OK I will go first. I found an orchid blooming today. It was one of the ones I picked out of someone's green trash a couple of years ago

Very pretty! I love the colour

Hetty: That is one Gorgeous orchid! Gee ... I wish folks in our area would throw things like that in the trash!! Lucky find!

I don't know much about orchids but I love growing them and I have a few. I got a surprise bloom this morning with this orchid I purchased a couple of months ago at either Home Depot or Lowe's. There was a tag in the pot with a picture of a much different orchid ... which is what I thought I was getting. Down in the potting medium was another tag and it ends up being that one. Not as pretty as the one I thought I was buying but it's pretty just the same. I really don't know who comes up with these names!

Laeliocattleya Tropical Pointer 'Cheetah':

Don't even get me started on Orchid names....

Hee hee, I don't care what their names are. I'm just jealous that you guys can grow them. Those are both beautiful!

A lot of mine got fried by the sun this summer and were looking really pitiful. After losing four to the intense sun I brought the rest inside a few weeks ago where they are recuperating until we can get part of our deck screened, which will hopefully be soon! The HOA has finally approved construction and we think the contractors will pull all the necessary permits early next week so they can begin work! I can soon move the orchids back outside ...Yay!

Broughtonia sanguinea var. aurea has been blooming for a couple of months:

Lin and Hetty, I'm with Woofie - jealous that guys can grow orchids! Outside! I'm ordering some from a fellow ATPer, Drdawg - alas, they will be mounted, likely not bloom because I don't know what I'm doing with these yet, and facing my back window to see the snow fly in January!

Um . . . actually, I love snow!

Sherri: Unfortunately I can't grow Orchids outside year round in this part of Florida. Hetty lives in the SW part of the state where many beautiful plants thrive outdoors year round. We get frosts and freezes here ... seems like colder and longer freezes as the years go by, so my orchids and other plants have to come inside from November through March.

I have one Orchid that I'm surprised is still alive ... it was half eaten by squirrels the past two years and then fried by the sun this summer. The plant looks really ratty but it popped two blooms this week. The tag on this one was lost a couple of years ago when Squirrels tore through a bunch of my orchids that were hanging in a backyard tree. I've looked through my list and I think it might be Cattleytonia Flying Colors 'Medenhall', but I'm not sure. I'm almost embarrassed to show these pic's because the plant and flowers are in pretty bad shape but the colors are so pretty.

Hey, Lin, the fact that that orchid is in good enough shape to produce blooms is reason enough to feel good about posting pictures! Congratulations of salvaging it! And they are pretty flowers.

Thanks Woofie! I do like the bloom color of this orchid.