To ease my impatience for spring, I spent the afternoon, both yesterday and today, with a delightful planting of dwarf irises in bloom, a Paphiopedilum Pacific Shamrock x Paphiopedilum Yosemite Moon 'Ching Hua bud just waiting to explode soon and a few other friends as well.
First the irises:
Here the irises look like they are dancing! I'm geting dizzy.
Irises are so graceful and light and the color - spectacular. Unfortunately, though, the color is not captured correctly by the Nikon camera that I use. Actually, all blues, reds and purples are never captured correctly using Photoshop. Seems to work well with the point and shot Nikon cameras but not the D80 that I used here o rthe D300.
Now the orchid bud! This paphiopedilum hybrid only had a single flower last year - starting in April of 2011. This bud is growing quite large and taking a very long time to mature. It seems quite content in its surroundings of blooming phalaenopsis everywhere and irises. It will be the star of the garden in another week or so.
My next surprise this winter is the cattleya hydrid - just one flower this year too. But it has been peaking out over the past few weeks and now it is starting to display its flower. And it is lovely.
And there is always the phalaenopsis - so beautiful.
