Mercado de las Orquideas

What a weekend! It has been the San Miguel Mercado de las Orquideas which was sponsored by the San Miguel Orchid Lovers. The Orchid Lovers are a group of people in San Miguel who DO love orchids and want to share their love of orchids with other people in San Miguel. It was just one year ago when my friend Mary invited me to join them at their annual dinner. I had grown or maybe I should say I maintained some Phalaenopsis in the past but really didn't know much about orchids. And growing orchids here is complicated by the low humidity. Some orchids require more humidity than others but it is somewhere in the 30-70% range. Some need cooler weather and others warmer. My beginner list was for orchids that looked like they had a fighting change in SMA. I joined the group and I've learned a lot but I think raising orchids could be a life long learning process even if you are starting at a much younger age than I.

This past Friday night was the 2016  dinner and Saturday morning the expo opened with 24 vendors. I wish you could have seen the venue. It is a wide space, kind of a wide alley and both sides were lines with gorgeous, gorgeous orchids. People came, both Mexicans and gringos, and I think all of the vendors did well. At least when I went back this afternoon, the tables still had orchids but they were spaced out a bit. 

I had my list of "Beginner" orchids so I thought I knew what I was looking for but I have to tell you that it was so, so easy to be seduced by orchids that were not on the list. I think I did pretty well although I did not stick strictly to the list.

I wanted a cattleya because I didn't have one and they are so beautiful. I have heard that they are harder to grow than Palaenopsis ( you know the one you always see in the grocery store) so I thought I would start with just one.

 

The tag on this orchid is Lysudamuloa (Lys) Red Jewel. I think it might be some kind of cross between Lycaste and something. I liked the flowers and I like the leaves that are large, long and kind of soft.

 

As you can see I have a lot to learn.

 



I already have several Paphiopedilum or slipper orchids but I could not resist this one with its variegated leaves. It's tag calls it a Paphio Coloralum. Can't wait for the bloom to open.

 



If you saw this in the jungle, would you think it was an orchid? It is a Bulbophyllum, Lion King x Annandalei. It wasn't on my list but it was the only one I saw in the whole show so I had to have it.

 



Somehow this orchid got to my house without a tag. It is a big plant, about 2.5feet tall and just about as wide and it was heavy. I carried it home from out past the instituto along with a heavy bag with a pot and potting medium. I don't know if the plant had a tag or if it was lost but it is a Cymbidium of some type. Another orchid lover told me that they had Cymbidiums in a pot and it sat outside all year long. There are two other shoots on it with blooms so it should be spectacular for a while yet.

It has been a great weekend but my purse is much lighter than it was on Saturday morning.

Sketching?

 

Now that the renovation work on the house is basically done, I have lots to do in going through stuff and either getting rid of it or finding a new place to use it or reframing pictures and the list goes on. But what am I doing? I'm playing with the iPhone.

 

This is a Costco Orchid that I bought this week just to have a flower in my bedroom. They last for weeks and so it ends up they are cheaper than buying a bouquet of flowers every week. I took pictures of it and then I sat down to play with photo apps.

 

It isn't exactly "right" but there is something about it that keeps me thinking about it and where I could take the idea.

 

"What you need to know about the next piece is contained in the last piece."

Art and Fear by David Bayles and Ted Orland.

My Latest Obsession

 

You may not have picked up on my latest obsession but I'm afraid that I am becoming addicted to Orchids. I've messed with them before but that was many years ago and I thought that the move to Mexico's high desert with low humidity had cured me. But alas, there is a gang here in San Miguel called the Orchid Club and it looks like they have lured me back. Last Fall, I was invited to their annual dinner so that I felt obligated to go to the Orchid show the next day. Between their kindness and generosity and the beauty of the orchids, I was forced to buy two. And that turned me on. I had to have more. Now I'm afraid that more is never enough.

 

Two weeks ago I was in Mexico City for the Orchid Expo....and I bought two more. I decided if I'm going to grow orchids I needed some help so I ordered a beautiful book, Understanding Orchids by William Cullina.  Today I talked friends into going to Celaya, can you believe it...on a Saturday....to the Celaya Expo de Flor. I bought three more orchids, a violet and a gorgeous white hydrangea. See, an orchid addiction just leads to other flowers. Now I have two violets because I bought one sad looking little violet at Home Depot earlier in the week.

 

The hydrangea? I don't know why I bought it. I've tried growing them here before but the soil isn't right for them so it is a battle to keep them nourished. But a white hydrangea is such an elegant flower and makes me think of lovely old southern homes with porches where you sat in a white wicker rocking chair wearing a pale blue linen dress in the late afternoon and drank tea, I really, really do have to try to get this hydrangea to grow so it can paint lovely pictures for me.

 

I do not know what kind of orchids I bought today. The one you see above is in a pot, one is on a piece of a tree and the other is mounted on a board. At least the ones I bought in Mexico City came with pedigrees.    

La Selva Orchidia

A most wonderful morning this week. Bill Bartlett is a friend of mine but I had never been to his Orchid jungle before but now that I'm joining the Orchid Club in San Miguel and I'm going to try to keep some alive, I wanted to see his renown collection. I knew that groups scheduled tours to see it and now I understand why. Bill has had some of his orchids for decades and I am overwhelmed with the beauty and variety in his Orchid jungle. I could have made a 1000 images of the orchids that were in bloom, and there were many varieties that were blooming, but I was so busy listening to this expert and trying to absorb a bit of his knowledge that I didn't have time to make lots of photographs.

Bill is going to come visit me in San Miguel this year. I just hope that by the time he arrives I haven't killed off the few orchids that I have and that I have a bit more knowledge than I do now. I'd love to have a tiny Selva Orchidia like Bill's and I'm hoping I can figure out how to do that in the patio.

In Memoriam of the White Orchid

 

 

 The orchid I bought last Fall is going into resting mode and the flowers that have been so lush and beautiful are drying up and dropping off the stem. But even in that state, they are still so beautiful to me. So delicate and fragile. I had to save them so out came the camera. I played with the pinhole lens, the close-up lens, the 90mm f1.8, the 70-200mm 2.8 lens. I played with different arrangements, and depth of field. Black and white and of course color. I made a lot of images and had a great time.

I may have to ask friends to save their dead flowers for me to photograph. I certainly would not be the first photographer to photograph fading flowers but then what hasn't been photographed before.