Monday, January 19, 2009

Mutants Among Us!

Kate of High Altitude Gardening blogged that she had bought an orchid on sale at the grocery store last week. Of course, I wanted to know which grocery store.

"Smith's," she said.

Oh boy! That's where I do my weekly shopping. When I got there Saturday, I went straight to the floral department and discovered I was a bit too late, there was only one sale orchid left. But...

This is a normal Phalenopsis. Very beautiful.This is the Phalenopsis I bought. It's a mutant! (Eeek!) Three top sepals and three sets of labellums per bloom instead of one. How cool is that?
Click on the pic for the big version.

The plant is pretty battered, but I hope with tender care and my wonderful kitchen window exposure it will grow healthy and bloom again so I can see if it's just this one spike that's affected or if it's the whole plant.

3 comments:

KC said...

Actually, I like the mutant better. It may be one of a kind and you could have another claim to fame.

bioephemera said...

freaky! It totally looks like a different kind of orchid entirely. But actually quite attractive!

Kate/High Altitude Gardening said...

Hey, hey, thanks for the link. LOVE the orchid. And, if anyone can keep her alive, you can. :))