Very hot and dry here. What a nice surprize today, both cranefly orchid and rattlesnake plantain in full bloom. First time they've bloomed in several years. I'm always careful not to let RP get smothered with fallen leaves in the winter. Orchids are so mysterious and that is what makes them special.

Dottie, though I live in Colorado, S of Colorado Springs, I experiment in Zone denial, and have many pleasant discoveries. The arid climate allows us to get away with things and grow a wider range of plants. The orchids grow in the moist, shady microclimates provided by numerous exotic conifers. The rattlesnakes are indeed Goodyera- oblongifolia and repens. Both are about to bloom now. Flowers are greenish white and insignificant. Foliage is more interesting than flowers. Calypso bloomed a few weeks ago, and Cypripedium is just finishing. By growing these in sunken pots, the soil can be made perfect - like in the wild. For Calypso, that means lots of almost totally decomposed wood and loam. These are dormant in summer, growing a solitary leaf in late summer, early fall, and maturing a flower bud over winter, under snow, that blooms as soon as the snow melts and medium thaws. Cypripedium are in loamy granitic soil with good drainage, clay in the very bottom of the pot. Much easier to grow than Calypso. Commercial Bletilla and Pleione are the least fussy, grown in mix of bark and loamy humus that drains fast. Corallorhiza require pine roots, from which they may steal a little food. These are really hard to establish, and even then, don't appear every year.

Cool pictures everyone, thanks for sharing! Robert, nice macro of the gigantea bloom. Does the scent smell like sunscreen at all? My lactea bloom does, to my nose at least, with no notes of clove or spice. Not the scent I expected but mine has a single bud on it again (it is still pretty much a rooted cutting) so I'm excited to smell it again. I really want to get gigantea from Gardino's, should I? Anyway, here's some bloomings in Florida, I have so many flowers (including non-fragrant) that it feels like spring! Brassavola Little Stars. Nice scent, wish it was stronger but it's been cooler and drier outside so the scent doesn't carry as far. Hoya australis from accents. Light scent of spicy chocolate. I was dissapointed because I read so much about that powerful fragrance. Oklahoma rose. My favorite red rose and favorite fragrance hands down.Oklahoma closeup. Pope John Paul II, my other favorite rose fragrance. Classic rose with lemon and herb/pine is the best I can describe it. Hoya lacunosa never quits. As you can probably tell it gets a lot of Florida sun. Hong Kong Orchid. Smells like soap. One of the first blooms. In another month the whole tree will be covered with blooms until spring. The neighbors love this tree and it gets a lot of compliments but its starting to take over the sidewalk and now the road which I'm sure someone will have something to say about. It takes a lot of trimming to keep this one in check but it's worth it! My Oncidium Sharry Baby is putting out buds so I'm sure I will be back with that as well as a photo of my Brunfelsia lactea when the bloom opens. Tom

Maggie, oh my God..That is a lot of snow! Do you mean that the Magnolia still has leaves on them? What kind? Are they hardy to my Zone? It is a beautiful scene and so surreal, but boy can a lot of snow damage a lot. If you get another below 0 cold blast, at least everything under the blanket of snow will be safe, unless of course it all melts away before then..It has been crazy here too..Yesterday it was 56 degrees and by 7 a.m. it was 15...Now it's low teens and then 45 by Thursday...I hope to God I can keep some snow cover to protect some of my roses I never got to protect and Daphne..By the way, the only two I have are all covered for the winter, thank God.. If it make you feel any better, I lost my only Star Magnolia to drought this past summer..The whole thing turned brown and died from months of nothing more than an inch or two of rain all year and not a drop for two summer in a row..Horrible.. Stay safe and warm)