Stanhopea's in blooms at the moment

stanhopea x fowlieana

stanhopea tigrina Glory of Mexico

stanhopea Jack Quigley

Here we are in the middle of stanhopea's flowering time and many of my orchids are displaying splendid blooms again.

It's a pleasure to see lovely perfectly formed flowers and spikes and to re-connect with majestic multi-layered scents created by Mother Nature. The ultimate goal would be to able to capture this "Perfume of the Gods" so that one could smell it at any time one needs a pick me up, but of course that would be encroaching on "time" and for everything under the sun there is an appropriate "time".

So, like every stanhopea grower I have to satisfy myself with short-lived flowers and short-lived stanhopea scents - and marvel at the nature for creating such beauty. Many times during the day I visit my greenhouse just to be able to immerse myself in heavenly exotic perfume. I love how these beautiful orchids play on unsuspected grower - if one stay with them for a few minutes they will release first base notes of the scents which are usually forceful and strong, but if one spends a little bit of more time near them - then the whole kaleidoscope of secondary perfumes start revealing itself - completely different yet so complementary that comes in waves.
It's like composing a colorful palette where every color and scent  paints a beautiful signature and picture with the senses.