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Sunday, March 1, 2020

Orchid Show, Grecia, Alajuela, Costa Rica

Yesterday (Saturday, February 29) we went to the 17th national exposition of orchids held here in our town of Grecia. The venue was Escuela Simon Bolivar (Simon Bolivar School), not too far away from our house.


I haven’t been able to find out much of the history of this school, except for this - which has been translated (the translation turns our town of Grecia into “Greece”. So ignore that!). It appears to have been built between 1940 and 1944 in the art deco manner. The hall that the orchid show was held in was very large with soaring ceilings finished with tropical woods. Quite impressive.

The different orchid displays were amazing. Orchid clubs from all over the country were represented - so many orchid species. I’ll never understand how exhibitors convince their orchids to flower right around show time! Some were scented.







Photo below - these beauties are guaria morada (guaria skinneri) - the national flower of Costa Rica. I have a couple of these orchids.





Below - this is a vanda orchid - I have three in my collection - but not with these types of flowers.





There were a couple of orchid vendors on site so of course I had to buy something and I chose this beauty - a miltoniopsis, aka pansy orchid because of the shape of the flowers. I had one in my Vancouver, B.C., collection so it was nice to replace it.


There are more then 1,400 species of orchids indigenous to Costa Rica. Orchids are fascinating - in our climate here my collection lives outdoors all year around.

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