Tonight is the Hollin Hills Orchid Society meeting.. I'm the president, which means I have to come up with the lecture, which after a couple years, is getting more difficult.  I like to have interesting things going on.. sometimes we have clinics, but tonight we're just going to have a slide show on the orchids of Belize and Guatemala... handy that I just came back from there and actually took a bazillion pictures of orchids "in situ".  I love seeing where they grow in real life.  It gives me such a much better grasp on culture for different genera.

In Belize, the Schomburkia tibicinis were in flower.. pretty spectacular with their 12 foot spikes and up to 22 brilliant orange twisty flowers per spike.  They are sometimes referred to as cow horn orchids because of the shape of the psuedobulbs.  And I found them living on rocks in full sun, and clumped on tree trunks in the deep shade... neither seemed to be an advantage over the other, as they both looked equally like crap, other than the spike!  Most orchids in the wild look bad.. they are all damaged and bug eaten, and sunburned and tattered...   we all worry so about any little mar or freckle on our personal plants!

I did bring back some pollen from this plant, but so far I haven't pollenated anyone with it yet.. it's got to be the right plant...