Orchids & Passion Flowers

I was describing to Bob the orchid that I have blooming right now. Pictures are better, so here is a close up of the Dtps. I found a web site that gives great summaries of orchid abbreviations: www.odoms.com/main.cfm Dtps stands for Doritaenopsis; Doritis x Phaelenopsis. This plant is called Dtps. Mount Lip Chou. I think it deserves the grand name! This flower is one of six on an 18" long stem, and there are two stems. The other stem is shorter and has two buds.

Our passion vine is blooming after some winter time off. It's a red flower, so the fritillary butterflies don't bother it. I still like the purple passion flowers, but after last summer's debacle with vacation and then coming back to stripped vines crawling with hungry caterpillars, I think I'll stick with the red variety for now.

I finished my irrigation system/PVC pipe patch job yesterday. No leaks, good coverage from the two new heads, all the tree roots are gone, and my back isn't too sore! I think it looks pretty good, and when the grass grows back it will be even better. The trellis is where my passion vine hangs out. You can also see one of my next projects - the fence and gate to the side need attention badly.