Massachusetts Orchid Society Annual Show!

This past weekend I drove up to meet my brother Verne at the Massachusetts Orchid Society Annual Show and Sale, “A New England Rainforest”, which was held at the lovely Tower Hill Botanic Garden in Boylston, MA.

The greenhouses were neat as a pin, with nary a stray leaf to be found on the floor. Here is a photo of the orangery.


There were many camellias in bud, but only one was beginning to bloom, it was called Yuletide.

Most of the more common orchids that we would readily recognize are of the genus Phalaenopsis. Here is a table of these orchids at the show that I took because it was pretty and colorful:

But mostly I wanted to get photos of unusual orchids that take forms I wouldn’t readily recognize as being orchids. Good thing I had Verne in tow to point them out to me!

I didn’t manage to get a photo of the label with this one, but look at how it seems to be fingers on a hand!

I could not believe that this Robiquetia cerina was an orchid! But if you look closely at the flowers, you can clearly see the 6 petal arrangements.

I just kind of liked these!

These Schomburgkia Wellesley are unusual for their lower liplessness. Whereas lady-slipper type flowers have a lower lip, these do not and that is highly unusual in orchids. There is even a fancy botanical name for it! [Of course Verne knows it!] Pretty lavender color too!

I got very excited when I saw these tiny orchids growing in moss because I had written about Teagueia orchids growing in moss for my Fair View Fantasy Ecuadorian Equinox series [NSFW]. However, this was another species entirely. But I was so happy to finally see orchids growing in moss!

These very interesting orchids have separate moving parts. The little round things bobble up and down like an insect to attract small birds and insects. The effect is more noticeable when the bobble is dark, but this flower is prettier!

This Angraecum distichum hardly looks like an orchid at all; looking much more like a fern or a cactus!

These are sort of ordinary, but I liked the colors!

Verne was partial to these.

As well as these!

These hanging chains of orchid flowers were pretty and had a wonderful fragrance! This was a tiny plant compared to the giant below that filled an entire corner of the building:

The flowers are not yet open. Notice the pine tree next to it for scale.

This is one I noticed in Singapore that I wasn’t able to identify, but here it was with a label!

It is a Pigeon Berry. Note the orange berries and purplish-pink flowers.