For the last four or five years I have attended the Oklahoma Orchid Society (OOS) show on Mother's Day weekend in Oklahoma City. Last year when I attended I decided to go ahead and join the OOS. So this year, when it was time to put on the show, I found myself on the other side, showing up on Friday to help set up the show before it was open to the public.
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| Brian Truong's (a.k.a. Okie Orchids) exhibit |
It was a very busy weekend, including three graduation ceremonies and two Mother's Day meals. I took off work on Friday to help setup the OOS exhibit and to help the vendors bring in their plants. It was a fun experience and I understand the whole process much better now. Christie joined me with the setup and was the official label maker for the plants displayed in the OOS exhibit.
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| Unknown jewel orchid |
This time around I entered three of my own orchids, including the jewel orchid pictured below, which got a 2nd place ribbon. Plants are classified in different categories and my jewel orchid would have been competing against the plant pictured above, which received a first place ribbon. My other two orchids both received first place ribbons, so I am now 5 for 5 with the plants I have shown in orchid shows!
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| Sarcoglottis sceptrodes |
The
Stelis pictured below was on display in our OOS exhibit. It is a neat little plant, named after one of the guys who had that
gigantic exhibit in Wichita a couple of weeks ago.
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| Stelis scabrata 'Bryon' |
There were two little
Phalaenopsis-type orchids in our exhibit that had really nice little flowers (both pictured below).
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| Nice yellow Phalaenopsis |
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| Dtps. Little Gem Stripe |
Sarah Pratt of Timbucktoo Orchids came down from the Wichita area and set up both a nice exhibit and had a vendor table. Her exhibit included a big
Stanhopea embreei (below) which was still in bud when we helped her unload, but had opened on Sunday when I was helping tear down. I hope that it opened on Saturday when the judges made their rounds and the bulk of the crowd was there.
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| Stanhopea embreei |
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| Stanhopea embreei, closeup of flowers |
I know I have shown
Grammatophyllum pictures several times, but it is such a cool plant, that I just have to show them off again (below). This plant gets gigantic, but that won't stop me from growing one some day.
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| Grammatophyllum scriptum |
In Wichita I was discussing orchids with my friends and learned that the correct pronunciation of the genus
Coelogyne is "suh-LODGE-uh-nee." I won't try and figure out how I was saying it in my head up until then, but it was significantly different enough that I didn't even know what plant Steve was talking about when he was saying this name. Later when we were by the labeled plant it suddenly dawned on me that that was the name Steve had been saying earlier.
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| Coelogyne speciosa |
Both
Catasetums and
Coelogyne tend to grow from large pseudobulbs with pendulous or semi-upright spikes of flowers. I haven't grown either of these genera before. There were a couple of nice specimens at the show.
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| Catasetum tenebrosum |
There was a really interesting intergeneric hybrid (I think) orchid for sale from Orchid Konnection. I couldn't find a tag on either of the two plants for sale, but Christie and I both stopped and noticed this one. It was just very unusual colors and markings for this type of orchid (below). It remains a mystery for now... [Update: The plant has been tentatively identified by commenter Peaches!]
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| Really neat plant for sale from Orchid Konnection, probably Bllra. Patricia McCully 'Pacific Matriarch' |
I have some more photos to share, so stay tuned for the second part.
