This is a bloom I grew early last year, I think. The plant is a phragmipedium - you remember those, with the blooms so many of you hate. And this one has a darker parent on one side, thus the flowers are dark red, which I find rather cool. It also has rather long petals (I think they call them sepals in the orchid world, though I may be getting that one wrong). Anyway, it's a pretty cool plant, not terribly hard to grow - it likes it moist, you never let the growing medium dry out, and try to give it as much sun as it can handle - near full-sun indoors in the winter, full sun outdoor in the early summer, then dappled sun as August approaches (or you'll burn the plant). Also, as with many orchids, to help promote flowering give it a good six weeks, if you can, of temps dropping at nights by at least 15 degrees from where they were during the day - nights in the 50s are perfect. The flowers take a while to form, and I think the flowers last several weeks - I got two flowers out of this one stalk at the same time.
Anyway, like I said, pretty cool plant. Oh, and you have to be careful about it rotting at the base of the plant. Water it before noon, and avoid letting water sit in the top of the plant.
Phrag Wossner Super Grande
