FAMILY | ORCHIDACEAE

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botanical photography | orchids 

Tyler, Texas is well known for the beautiful azaleas and roses throughout the city. Even in mid-March when these photographs were taken, we found gardens open for tours. The full blooming azaleas should have started (April) and be ongoing. 

A conservatory had several orchids blooming. Unfortunately, I did not capture cultivar names for any of the beautiful orchids.

  

Many orchids are perennial epiphytes, which grow anchored to trees or shrubs in the tropics and subtropics.

Outside it's natural environment, the orchid industry, is one of the high value-added production systems in modern agricultural. To produce healthy orchid plants in the best commercial cultivation system growers must learn how to create environmental conditions that are suitable for growth of orchid plants, meaning a high temperature and high moisture, with minimum risks of outbreaks of orchid diseases and pests. These orchids are grown in a well regulated conservatory.

   

San Antonio Botanical Garden

The  Lucile Halsell Conservatory complex features an epiphyte exhibit room displaying orchids, bromeliads and other plants typically found in a tropical rain forest canopy.

  

ORCHID SOCIETIES.                                 

American Orchid Society, Coral Gables, Florida
The San Francisco Orchid Society (SFOS)

Reference_________________________________________   

Gerritsen, Mary E, and Ron Parsons. The American Orchid Society Guide to Orchids and their Culture 

Rittershausen, Sara, Peter Bull, and Peter Anderson. Happy Orchid: Help It Flower, Watch It Flourish. , 2019. Print.

Hachadourian, Marc. Orchid Modern : Grow, Design, and Craft with 100 Easy-Care Varieties. Timber Press, Incorporated, 2019. Print.

Stern, William L. Orchidaceae. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014. Print.

Zotz, Gerhard. Plants on Plants – the Biology of Vascular Epiphytes. , 2018. Print.

Kirby, Stephen, Toshikazu Doi, and Toru Otsuka. Rankafu: Orchid Print Album, Masterpieces of Japanese Woodblock Prints of Orchids. , 2018. Print.

Award winning.

Bateman, James (1811-1897), Sarah Anne Drake (1803–1857), Augusta Innes Withers, and Maxim Gauci (lithographer-9 North Crescent, Bedford Square)

Orchidaceae of Mexico and Guatemala 

Affiliated:  John Lindley FRS (5 February 1799 – 1 November 1865) was an English botanist, gardener and orchidologist

A monumental, lavishly illustrated botanical book by James Bateman, published in parts between 1837 and 1843, featuring large, hand-colored lithographs of orchids from Central America. It is famous for its enormous size, detailed illustrations by artists like Sarah Drake and Augusta Innes Withers, and its role in the 19th-century "orchid fever," though Bateman never traveled to the region himself, instead hiring collectors. The work is considered a masterpiece of botanical art and is now in the public domainConsidered one of the finest and most ostentatious flower books ever produced, with modern reprints available for enthusiasts. C

 

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Orig published April 14, 2018

ORCHIDS | VANILLA

_________  Distinctive Flavors  ______

 

 

Franz Eugen Köhler, Köhler's Medizinal-Pflanzen
Real vanilla. A flowering branch, nat. Size; 1 lip enlarged; 2 and 3 upper part of the lip from the back and front, etc.; 4 stylus column, etc .; 5 upper part of the same in longitudinal section, the like; 6 fertile stamens from the outside, not yet opened, etc .; 7 of the same jumped up at the top, etc .; 9 pollen, etc .; 10 ovaries in cross-section, the like; 11 fruit, nat. Size; 12 seeds, enlarged; 13 cut the same, like.

Vanilla beans are grown from orchid flowers on a vine that takes three years to fully mature. The flowers are hand pollinated on the day the orchid blooms to ensure a healthy crop of beans months later. Vanilla beans arrive at a processing plant after they’ve been cured for several months to develop a deep, rich flavor. The majority of vanilla comes from Vanilla planifolia and today about 75 percent of vanilla beans come from Madagascar. The climate is ideal for the orchid vine and when the weather is poor or catastrophic storms damage the vines the price of vanilla can skyrocket. Vanilla is available in several forms, liquid, paste, and powder. 

The Aztecs used vanilla as a flavor and aroma ingredient for chocolate, a beverage that was limited only to the nobility families.    Vanilla was introduced to Europe in 1519, when Hernán Cortés sent Francisco Montejo y Portocarrero to Spain as bearer of the profits from the expedition, with a number of novel products, including vanilla.    In 1793 vanilla was taken to Paris’ “botanical gardens”, and then to England. In 1822 vanilla plants were sent from France to Reunion island. From there, this orchid was propagated through the Indic Ocean countries.   By 1850, more plants were taken from Reunion and Paris to Madagascar, where their harvesting became an important source of income to such point that Madagascar is now the largest producer of vanilla in the world.

Adams and McCormick vanilla extract is readily in most grocery stores. If you are lucky enough to find a Penzey's Spice store in your neighborhood, their vanilla is exceptional. Below I have listed vanilla manufacturers and URL links. Many of the companies began as apothecaries or spice companies. LouAnn, a company located in Lansing, Michigan carries a long line of essential and flavoring oils. A few of the companies are for professional or wholesale trade. I am not endorsing any of the companies, but, after reading an inspirational genre book, The Spice King, I was curious about the actual sources and history of the orchid that provides the vanilla bean that we use prolifically in recipes to enhance flavor.

ORCHID | VANILLA (FORMS AVAILABLE: liquid, paste, powder)
Adams	https://adamsextract.com/Display.aspx?search=vanilla
baker beach
Blue Cattle Truck	http://vanillaimports.com/
Cook Flavoring Company	https://cooksvanilla.com/
Dr Oetkars vanilla bean paste
Golden Gate	https://saffron.com/shop/planifolia-vanilla-beans/
LorAnn (Double fold (double strength) Madagascar bourbon pure vanilla *favorite)	https://www.lorannoils.com/vanilla-extracts
M and B, Morton and Basset Spices	http://mortonbassett.com/
McCormick	https://www.mccormick.com/search?t=vanilla
McCormick, Baker's Imitation
Neilsen Massey (previously ordered through King Arthur flour to professional trade)	https://nielsenmassey.com/
Penzy's (excellent - Double fold (double strength) Madagascar bourbon pure vanilla*favorite)	https://www.penzeys.com/search/#?q=VANILLA
Regal Foods
Sekut Vanilla Company, (Vanilla pompona)	https://www.sekutvanilla.com/
Shank	https://shanks.com/products-services/pure-vanilla-extract/
Simply Organic (Frontier Co-op )	https://www.simplyorganic.com/extracts-and-flavors/vanillas/
Sysco Imperial Pure Vanilla Extract (ClubHouse for Chefs, McCormick, Canada)
Watkins	https://www.watkins1868.com/search/?q=vanilla

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References

https://www.tastemade.com/articles/8-things-you-didnt-know-about-vanilla/?utm_source=pinterest&utm_medium=social

©  2023 Hyden Photography for

~Grassroots Horticulture ~

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Book Review | The Spice King Historical Novel

If you are looking for a great read with a little herbal, culinary, politics, history, romance and intrigue this is one of my favorite new reads. Elizabeth Camden  has a historical note in the end about the search, led by David Fairchild, a plant explorer, to find diverse seeds to provide a reliable food supply. This story revolves around the struggle to offer pure food products and the political implications of profit over health.

The Spice King is book number one in the series Hope and Glory by historical author Elizabeth Camden. An avid fan of history, I relished this setting of 1900 in Washington D.C. and surrounding areas. I learned about the early days of regulating the food industry and the beginning of the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval.

"Gray Delacroix has dedicated his life to building his very successful global spice empire, but it has come at a cost. Resolved to salvage his family before it spirals out of control, he returns to his ancestral home to save his brother and sister before it's too late. As a junior botanist for the Smithsonian, Annabelle Larkin has been charged with the impossible task of gaining access to the notoriously private Delacroix plant collection. If she fails, she will be out of a job and the family farm in Kansas will go under. She has no idea that in gaining entrance to the Delacroix world, she will unwittingly step into a web of dangerous political intrigue far beyond her experience. Unable to deny her attraction to the reclusive business tycoon, Annabelle will be forced to choose between her heart and loyalty to her country. Can Gray and Annabelle find a way through the storm of scandal without destroying the family Gray is fighting to save? "