The Variegated Thumb

The Oklahoma Orchid Society show and sale takes place at the Will Rogers Park in Oklahoma City.  While we were there for the orchid show, we decided to wander around the park a little.  The Oklahoma Iris Society maintains a nice Iris Gardens that was in full bloom for our visit.  All of the plants were neatly labeled so we knew what we were viewing.

Greatest Show On Earth

Act Surprised

Sorbonne

Rayos Adentro

There were probably about 35 varieties in bloom.  This last one was Christie’s favorite.

Splurge

This has been a good year for our own little Iris garden at home.  We might have to add a variety or two for new colors next year.  This variety, Splurge, would be a good candidate.

My local orchid club, Oklahoma Orchid Society, held our annual show and sale on Mother’s Day weekend.  I took off work on Friday to help set up and then ventured back on Saturday with Christie and Myla to enjoy the show.  It was a small show, as usual, but nice.

Enjoying her first orchid show, laughing with mommy.

I carried Myla around while Christie took photos for me.  First, I’ll show off the Dendrobium.

Dendrobium lawesii being sold at one of the vendor tables.

Dendrobium lawesii – different color variant – also being sold.

Dendrobium Aridang x Burana Sundae

Miniature, deciduous, upright Dendrobium

Nice purple Dendrobium

Nice pendant, deciduous Dendrobium, profusely blooming.

A couple of nice Cymbidium.

An unregistered cascading hybrid Cymbidium

Cymbidium Little Black Sambo, upright and very dark

Miscellaneous other plants.

Laelia hybrid. I love this color and the faint pattern on the lip.

Very happy Cattleya

Anguloa hohenlohii x Ida locusta. Very interesting primary intergeneric hybrid.

Pleurothallis penelops. Awesome species that looks very similar to Pleurothallis dilemma.

Large, mounted specimen of Dendrochilum aurantiacum.

There were a total of eleven plants pulled out for AOS judging (including the one pictured above).  One of those eleven plants (a Paphiopedium) was awarded an HCC.

You may have noticed my blog has not been updated in several months.  Life has been busy with a number of changes.  I still have plenty to write, but haven’t had much time to do so lately.  The biggest change in my life is that in February I finally became a father, after more than 3 years in the process.  Now I have a little plant-enthusiast-in-training.

Me and my little girl

I hope to resume posting somewhat regularly soon.  Stay tuned!

For the first time in my life, I got to plan and plant a garden in a “sub-tropical” zone.  Christie’s parents have built a house in Galveston, Texas and we got to install the garden out front.  We live in zone 7a and Galveston is zone 9b!  What does that mean exactly?  That I get to grow plants that thrive in an environment where the temperature never dips below 25 Fahrenheit.  My zone dips down to zero Fahrenheit. In October, Christie and I headed down to Galveston to help her parents finish the house and have a little leisure time.

Laying the retaining wall blocks

It was fun visiting the garden centers in this part of the country and seeing all of the plants that can be grown there that can’t be grown here.  I didn’t really have any rules about the landscaping, but I wanted to get items that can’t be grown here.  Here’s the full listing of what we planted: black Crepe Myrtle (Lagerstroemia), Canna ‘Pink Sunburst’, pink Bougainvillea, Bird of Paradise (Strelitzia), Zamia vazquezii, Dietes iridioides, Alocasia ‘Frydek’, Indian Hawthorne, Natal Plum (Carissa macrocarpa), Gardenia,  Banana Tree, Duranta, Bottlebrush (Callistemon citrinus ‘Little John’), spicy Jatropha (Jatropha integerrima), Plumbago auriculata, Blue Ginger (Dichorisandra thyrsifolia), Red Shrimp Plant (Justicia brandegeana), pink Oleanders (Nerium oleander), dwarf coral Ixora, Yucca, yellow Allamanda bush, Brugmansia.

Plants eagerly awaiting their new homes

We did more soil preparation for this garden than I have ever done before.  We purchased more than 30 bags of soil, manure and other amendments to mix with the sandy soil that is filled with shells.  We wanted to build the flowerbeds up about 8 inches in some areas and about 16 inches in other areas.  There was a lot of shovel work, but once the ingredients were mixed and spread, and the retaining wall was in place, the planting was very easy.

Bird's eye view of left side garden finished

I look forward to seeing how the garden matures over the next several years.  Hopefully the plants will be happy enough without someone there full-time to tend to them.

Finished garden on the right side

This time last year I purchased my Encyclia plicata from Ruben in Orchids on my Florida trip.  At that time, it had just a couple of flowers left on its bloom spike.

Encyclia plicata flowers

True to schedule, my Encyclia plicata has been blooming for the past several weeks and this time I have gotten to enjoy the wonderful fragrance of these blooms.  I don’t really buy orchids for their fragrance, but this one would be worth it.  This just might be my favorite color combination of any of the orchids I own.  All things considered, this is pretty much a perfect orchid in my book.