Stanhopea's New 2014 blooming season started!

Well, it's been a long weit for me, but finally new stanhopea flowering season is upon us here in Australia. For a dedicated "stanhopea lover" like me a few months without fabolous flowers at times difficult to endure, yet while logically I understand that one can not harry-up Nature, good luck explaining THAT concept to the heart...

What helps me during cold winter months is going over many many stanhopea pictures that I take during blooming seasons, remebering scents and smells, reading and learning more about natural envirnoment of some of the species, trying to replicate at least some of them in cultivation and collecting more of these beautiful plants. As with any stanhopea collector, it all comes down to patience - these orchids have way of testing it like no others...

And of course when one finally discovers some flower spikes pushing through the planters - everything is forgotten - just huge anticipation from seeing old friends in bloom again and meeting and discover new for me varieties and species.