who-turned-my-peristeria-yellow.html
Hello there! It's great to see you again. I hope you all are doing well. I took a bit of time off from blogging in order to heed the siren call of some other big projects here, but it's time fo...
One of my favorite Phalaenopsis is our magnificent hieroglyphica 'Orchidglade.' It's a stunner. It's flowers are larger, the colors richer and the blooming season much longer -six months!-...
http://www.theorchidcolumn.com/2017/10/phalaenopsis-hieroglyphica.html
It's been a good month for Lycomormium here. This species has been flowering for three weeks, jostling for attention among the FISKEI baskets in the Orchid Display House. Since we haven't yet p...
http://www.theorchidcolumn.com/2017/07/pollinating-lycomormium.html
Maybe it's the color -a true pink, without any of the red violet characteristic of so many 'pink' orchids -that makes Lycomormium fiskei so striking. And the size. Lycomormiums are hefty plants...
http://www.theorchidcolumn.com/2017/06/in-orchid-display-house.html
Our staff has lately been admiring this wonderful pale Paphiopedilum kolopakingii which we received in 2012 from Orchid Inn as Paphiopedilum kolopakingii var. topperi ('Jeanie' x 'Sam'...
Of the Asian slipper orchids in our collection, the species belonging to the section Coryopedilum are among the most striking. They don't have the candy and fruit bowl colors of som...
http://www.theorchidcolumn.com/2017/02/paphiopedilum-glanduliferum.html
Atlanta had one of its snowless Snow Days on Friday in which schools, workplaces, and virtually the entire city closed down in order to allow everyone to rush to the grocery for bread, milk and...
Bulbophyllum arfakianum unfurled its flowers for the first time last week, and I was felled on the instant. There isn't a single vantage point from which the flower doesn't lo...
http://www.theorchidcolumn.com/2017/01/bulbophyllum-arfakianum.html
Happy New Year, everyone!! I want to wish you all a joyful new year. May 2017 be filled with discovery and delight in all of the botanical magnificence around us. ⚘ Becky
http://www.theorchidcolumn.com/2017/01/new-years-day-2017.html
Our magnificent Phragmipedium caudatum would have attracted far more admirers were it not for the raspberry KOVACHII flowering simultaneously on the waterfall. The lucky visitors who managed t...
http://www.theorchidcolumn.com/2016/11/the-other-slipper.html
Phragmipedium kovachii, the most notorious orchid discovery within recent memory, is flowering now in the Tropical High Elevation House. It's growing high on the waterfall, perched on mossy ...
http://www.theorchidcolumn.com/2016/10/phragmipedium-kovachii_21.html
STANHOPEA HERNANDEZII For a long time I thought of Stanhopea hernandezii as a sort of junior sized version of Stanhopea tigrina, that mastodon of the stanhopeas. Both give the impression of...
http://www.theorchidcolumn.com/2016/09/bullish-on-stanhopeas.html
These days, 7 am finds me iphone flashlight in hand, visiting each greenhouse, searching the orchid collection for slugs, who I then crush under foot. This summer has brought an unusual amount ...
http://www.theorchidcolumn.com/2016/08/our-war-on-slugs.html
In the stranger-than-fiction world of Catasetum flowers -where male and female flowers look so different that they were once classified as different species, and male flowers fire their pollen...
http://www.theorchidcolumn.com/2016/07/catasetum-expansum-x-3.html
It is fascinating to observe all the different ways in which visitors and staff like to experience the orchids here. Many people like to experience the flowers through the lens of their camera,...
http://www.theorchidcolumn.com/2016/07/summer-orchid-fragrances.html
Green is a richly varied corner of the floral color spectrum. In summer it is a part of the spectrum my eye rests upon with deep appreciation. Lime, kiwi and melon hues -I think of them as a co...
http://www.theorchidcolumn.com/2016/07/the-greens-of-summer.html