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This Orchid is called Rodreguizia Lava Flow. The flowers are hanging down in a fiery lava like way. These are a selection of emailed photos to me. I think they show the Different Flowers and colours of Orchids. They are in a guys private collection I guess. The Costa Rica weather must favour orchids. I'm just sharing them with a wider audience. My three orchids look poor besides this floral explosion of colours.I can dream of making mine flower like these!

A Cymbidium at night, it has a striking Face I think complete with raindrops.

This is the second flower from the Supermarket Orchid, within the Same pot as the picture from yesterday.

This ones called Miltassia, got to love the colours of White and Purple/pink. Its like an Indians War Paint or a Water colour painting.

This is an Epidendrum, the flowers look like Angels with the top part hovering over the petals.

A Cymbidium Flower after the Rainfall (It is the Wet season now in Costa Rica)

A Crimson/Orange flowered Cattelya above the green leaves.

The White Flowered Ticoglossum on a glass table. I think this would make a good acylic painting. Love the flowers like Stars with yellow centres.
No news on the House front yet.I rang the estate agents today. It was actually sunny outside when I went to the little shop. The thing I miss about being gardenless is the simple act of sitting outside, and feeling the wind and the sunshine. I will be encamped outside with a table and chairs. If I can get a laptop with Wireless I can blog from the Garden.
Thanks to Canatico for sending me your Orchid photos. Now the Blogosphere can admire your plants happily growing :)

How the World Garden grew

Yesterday in the news I found an interesting Orchid/ human interest story.I know people are mad for Orchids and how it drives them to do outrageous things to acquire new specimins, and obcessively try to replicate natural habitat to induce flowering.

An avid orchid hunter travelled to Columbia, one of the most unstable and dangerous places in the world to find plants. He was in a clearing on his knee's looking at a passion flower.

He and his friend heard the click of a semi automatic rifle being cocked. They were taken hostage and kept prisonors for 9 months.

Each day brought more psychological terror, the threat of death, and torture.What kept the orchid hunter going was his diary.

He remembered back home, and his family home, a castle in Kent.He drew the map of the world and began to dream about constructing a large world garden. With each area having native plants. He drew the world garden plan on the centre pages of the diaries.

He even started an orchid collection within the camp to keep him going, to avoid the recurring thought of death by the FARC.

Six years later and the garden is still being developed and opens for the season in April.It is at Lullingstone Castle in Kent.

http://www.lullingstonecastle.co.uk/

There is a piece in the Daily Telegraph about it:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/gardening/main.jhtml?xml=/gardening/2004/11/06/dtgfront06.xml

and another article here as well

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/03/19/ngarden19.xml

Finally the story again from BBC Kent:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/kent/content/articles/2007/02/26/tom_hart_dyke_orchid_hunter_feature.shtml

The theme is recurring the dream of the garden saved his life, and in the process rescued his family home. It is becoming a major tourist attraction, hence the media coverage.

I remember reading about when they were kidnapped, so its funny to be reminded of it again, but with the connection of gardening and Orchids!

The picture is the centre two pages of the diary with the original plan of the world garden on it.

Seeds and orchids

Now I am back online I can order things online, lol which is what i have done.

So far I bought the orchid book from Amazon.co.uk and some seeds from Suttons, plus Orchid bulbs.

I have just lifted a digital photo from this Orchid website.Their link is here:

http://www.premdesign.com/orchidpics/orchidpicshq.htm

I have ordered a Bletilla Striata, and wanted a photo of the flower to blog on here.It is supposedly an easy orchid to grow.It is an asian terrestial Orchid.I hope to catalogue its progress here.

The seeds I have ordered from Suttons are Impatiens, Geraniums, Snapdragons, Datura, and some wicked Black Viola's.

http://www.suttons.co.uk/default.aspx

Expect many posts about these developing and growing on.I might try to give the excess away to work mates. Hils is one who actually grows many annuals, and does flower shows.I might try to tag along with her if she lets me.

She gave me the Nicotiana, and Heuchera amongst other things.

I rang the Council today about getting an allotment, they are posting an application form.The web site says it costs between £30- £60 a year to rent the plot, with a £10 charge if there is water.I hope that the waiting times have been exagerated.Ideally I would get it this week as March is drawing on.

I guess I will have to renovate the plot before any sowing and growing can take place.I am excited at the thought of getting my hands dirty, feel the smell of cloddy earth in my nose, with the birds singing, wind blowing, and clouds rolling overhead.

Can you tell im excited? When im excited I get poetic. Maybe I am a poet,artist, gardener.

My last purchase today was the March edition of Gardeners World magasine. I love the pictures, articles, and even the adverts. Even the smell of the magasine itself freshly printed. Its like a sensory overload for the senses, designed to inspire you, connect you with the readers and writers who are green fingered.

http://www.gardenersworld.com/

I will read it slowly, rereading it, looking at the photos.Every issue photographs the changing seasons, and reminds us how the seasons change, the jobs to do.