“Rhynchostylis orchids are best grown in slatted baskets where they produce colorful sprays of fragrant flowers each winter. Daily watering is suggested.” Photo Credit – Arthur Chadwick
Wine lovers take note. Some orchids prefer corks as their potting media.
Question:
I thought I was going to pass out at the grocery store after seeing what looked like an entire display of blue orchids! They don’t look real but what exactly am I seeing? Debbie T.
Answer:
Just in time for Easter. Put away your eggs. It’s time for dyed orchids!
My father recalls a time when cut white carnations were soaked in dye and passed off as pink. Or red. Or orange. They sold like hotcakes. Of course, no one had to be concerned with what the cut flowers looked like on their next blooming a year later.
Novelist Susan Orlean made the Ghost Orchid a household name in her 2000 best-selling book, The Orchid Thief, now in its 13th edition. The story became the subject of a highly acclaimed film, Adaptation, in 2002, starring Nicolas Cage and Meryl Streep. The orchid world has been abuzz ever since.
