American Orchid Society

On January 12th I left the snow and Indiana, this is the last picture I took as I rolled out of the driveway, by all accounts I made a good decision heading to Florida. It has been a miserable winter for most of the United States and I am fortunate my sister and brother-in-law welcome me to their southern home.

The final garden that Cass and I visited on our garden hop was an unexpected bonus, the American Orchid Society garden is next to Morikami Gardens and definitely worth a walk about. They offer a 3.5 acre outdoor labeled garden, 4000 sqaure foot greenhouse, an orchid library, orchid doctor and a lovely gift shop that features lots of orchids for sale.

The size of the blooms of some species of orchids is remarkable, flowers as big as my hands and I can palm a basketball. Color, variety, shape and presentation of plants is outstanding. The greenhouse conservancy is small but striking taking time to study the plants and inhale the damp, fragrant air brings peace to your soul.

I doubt it is possible to take a bad picture of an orchid. The serious photographer will find many willing subjects in the greenhouse. Upon touring the gardens blooming plants are marked by the volunteers and easy to locate. In addition the Top 10 Garden Treasures list provides an interesting written description and location of 10 plants in the garden; Baobab, Vanilla, Chocolate Tree, Jakfruit, Kapok, Autograph Tree, Teak, Allspice, Bamboo and Ylang Ylang a fragrant tree whose blooms were once the essential oil used in producing the perfume Chanel No.5.