The color change is really surprising! I never would have guessed it would change as much as that, and to such a nice clear shade of yellow. Is there any scent to it? does David Sander have any fragrance (or, I could say, does David Sander smell?, but that doesn't sound very nice).

Wow! So 'Yellow Bird' DOES change color!! Ah, I feel a lot less crazy now. I was utterly confused because even though the tags were mixed up, I just SWORE that orchid flower was a different color when I got it...

The flower smells really good right now. It's very early morning.

I don't know 'David Sander', but if he smells, I hope it's not bad.

This isn't blooming in MY backyard, but my son and I went to Selby Gardens in Sarasota for their Christmas "Lights in Bloom" exhibits. It ended with my 6 year old dragging me out of the sale greenhouse saying, "Come on Mom, let's go before you go insane."

Funny, Kate.

funny!
Those are beautiful! thanks for sharing, Kate!

Here is now my Brassavola Little Stars, finally most buds are open and I keep it now downstairs in the living room to enjoy the nice scent in the evening.

And the 'so called Janet' is now almost open too.

Lol Kate. Don't worry, with repeated exposure, your son will get infected with orchidmania too! Best to get them young!

I'm right with you, Kate. Selby affects me the same way. Now that you showed those pictures, I have an urgent need for a visit . . . even though I just had an orchid "fix" on Wednesday.

Isn't 'Little Stars' a lovely thing! Twinkle, Twinkle! I have four left, after giving away two already for holiday gifts. When they were inside for a couple of cold nights this place smelled like a brothel!

No scent so far on David Sander, but I must admit it's just one flower and I didn't go sniff him last night, his first night open. Will remember tonight.

I'm friends with Selby on Facebook and boy, do they show some tempting photos. I need to go there soon. Between the orchids and the bromeliads, I go crazy, too!

Now, some of you know I volunteer at the Museum of Science and Industry (MOSI) in Tampa. I volunteer in the butterfly exhibit helping raise the caterpillars and such. My bosses have a blog they publish from time to time and generally it's about butterflies or the plants they use. But they posted one on Facebook the other day about an orchid but the link wasn't working. My boss said it wasn't supposed to be posted until Monday so they took it down. But I noticed today they put the orchid in the flight cage with the butterflies so I took a picture. If my memory is correct this is Habenaria odontopetala, but I'll check for sure when they post the blog tomorrow. The butterflies did not seem interested in it, FYI. But it was cloudy and orchids aren't a host plant (aren't you glad for that!) so everyone was pretty calm today. Anyway, here's a few pictures I took.

I think you are right, Melanie. It does look like Habenaria odontopetala.

Jim

Those are really cute little flowers. They look like little mermaids swimming to me.

My son has Tillie-mania--he keeps stealing tillies and hiding them in a huge seashell in his bathroom. ;)

I love the 'Little Stars.' I'm adding that to the wish list!

How interesting, Melanie!

The Atlas of Florida Vascular Plants is telling me that the accepted name is Habenaria floribunda and that the other name is an accepted synonym. Here's the page for it: http://www.florida.plantatlas.... I'm afraid to know what OrchidWiz has to say. I just think native orchids are super neat. The Plant Database had Habenaria odontopetala listed; I'll have to go check that out again. I was just noticing that there are no photos in the database so I was going to add them when my boss confirms the species. They must be growing behind the museum in the area we call the Backwoods. We have trails back there. I'll have to ask where they are and maybe I can go back there and take some photos of them in their natural habitat for the database.

Really pretty, Melanie. I have a little Habenaria, not the native one, that I was considering putting out in the garden in a shady spot, but I'm afraid it will get lost or trampled by some critter, it's so small. Be interested to see the native one in its habitat.

My Laelia autumnalis v. atrorubens opened some more blooms.


And there is a "bloom" on my Zootrophion alvaroi - I was just about to pinch off a yellow leaf when I realized this thing was a bloom.

Cool, Ursula--I have never seen that Zootrophion alvaroi before. Does the flower open up further? It's really unique!


Could this be another bud on the Oncidium Midas 'Willow Pond' old flower spike? Sorry for the lousy picture...

I never guess right, Kate, so I will let others, with better/younger eyes than I, answer that.

It is always a good thing to be able to anticipate!!

Kate, the Zootrophion is fully open! Little Lizard heads?

Love the Zootrophion, Ursula. Lizard heads indeed. Kate, my Onc's do sometimes branch and bloom on an old flower stalk. Keep an eye on it.

My little Yellow Birds opened yesterday and I didn't get a shot of them in their initial rosy color, but here they are fading through pink. The birdie twins!



Tried a few 'portrait' shots of my David Sander this morning since it's cloudy and the light coming through the window is nice and soft.


This little flower on my new NOID catt from Apopka seems to have opened about as far as it can. Seems like I will have an ivory flower with pink lip when a new one comes along. I do have another sheath looking promising on this one.


My other bloomers, noid Den opening more flowers today, Enc. Green Hornet perfuming all around, and the tiny noid Brassavola, which went for a little swim in the pool yesterday when the wind knocked a trellis over, which took a stand holding 5 other orchids into the water. We'll see what a couple of hours' bath in the highly chlorinated pool does for them! Let's hope it drowned all the bugs and killed all the fungi . . . without bleaching out all the flowers to come, right Jim?

All orchid flowers are beautiful to me, but the David Sander is really something. I am jealous.