G.G. Traveler "The Carolina Traveler": Orchid Extravaganza

February 26, 2012, Sunday
The Daniel Stowe Botanical Gardens near Belmont, NC (just west of Charlotte, off of I-85), is hosting an Orchid Spectacular. If you're reading this before March 18, 2012, then you aren't too late to see the exhibit for yourself. The sponsor of the exhibit is Rodgers Builders. (Thanks to B.D. and Pat Rodgers for supporting such an enjoyable show.)
Orchids are enchanting. In February of 2009, my sister Sally and I visited an orchid garden in Costa Rica, located on a mountain-side between Arenal Volcano

and the Monteverde Cloud Forest. I think this little Orchid Garden had over 470 kinds of orchids. At the Costa Rican Orchid Garden we used magnifying glasses to see living orchids that looked like dust particles with the naked eye. It was amazing to see such tiny, intricate flowers which you wouldn’t even know were there without a magnifying glass! They remind me of Dr. Seuss's “Who” world that looks like a speck of dirt to everyone on Horton the Elephant’s planet (in Horton Hears a Who). Peering at these amazing miniature flowers makes you ponder what other wonders there are--floating around you, or under your feet--of which you are totally oblivious.
Orchids are beautiful and exotic looking, but I previously had no clue as to the abundance of varieties. In addition to tiny orchids, there were large ones, regular-sized flowers, frilly ones, spiky ones, spotted ones, and patterned ones whose leaves resembled webs or lace. Here are some from my orchid collection, which consists only of photos since giving me a plant is like committing herbicide:

spotted

frilly

spiky

patterned

lacy looking pattern

"wing-tip" pattern

The range of colors is spectacular.

Orchids come in almost every color of the rainbow: yellow, lavendar, purple, pink, orange, red, and green. They also come in brown. The only orchid color I haven't seen yet is a true blue. The photo to the right shows a "black" orchid (actually very dark purple) and a white one.

This orchid looks suspiciously like a daffodil.

These orchids are called dancing ladies because of their full skirts:

Some orchids look like spiders and some resemble birds.

Some orchids have a little bowl as part of the flower. They remind me of the carnivorous pitcher plant, but I don’t think orchids digest bugs like a pitcher plant does.

Some of these blooms were hardly recognizable as orchids. These, to me, look like they are either girls or babies wearing old-fashioned white bonnets:

This one looks as if it might be sporting a mustache:

Lines and dots on orchids act as landing guides for insects just like landing strips at an airport:
Pretty sneaky method to get insects to help pollinate!

I call these types of orchids "sisters" since they grow and bloom next to each other:

And obviously this orchid suits the "sister" name, too:

After falling in love with orchids in Costa Rica, the affair was rekindled when "Buck" and I visited the Marie Selby Botanical Gardens (Sarasota, Florida) in December. The orchid exhibit there was a traveling, temporary exhibit, but it was great!

Based on these experiences, I figured the exhibit at Daniel Stowe in NC would easily be worth the hour's drive down I-85. Where else around here can you see orchids brought to you from all over the world, and showcased in such a beautiful manner?