Orchid Extravaganza at Longwood Gardens

Longwood Gardens is featuring their amazing "Orchid Extravaganza" exhibit through March 30, 2014. I took these photos on a recent trip with my husband and hope you enjoy them.

Longwood Gardens staff members created these neat pyramid-like orchid walls to anchor one of the main conservatory displays. If you look closely you can see some giant orchid balls hanging from the ceiling too.

Here's a shot featuring the orchid balls. They were much larger than the photos convey and filled with beautiful blooming orchids.

Another highlight was the "orchid meadow" which featured many different types of beautiful orchids blooming in a small field-like setting.

There were six of these modern art type orchid sculptures (the first photo in this post has a close up of the one in the middle of this shot). 

Here's the conservatory display from the opposite side. You can see the potted palm trees more easily from this direction (and the orchid wall/pyramids in the far background). I hope you enjoyed this mini photo tour of Longwood Garden's Orchid Extravaganza and I'd love to hear your thoughts on the photos. Which was your favorite? Come back soon for some orchid close up (macro) photos!

May God bless and keep you!

Orchid Delights at Longwood Gardens

This weekend my husband and I took a trip up to Longwood Gardens, PA for their Orchid Extravaganza. It was a visual delight! Above is my favorite orchid photo from the trip.

This amazing orchid arch looks even more impressive in person. I suspect it is over twenty feet high. Behind it you can see another huge orchid display (hanging from the ceiling) and further in the background there is a circle of roses surrounding a lotus fountain.

 Here's a close up of one of the featured orchids.

Here's one of their huge orchid balls. I think it was about 10 feet in diameter. They had some behind the scenes employees showing how they put the giant orchid balls together and, while I don't expect to ever make one myself, I enjoyed seeing how it was done.

This is the orchid display that greets you when you enter the Longwood Gardens conservatory from their "new" side entrance. You can see the back side of this display in the first photo of this post.

Hope you enjoyed my photographic mementos of our trip. I love to visit conservatories in winter. What are some of your favorite winter activities?

May God bless you!

PS To the couple who asked me to take their photo and let me take one of them with my camera - mine didn't turn out that well so I didn't post it on the blog but if you want a copy just email me at lovejoypeas@gmail.com and I'll send it. And if you want to be featured just send me the one I took with your camera phone (assuming it came out). It was great meeting you!

Orchid Jubilee at the U.S. National Arboretum

Ben (my beloved husband) and I attended the National Arboretum's 65th annual Orchid Jubilee today. The orchid display building smelled amazingly wonderful with the scent of so many orchids. If you live near Washington DC the event runs through Monday, October 8, 2012.

 Some exhibitors really got into the 65th anniversary theme.

All of the flowers were beautiful in their own way. The judges certainly had a difficult task. Here are some of the blue ribbon winning orchids.

 These boldly colored orchid blooms had photographers clamoring to get photos.

 But I thought these delicately colored orchid blooms were just as lovely, in their own way.

And some of the orchid displays seemed like they came right out of a fairy tale. This was certainly a treat for the senses.

Hope you have a wonderful weekend! May the God of all creation bless you today and always!

PS: If you enjoyed this post you'll likely enjoy the following posts too:

• Orchid extravaganza: http://lovejoyandpeas.blogspot.com/2012/02/orchid-extravaganza.html
• Floral art photos: http://lovejoyandpeas.blogspot.com/2012/08/floral-fair-photos-art-and-arrangements.html 
• National Arboretum flower and insect photos: http://lovejoyandpeas.blogspot.com/2012/08/dragonfly-and-butterflies-on-flowers-at.html
• National Botanical Garden photographs: http://lovejoyandpeas.blogspot.com/2012/05/national-garden-photographs.html 
• Cherry blossom and Washington DC monument photos: http://lovejoyandpeas.blogspot.com/2012/03/washington-dc-cherry-blossoms-and.html