So beautiful, elegant and classy! Congratulations SM!

Tanie

Hi
Lucky you!!! Mine was just starting to spike and something snipped off the entire stem!!! have a way overgrown Mokara that is spiking finally If it gets snipped we're having squirrel stew !!! lol gary

On guard for them damn squirrels! They get half of my avocados. I usually notice the spikes as they are forming. This was fully extended and opened before I noticed.

an updated shot completely opened.

Shaved, I realize you don't me but let me just say that because it's missing a lip, looks like a pansy or impatiens, I can't help but feel a bit shocked looking at it... (and i work professionally with plants so seeing impatiens and pansies tend to have a sobering affect on me)... it's an orchid but doesn't look like one, you expect it to look one way then you click on post and you're confused... unsettling. lol. I literally did a search right after i saw the first pic to found out what it was I was looking at... Although conceptually it's really fascinating... like a dada or surrealist statement on how we breed flowers...

but obviously well grown, and the latter image is a beautiful shot, lighting is great!

bad, you surprise me with your comment. Yes, the general public does have expectations with limited exposure. But as you know there are 30 to 40,000 natural species depending on who you ask as to how many. And the variation is overwhelming. I bet among the species there are small lipped orchids.

Nonetheless, this orchid adds to the pleasure quotient, at least for me. I like the uniqueness this den offers. It is not my favorite, but I'm not giving it away. At least until it is large enough to divide...

The lip has mutated to a petal. Just shows what happens when "round and filled in" is achieved. Unlike some other mutations such as double flowers, judging panels accept this change.

I believe that the mutation first occurred at an orchid nursery in Queensland, Australia.

Makes you wonder if judging standards should be set to preserve the basic shape of hybrids and species otherwise somewhere down the track everything will be round and filled in.

I'm glad you did take offense, shaved, lol. I just acquired a mediocalcar decoratum, and it is a naturally occurring species whose flowers look anything but like an orchid... more like candy, or at best a bedding annual (ie calceolaria)... I like the phrase 'pleasure quotient'...

thanks for the history arthur... if we look no further than the history of rose, we find that beginning with true old fashion rose things have morphed considerably to these plastic intensely colored hybrid tea type things... you have critics and judges that only really appreciate the old fashioned ones, and of course those that have welcomed these hershey kiss shaped, neon colored types... the irony is the public is really only aware of the latter, even roses used in movies is the modern hybridized and engineered rose and not the old fashioned rose which was no doubt what the original fairy tales, for instance- disney films, had in mind... with the sheer speed at which phal development is taking place, every time i go to the groceries I'm shocked at the rate of development (meristem culturing is a godsend for these companies), it's no doubt we'll see more and more bizarre plastic things...

this kuranda classic however doesn't look too plastic to me, instead it looks so much like a naturally occurring impatiens or related... it's like putting a daisy flower on a catt body...

Looks like an old one I have and only saved it because of sentiment. Mine must be around 15 years old and no name. It was a gift when I was young!

Its been divided over the years, has keikied but flowers without fail each November..in NY.

In Florida, it is now flowering. I thought it needed a cool down to initiate spikes but obviously that wasn't necessary.
{{gwi:195331}}

The second photo was taken in 2008 in NY. The first was taken a few weeks ago.

Looks very similar to Shavedmonkey but does have a lip.

Jane