Episode 32 - The Orchid Show at the Chicago Botanic Garden

Today on Behind the Bloom, we’re diving into the beautiful world of orchids! 🌿 RJ shares highlights from his recent visit to the Chicago Botanic Garden Orchid Show, one of the most stunning floral events of the year. Then, J takes us into the rich history of Cattleya orchids and their special place in his family’s floral legacy.

Orchid Arrangement - with Orchids Stems and rocks
https://watch.ubloom.com/videos/chemi...

Chicago Botanic Garden
https://www.chicagobotanic.org/

Chicago Botanic Garden- Orchid Show
https://www.chicagobotanic.org/orchid

Orchids that Look Like Birds
https://insteading.com/blog/homestead...

Epcot International Flower and Garden Festival
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Big City Sets
https://www.bigcitysets.com/

Filming inside the “I dream of Jeannie” bottle
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Vinyl Record Crafts

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:06

Today on Behind the Bloom, we're talking orchids and RJ's recent visit to the Chicago Botanical Gardens Orchid Show. RJ will tell us all about this amazing orchid event and we'll learn more about the history of the Catalea orchid in Jay's Family Tree. Get ready for a fun episode that revolves around orchids today on Behind the Bloom. Orchid plants are a wonderful addition to any home and an impressive addition to any cut flower arrangement. Blooming orchid plants or cut stems of orchid blossoms both provide health and wellness benefits. For example, reducing arguments in our home or inspiring more creative ideas and solutions in our workspace. Or simply reducing stress and creating happier thoughts. Check in with your local flower seller and see what orchids they have that you can add to your home, work, or creative space. Cowflowers is a proud sponsor of Jay Schwanki's Life in Bloom and Behind the Bloom podcast, where flowers and wellness go hand in hand.

SPEAKER_00 1:02

All right. Hey Jay. How's it going? Hello, RJ. How are you? I'm good. I'm good. I'm excited to talk about the orchid show at the Chicago Botanic Garden on this one.

SPEAKER_01 1:11

I am too. You and Amanda went. Yeah, yeah. You make me want to go. Yeah. So that's very good. Okay. And I want to learn more about this because I don't know a lot. My Bloom 365 tip has to do with orchids. It's kind of odd, but it's 174 from Bloom 365 called Rock On. Place a layer of rocks or def decorative stones in the bottom of your vase to provide a structure to support flower stems and help hold flowers in place when arranged. We have a show on UBloom about making an arrangement with orchids in this long rectangular container that has like a little elevated stone thing at one end. And so I'll put that in the comments because then this will let you see a visual of what and in in Bloom 365 there's a picture of it as well. Okay. But I thought I can link that in the comments. So I'll remember that there's probably a dozen or two dozen links every week from what we talk about that you can go and learn more. And so, you know, and and I put in Wikipedia pages for you, I put in where you can buy things, and we just put those in the comments in the description. So every service that this is on has those links there too, so that you can follow those and and learn a little bit more. Yeah. Because we're only here for a half hour. Right. Yeah. And we need to tell you all about everything. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:29

And we hope this inspires people to go investigate things and go do all this stuff on their own. So it's so helpful that you leave all that for everyone.

SPEAKER_01 2:35

And learn. Learn something. Yeah. Learn some. My grandpa said, learn something and laugh. If you haven't laughed today, get up. And if you haven't learned something, get up because your day's not over. So you gotta learn something and laugh every day.

SPEAKER_00 2:46

We are recording today, is Friday the 13th. We haven't acknowledged that yet. And when I told you, I was like, Jay, are you okay with recording on Friday the 13th? And you told me you love Friday the 13th.

SPEAKER_01 2:58

I don't mind at all. I just think it's very I think it's hysterical. You know? And I think when you give stuff energy, whether it's good things or bad things, you make that happen. Right. And so I think if you, you know, if you if you worry about it's Friday the 13th, something's gonna happen, you're giving that energy. Right, right. I just hey it's Friday. Yeah. For heaven's sake. Let's celebrate that. It's always good. There we go. I know several people who have 13 as their favorite number. Oh, right. Okay. And then I I'm I'm always entertained that hotels don't have 13th. I know, I know. But they do.

SPEAKER_00 3:38

Right. They just call it 14. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:40

Which I think is ridiculous.

SPEAKER_00 3:41

Because if you're if you're on the 14th floor, you know what you're really on. You know where you are.

SPEAKER_01 3:46

You know, it's interesting. It isn't so prevalent in other countries. Oh no. Okay. Yeah. So in other countries, yeah, it's an American thing. Okay. Much more over. Yeah. You know, so I think that that's interesting. Yeah. It's just kind of like, well, there's still, you know, it's still there. Yeah. And so yeah, it's not a big deal. No, no.

SPEAKER_00 4:03

It's not. I think it's more fun to embrace it, like it's kind of spooky. Absolutely. Not that something bad is going to happen, but just almost like Halloween or something where it's just like, ooh, what's going to happen? You know, this is a little spooky today. It's going to happen.

SPEAKER_01 4:16

I like that too. That's very funny. Yeah, that's a good thing. Okay. This is the Chicago Botanical Gardens orchid show. And you are from Chicago. Yes. So you live right there by it. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:27

I actually live walking distance from the Chicago Botanic Garden. Yeah. Shut up. Yeah, yeah. So the Chicago Botanic Garden is in a town called Glencoe that is a suburb north of Chicago. So it's still in Cook County, but not in like downtown Chicago. So it's north of there. And it's in this really, really cool area. So it's this giant, it's 380 acres, and it's on all these different islands. So there's this area called the U Okay, the islands.

SPEAKER_01 4:50

Now wait a minute. So so it's just like it's islands in the middle of a lake. Yeah. In the middle of Lake Michigan.

SPEAKER_00 4:58

It's not Lake Michigan, so it's this area called the Skokie Lagoons. And so it's kind of where this river flows on one side, and then it all is kind of dispersed over all of these different islands. So the Skokie Lagoons, there's a park south of the Botanic Garden called the Skokie Lagoons, and that's just open to the public and you can go walk on them and people go fishing. And then the north part of it is the actual botanic garden where you have to pay to go to enter, but that's where they have all the different flowers and plants and everything. So it's cool because there's all these little bridges. There's a it's called the Japanese Island they have, and it's all Japanese themed, and there's bonsai, and you could take this like wooden bridge to get there. So it's a lot of fun because there's so much like water integrated into all these different gardens. So it's really, really cool. That's very cool.

SPEAKER_01 5:41

Yeah, I love that. That sounds very interesting. The Skoky Lagoons. Skoky Lagoons. The Skoky Lagoons on Friday the 13th.

SPEAKER_00 5:49

I know, it sounds spooky. I love it. I love it. I love it. Okay, at the Botanic Garden, there's different like events throughout the year, but the big thing that they do always in like February to March is the orchid show. In the middle of the garden, they have this whole indoor center where they do this orchid show and it's always like a different theme. And so in the past, it's been um they had magnified one year and they had these You told me about this. That was incredible. I think that was one of my favorite, and it they had these giant lenses, so these probably three foot tall, like magnifying glasses that were hanging. And so you could grab them and rotate them yourself. And so you'd look at the orchids, and the orchids would be magnified, so they'd be bigger than your head. So you'd look at this tiny little orchid, put this magnifier on it, and you'd look at it, and it was gigantic. So it was a really, really cool. That's amazing.

SPEAKER_01 6:40

Yeah, yeah. Because there are like phalanopsis orchids, especially, have interiors that are reminiscent of birds. Oh, yeah, right, right. That the center of them and the where the how the flower forms looks like a bird.

SPEAKER_00 6:53

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:54

And so that would be really cool with those. Yeah. And then I'm also thinking, like, are there there's not sunlight, so you can't like direct sunlight with a giant magnifying glass. Light one on fire. Yeah, see, be uh be like, be like a uh, you know, a secret, the secret villain.

SPEAKER_00 7:10

Yeah, right, right. Magnify it to the giant ant.

SPEAKER_01 7:13

Interesting. Right. Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_00 7:15

No, but uh so the orchid show, it's all interior, and then they have these these greenhouses um that is part of it as well. And so I think all the magnifiers were inside where there was no sunlight. So I don't think you could could have lit anything on fire.

SPEAKER_01 7:30

Because the orchids themselves, I mean, you talked about bonesai plants, you talked about orchids, those are valuable items. I mean, yeah, they're they're very valuable to have a certain variety of thing there. Right.

SPEAKER_00 7:43

So there's over 10,000 orchids at the show currently. So there's that many. So it's this m massive thing. So it's it's really And everything's blooming. Yeah, everything's blooming. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:54

Yeah. I wonder if that's a timing issue. I know if that if if they have to, or maybe they always bloom at that time. I know. I because of geographic climate and stuff, which could be. I mean, I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 8:05

And they have like acres and acres of greenhouses at the botanic garden, too. So I think that it's all kind of controlled and you know, they get time everything out, I guess.

SPEAKER_01 8:13

That's very similar to Epcot Flower and Garden Festival, is that my friend Debbie has all of these greenhouses where they can change out they because you know they go in in the middle of the night and they change all the plants. They change plants that have died. Oh, yeah. And they will change everything. Okay, you know, and then also the Bellagio in Las Vegas. So when you go into that botanical area, there's like these walkways, right? At night, all of the flower beds are on hydraulic lifts.

SPEAKER_02 8:41

Oh.

SPEAKER_01 8:42

And they go down three stories. Whoa. And that those walkways are just like a catwalk, right? And then they change out all those plants down below and make all the mess and then raise everything back up into place. Oh, cool. It's the craziest thing. It is wild. It is wild. Well, it's Las Vegas, you have enough money so you can do whatever you wish. But yeah, it's you would never think that, you know, all those things go downstairs. And that's how they can care for the topiaries and things like that or whatever. They do it all that down below. Oh yeah. So I mean, I think it's it's essential for botanical gardens to have backup.

SPEAKER_00 9:19

Oh, right, right. Yes. I wonder if I wonder if it's a Chicago one, if they're swapping them out, you know, at night, if there's ones that are I I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 9:26

Do you think Yeah I mean I don't know. Orchids are s relat I mean, so stable. I would say so stable in comparison. Okay. Because like I know that like poinsettas can be a huge issue at Epcot because they if they get a little bit cold, problem. So there can be big swap outs and stuff.

SPEAKER_00 9:41

And because Jay might come by and eat one.

SPEAKER_01 9:43

Right. That too. That too. I think it's so interesting too that you have the ability to change things and make it look important. They with this, when they had the when they had the horrible, horrible low temperatures just recently, right? They covered everything and they took a lot of the plants out because they are mobile and can be pulled out. So many times if you look at like the points editor things, they're in their pot in the ground. Because it makes it easier to pull them out and they don't make as big a mess. Oh, okay. When they're trying, and then they cover it with mulch again. Okay. So I mean, you know, they are standing at the gates when when the park closes at whatever time at 10 o'clock, they are sitting there tapping their feet, and then as soon as the last person leaves, all the lights come on and they work through the night to fix stuff. Wow. It's wild. So yeah, yeah, it's it's and and you're not not allowed to film it.

SPEAKER_00 10:32

No. Oh.

SPEAKER_01 10:33

I've asked.

SPEAKER_00 10:34

Oh, yeah, you're not allowed to film it.

SPEAKER_01 10:36

Sorry. The magic.

SPEAKER_00 10:38

Don't mess with the magic. Well, so a few of the other uh themes that they've had in the past couple years, um, so they actually hire this big set building company called Big City Sets, and they actually are in the same building as where I work down in the city, and they build they build sets for commercials and so and TV shows and things like that. So they're this professional set building company, and they build these massive things and pieces of art and everything. So the past couple years they've had the high tops was a it was like a circus theme. And so they had like a big tent and had all these like circus type things, the you know, the tightrope and everything. And then like Oh wow. Yeah, and then last year it was India Blooms and it was all like Indian culture, and so they kind of made it seem like all this like Indian architecture and different types of like uh like Indian themes. So it was very, very wonderful. Yeah, yeah. And then this year it's feeling groovy, and so it's sixties and you had sent me pictures of that.

SPEAKER_01 11:29

Yeah, yeah. So there's like the the Volkswagen and all this, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:34

Yeah, it's all very 60s and 70s. Yeah, the the VW bug that looked like you know the Beach Boys wrote it, and there was like surfboards next to it, and then there's all these orchids spilling out of the sides, and they also had like they took all these old vintage TVs and took the screen out and then put like orchids inside of the TVs. Oh fuck. Yes. You look at this old like tube TV and there's orchids inside, and then next to it they have like different TV shows, but trick like made it seem orchid themed. So instead of the Brady bunch, it's like the orchid bunch, and instead of I dream of genie, it's like I dream of orchid.

SPEAKER_01 12:06

Oh fuck.

SPEAKER_00 12:07

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:08

Did they make like a genie bottle?

SPEAKER_00 12:10

It was like a painting of the genie bottle on the inside. So it looks like the logo for I Dream of Genie.

SPEAKER_01 12:15

They should have done like the the one where she would go inside it. Oh, I know, yeah. You'd have it be like you could be inside the bottle.

SPEAKER_00 12:21

Yeah, oh that would have well they did it's funny you say that because they did have a giant lava lamp. So like a massive lava lamp. Yeah, without lava in the inside, it was all just decorated with orchids. Oh, that's so much fun. Yeah, so it's cool. There's some like, you know, big things that they make. There's some like miniatures, so it's all fun. They also have like an old, it looks like a motel sign, so it says the greenhouse motel, but it's all those neon signs like you'd see back in the 70s. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:47

Yeah, Route 66 stuff.

SPEAKER_00 12:49

Yeah, exactly. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So it's super cool. And then they also, one of my favorite things that they had, they took a bunch of old vinyl records and they actually like, I don't know if they melted them, but they bent them up so there's like a lip on them, hung them on the wall, then planted orchids on them. I'll send you a picture, Jace, so we can share us. Yeah. So it's these, you know, like vinyl records, and then there's just like they're folded up and then there's orchids coming over the side. It was really cool. Oh, that's very fun. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:17

So when when is this on?

SPEAKER_00 13:19

This starts in mid-February and goes through mid-March. So I think unfortunately, when this episode comes out, it'll be over next year. They do it every year. So it's something you can get excited about for next year. Yeah, yeah. And you can go online and buy tickets. Yeah, you can go online and buy tickets. And something interesting that they're doing this year, they're doing a, and Amanda and I love this, it's a like an adults only after hours thing. So it's Yes. Yeah, yeah. So we're gonna go again, and I think it's one of the last nights that they're open. You can get cocktails there, you can walk around, and then they're actually doing what's called a have you heard of a silent disco?

SPEAKER_01 13:53

No.

SPEAKER_00 13:54

So tell I want to tell me I've I've done this before at music festivals. So back year years ago, I used to go to like Bonnaroo and Lollapalooza and Coachella and all those music festivals. And this is a wow, a big thing at those festivals is a silent disco, and they have a whole like dance floor or like a tented area where there's somebody DJing. And when you walk in, they give you headphones. And so when you're standing there, if you don't have the headphones on, you can't hear any music. But if you put the headphones on, you can hear it. So it's funny because you'll stand in this huge group of people and take your headphones off and it's completely silent, and you're looking around and everybody's like dancing, and then once you put the headphones on, you can hear the same music as everyone around you.

SPEAKER_01 14:35

Oh, that's amazing.

SPEAKER_00 14:37

So I think what that means for the Botanic Garden is they'll hand you, you know, headphones when you get there, you put them on, and then everybody's listening to the same radio station, and there's a DJ that's there you're listening to, and if you take it off, it's just completely silent.

SPEAKER_01 14:51

So, what's the purpose? Was it created to like fight noise pollution?

SPEAKER_00 14:57

Or I think it's just kind of a fun gimmick thing. Like it's just I don't know. I think it's just kind of a goofy experience because it it is weird when you take off the headphones and you're surrounded by hundreds of people and everybody's dancing and there's no music.

SPEAKER_01 15:12

Can you okay? So here's my next question. Can you control the volume of what you're listening to? That's a good question. I I like does your headphones allow you to control the phone? I think so. Here's here's my deal. Yeah, I would go to more concerts, yeah, but I don't like the ringing in my ears for four days afterward. Right, right. You know, and I don't like wearing uh earplug because I feel like I'm not hearing the music like I would want to hear it.

SPEAKER_02 15:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:37

But and Jamie Lee Curtis talks about this all the time about having these concerts that should be at one o'clock in the afternoon so we can all be home by four o'clock. Right. And they're not they're not as loud. Yeah, you know for those of and and I I mean I think that that's interesting from that.

SPEAKER_00 15:50

That would be my question. Right, right. I I I think you can adjust the volume because I can't imagine that it's all just at one. And I all super loud. Yeah, right, right. That's why people are taking it up. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:04

Interesting. Interesting. And is it so? Here's another question.

SPEAKER_00 16:07

Is it always disco? Um, no. So I think they just call it the silent disco. I I bet for this feeling groovy, I bet there will be some disco mixed in, maybe with 60s and 70s. When I've gone to like other music festivals, it's just any ty any genre. So it's it's a lot of like dance music because it's kind of fun to get everybody moving. Sure, sure, sure, sure.

SPEAKER_01 16:26

Kelly and I used to go to things like that when we were younger. But go to dance parties. Yeah, yeah. We would try and find the place that was the furthest away from the speakers. Oh, right. That's smart so that it wouldn't be so loud. But there would be people who are like next to the speaker. I know. I don't and we would we would have friends who would be like, I'm sorry, I can't hear you. We went to the dance party last night. Right. Like, yeah, because you know, your hearing is something that you know you can't get back to destroy it. So yeah, I think it's brilliant. I'm gonna do some more research. I'll put some links down below for silent disco for people who are like me who did not know about what it was. Have you done it there? Have you gone to the silent disco?

SPEAKER_00 17:07

No, no. I think this is the first time they're doing it. So I think there's only like two nights that they're doing it, and we're going to go? Yeah, we're gonna go to the second night. Oh, yeah, yeah, cool. I don't think they've done it so far. So I think it's uh this is gonna be like next Friday and Saturday, and we're going Saturday, I think.

SPEAKER_01 17:22

So yeah, yes. I'll let you know how it is. It's interesting when you talk about orchid shows, because there there is also an orchid show at Meyer Gardens here, our botanical garden. And Frederick Meyer Gardens is a sculpture park. They have an orchid show every year, and people come and you can buy orchids there, and you can show your orchids, and there's contests, and they're they're very, very proactive about having local events. I mean, we're we're gonna film their bonsai convention on Mother's Day weekend. We're also gonna I'm speaking at and we're also going to film the Dahlia the National Dahlia show is going to be at Frederick Meyer Gardens this year. Really cool. So we're gonna go film that. And then I'm also I'm also giving a program there. And that's and the program I'm giving is actually for the Michigan Garden Association, Michigan Dahlia Society. But they in they're in a they're acting together, but they also have this orchid show. So I mean, it makes me wonder. I I've never been, but they also have a chrysanthemum show. I mean, so there's all these things, right? Right, yeah. So your botanical garden, how far so you said it's walking distance. How far? How far do you have to walk?

SPEAKER_00 18:30

Um, it's less than a mile. Oh, okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:33

So it's like what, 10 minutes? 10 minutes.

SPEAKER_00 18:34

Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Okay. And it's so big too that there's so many different things to see that we'll walk there and just go see like part of it and then, you know, go home and then the next day go see another part. So it's nice living that close. I mean, obviously in the, you know, when in the winter there isn't as much to see. It's more just going to the greenhouses and everything. But when you're there in the spring and the summer, I mean, you could spend all day and not even see everything there.

SPEAKER_01 18:57

So can you become a member? So you're a member so you can go whenever you want.

SPEAKER_00 19:01

Yes, exactly. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:02

So that's why you use it as an as an entertainment.

SPEAKER_00 19:04

Exactly. Yeah. And I believe the membership has like reciprocity to other botanic gardens too. Yeah. We were in um Santa Barbara a few years ago and they had a botanic garden there, and we were like, we have a Chicago Botanic Garden membership. Does that get us access here? And they were like, actually, it does. So it's funny how a lot of these places are all under the same network, and you can kind of if you get a membership to one, you get access to others.

SPEAKER_01 19:28

I looked at that one. We couldn't go there because there were no appointments left. Oh, okay. The Santa Barbara one, you have to make appointments on some days for some things. And we looked at it, we couldn't get in while we were there. So we're gonna go do it. Okay, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:47

The Santa Barbara one's really cool. It's it's kind of in this valley, like up in the mountains. Yes, and so there's a lot of elevation. We were like out of breath because you're huffing and puffing, going up and down. But it's really cool because there's all these kind of like microclimates. So you go, you know, in one area and it's super dry, and then you walk to another part of it, and everything is all green and massive and really, I don't know, vegetated. So it's cool.

SPEAKER_01 20:16

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SPEAKER_00 22:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:40

Wow. Okay. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:41

I would definitely recommend if you're in Chicago checking out the Botanic Garden.

SPEAKER_01 22:44

I think that's really interesting. I love I love that. And I love that there's a connection for you with the people who build the props for it.

SPEAKER_00 22:54

Yeah. It was so funny because there's no they don't have any recognition at the actual event. There's no like this is made by big city science. Oh got it. But I follow them on their social media. And so I saw them like making a few years ago all the stuff for like the I mentioned like the circus thing. So they so they like post things that they're working on in their workshop and it's like all these like the big top and all these like tents and like circus stuff. And I was like, is this for the botanic garden? And they're like, Oh yeah, it is. We do it every year. Oh, that's amazing.

SPEAKER_01 23:23

What a great, what a great fun job to have to do. I mean, yeah, building props is really fun. Yeah. I mean, and I think that that's well, I have a friend, Manny Majurik. I want to go to her place one day and film with her. It's called Hot House Design Studio. But she builds all these props for rentals. So like circular bars or half moon bars or a moon gate that can be covered with flowers. And then, you know, she has all kinds of stuff like that. And I think that people can rent in Birmingham, Alabama for their weddings or events that they're gonna have. Oh, that's really cool. She has a whole staff of like set builders who build that because also it needs to be durable so it doesn't get damaged, but it also has to be mobile so it can move in and out. Oh, right, right. And so you got, you know, and it's like it's like those vinyl records that are bent. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 24:11

Ah, that just sounds fabulous. I know. And I wonder what happens to all this stuff when it's over, because there's a lot of the stuff where it's like, does this just go in storage? Does it get demolished and you know, repurposed? Oh, sure. You know, all this stuff lives for like, you know, a month at this place, and then I hope somebody gets it and now gets that like in their house or something cool.

SPEAKER_01 24:31

Or or I mean maybe they can sell it, maybe they can rent it again. Yeah, yeah, right. Maybe some places demolish things and reuse the stuff. Right, right. You know, I mean, I can always remember when we were building sets in high school in the theater apartment that the back of something you'd be like, oh, this was in four other plays besides this because it's been re rehabbed and redone, you know. That's interesting. Yeah, yeah. Or pieces and parts that came from something else. Yeah, like, yeah, that was from this, that was from that, that was from this, you know. So that's I think that's very interesting.

SPEAKER_00 25:02

Well, I would love all these vinyl records to hang those in my apartment. I have a record player and listen to records on my own. So when I saw all those like repurposed ones to like hang flowers off of, I was like, that's a really cool idea.

SPEAKER_01 25:13

I got a case of records from Kelly's mom. Oh. And so it's all of these old jazz records. Oh. And so then I bought a record player that you can play them and it will convert it to an MP4 file. Oh, wow. That's cool. I've never used it. No. But I have it. And I have those records. Yeah. She has an original whipped cream album from Herb Alpert and the Tijuana brass. Oh, yeah. You know, that's in there too. You know, and they're heavy. They're so heavy. Yeah, yeah, I know. And I was like, I was like, oh no, I'll take those. That's good. Yeah. So yeah, I think that's very fun. Yeah. Wow. Well, you you have an orchid story, Jay, right? I have an orchid story. Okay. My great-grandfather, Charles Green, bought an orchid plant for Katie, his wife, and it was a Cadillaa orchid. It's a purple and pink one. It has purple feather petals, and then the throat is like a magenta with a yellow cast on it. And that and they're big. I mean, you know, they're an orchid's probably the size of my face. I mean, you know, on my head. It's it's a big orchid. So catalea orchids are the biggest ones. You know, you have and I I'm not saying, am I saying that right? Yes, cataleas. Symbidiums are the ones that grow on a spray, so they're smaller. Phalenopsis are the ones that look like butterflies, they grow on a spray. Uncidiums are little tiny ones. So the Catalea orchid is a big orchid. And so we put them in we put it in the greenhouse. You know, he bought it for their anniversary or birthday. I'm not, I'm not quite sure. So, and I don't know if anybody knows anymore, because obviously my grandpa never let the truth stand in the way of a good story. So but he's gone. He would know, he would absolutely know why why they bought it. So then they started dividing them, but as they would get bigger, they would divide them. And every year we would take down these big orchids that were the root ball was like the size of a bushel basket or bigger. We would take a machete and just chop it into like eight pieces and then put those eight pieces into smaller pots and hang them in the greenhouse. Well, after a period of time, we probably had two dozen, three dozen, four dozen of them. Wow. Whoa. Right? Uh-huh. The original orchid. So I'm gonna say that orchid, but all then all of the orchids. But this is the weird thing. Okay, so this is yet another weird thing. And Sam, you can listen to this when you're editing because you're like, this is a weird thing. Whenever something happens in our family, whether it's Mother's Day, Valentine's Day, whether it's a funeral, whether it's a wedding, one of those orchids would be blooming. And when my aunt Alice got married, my grandma my grandpa made her bouquet out of those orchids. And she had a going away croissage, because that was when the bride would change clothes and then they would leave in a different outfit and then they'd have a going away croissage. There was a Cadillac orchid. My sister had a going-away croissage at her wedding from that orchid plant. You know, when my dad died, that orchid plant bloomed, and so we made an arrangement with that orchid plant. Well, my you know, and when my mom died, they had a couple of the blooms, and so my sister had those, them stiff those in the inner casket spray. So, you know, it's just funny that that orchid is very much a part of our lives. Well, now the greenhouse and all of that is gone. And so the the person who bought the greenhouse didn't want it to be a flower shop anymore and turned into a bar. So it's a bar now. The greenhouses are gone though, and that's where you keep orchids. You don't keep orchids, you know, in unless you're really good at it in your home. You know, they're they're hard to care for. And so I was talking to my cousin the other day, and I was lamenting the fact that orchid doesn't exist anymore because all those are gone. What happened to those? And she said, Oh no, wait, my brother Stacy, he lives in an island off of South America. He's a scuba guy, and him and his wife moved down there. Oh, and they took one of those orchids and actually have cultivated a couple more. So they have that orchid. No way. Oh, so that orchid is still there at he lives in Bonaire. That's where he lives. Okay, because I can never remember that. He lives in Bonaire. And so he has one of those orchids and it will bloom on occasion. He will send pictures to to my cousin Sue and be like, hey, the orchid's blooming, it is what's going on, you know, and stuff like that. You know, but I think it's really cool that it's transcended four generations. It's still that plant is still down there. And I think that that's one of those things that is about memory. Oh, yeah. One of my favorite questions to ask people is what's your first memory of flowers? They can tell you. Nobody ever says, Oh, I don't know. They can tell you. I'm like, what's what's your first memory of flowers?

SPEAKER_00 30:01

Mine? Um, that's a good question on the spot. Um Yeah. Yeah. So I would say up in Michigan at when I would go to Cory Lake, which I've told you about. Yeah. So there was like on the shore, there were these little flowers that would, and I don't even know what kind they were, but that would bloom. And you could pull the petals out and suck on them and they were sweet. And were they red? Um or were they purple? They were purple.

SPEAKER_01 30:27

Okay. Yeah. So it's a salvia.

SPEAKER_00 30:29

Oh, okay, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 30:30

It's a salvia. And so you can pull that, yeah, you can pull that out of a salvia and you can suck on it. And that's why hummingbirds love them. Oh, yeah, yeah. And so you can do it with red ones or or purple ones. Absolutely. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 30:41

There was a mint mint plant next to it. And so we would eat the mint leaves too. So I remember being a little kid, and it was like you were at the little buffet. It was like we'd eat mint and then we'd eat our little sweet salvia.

SPEAKER_01 30:51

Well, and okay, so here I'm I I I'm gonna make a couple points about that story. Okay. Uh-huh. Number one, you didn't know what the plant was called, but you did know it was a flower and you remember your experience with it. Yes. True. That's what's important. Yeah. My friend Lorraine, we just went to visit her the other day. She's gonna turn 95 in July. She's in an extended care facility in Muskegon. So we went up to the museum and then we saw West Hopton saw Lorraine, took her some flowers. In the show, we have a show on uh with the with the sorority sisters, and she talks about I said, What's your first memory of flowers? And she said, When we were in school, we would go out into the forest at recess and we would find flowers and we'd pick them and smell them. Oh, that's cool. And I was like, you know, what what were they? I don't know. You know, they could have been, they could, they could have been trillium for all I know. Because trillium in Michigan, you can't pick trillium. You're not supposed to pick trillium. Okay. So it's a it's a it's a flower that grows in the in the wetlands and stuff. And we have trillium in our back in down in the wetlands, but we don't ever touch it. But you know, you're not supposed to. So I think that that's one of those things is what is that memory? You know, and our family has this memory, this crazy orchid plant, yeah, that, you know, has always bloomed. And I don't know whether it was the proliferation of having, you know, two dozen of those plants that there would always be, but there were periods of time when there were no orchids. And I can remember somebody saying, Hey, look and see if there's an orchid blooming. Uh, there's not, you know, and it was like for prom or something, you know, and it wouldn't have mattered for anyone, you know, but it was just like, but also making sure that we would have them and cut them and then put them into coolers so that we could use them on a on a regular basis too and have them be in arrangements. And it's funny, so when I'll put this, I'll put this one up too about the famous matching couple. So when Yahoo came and did a video about my mom and dad ma having all their clothing that matches, right? I went there, flew there for that, and there was uh there the orchid was blooming. My dad cuts the orchid and then puts it in, and I'm making it into an arrangement on the counter when they were there for filming this event, which was like right at the beginning of the internet. I mean, I think it's really interesting because if you put in famous matching couple, Yahoo, or something like that, it comes up. Oh, yeah. You know, I mean it's there. And so I I'll I'll put the link down below. And it's a short little thing, but it just talked about how they wore all these matching, they're clothes match, you know. So they had 167 pairs of matching gloves. Neither here nor there. That my sister then had to figure out what to do with because my mother, you know, forbid her to give them away to Goodwill, and I was just like, what are you gonna do with them? You know? And my mom had this dream that the Smithsonian one. Oh they didn't want the dresses. But yeah, so I mean, but I think it's interesting that so even for that, that was captured on film. Oh, right, right. You know, and and it has nothing to do with Yolanda that my sister also talks about in the Terrarium episode. Yolanda is not the family orchid.

SPEAKER_00 33:44

Okay, okay, different.

SPEAKER_01 33:46

It's different. The Yolanda is something that my sister and Kari Eidi dreamed up. So there's that.

SPEAKER_00 33:52

But yeah, well, I love that the orchid you're talking about still shares it, still carries that same meaning all these generations later. Like you said, the person, the scuba diver, when it blooms, sends a picture and is like, what's going on? It's like, you know that you know it this has meaning after all this time. So I think that's a really, really cool thing.

SPEAKER_01 34:08

That's my cousin Stacy, who is two years younger than me, and he's Alice, my my aunt Alice's son, and he's the youngest. So Stacy and I, Stacy and I ran around together as kids. Okay. And then they have they had two older children, Billy and Sue, and they were older like Stacy was uh was an afterthought like me, you know. So then my sisters Joe and Cindy are Sue and Billy's age. Billy has passed away, but Sue is still in Fremont, and my sister's still in Fremont, and my other sister lives in in uh Dallas. Okay. So yeah, but yeah, so that's you know, but it's it's like it's a family thing. And Stacy and Lori took early retirement and moved to Bonaire because they love to scuba. Wow, and so it's a Dutch colony. Oh, okay. And but they're still American citizens. Okay, so they're expats or whatever. Oh, yeah. It's too much stuff for me to know. Yeah, too much stuff for me to know. But yeah, so but they but they do that and they they love to scuba and they have amazing, amazing photographs and they can scuba in Bonaire. Cool. Always. So that's good. And yeah, and people have gone to see them. I have not. Troy, my neighbor, is gonna go see my cousin. Oh, and scuba, because Troy scuba. So Troy is like, You have a you have a cousin who lives in Bonaire? What's his name? Here, give me in his number. I'm like, here. And he's like, I'm gonna go see him. And I'm just like, all right, go.

SPEAKER_00 35:27

That's hilarious.

SPEAKER_01 35:28

You know, he's like, You should go along. No, no, you guys go scuba. I'm not gonna scuba. Sorry. Awesome. All right well, thank you for sharing this information about the orchid show. I love it.

SPEAKER_00 35:40

Yeah, I love that you can walk to it if it's that close. I would be there all the time. I go pretty much every weekend in the spring, summer, and fall. So yeah, yeah. Wow. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 35:49

Are there little coffee shops or stuff? There are.

SPEAKER_00 35:51

There's yeah. So in inside of the garden, there's there's a coffee shop. There's actually a grill, okay, there's a grill too, so you can get like a burger and sit outside. Yeah, yeah. So it's wow. Yeah. And you can get a you can get a beer, you can get a glass of wine and walk around.

SPEAKER_01 36:04

Oh, that's see, that's better even. I love that.

SPEAKER_00 36:07

It was funny. R so we went with this other couple that we're friends with when we went to the orchid show, and they both had a glass of wine. And I think they were the only people that like knew that you could get a glass of wine. So we had like a half dozen people walk up to us and be like, where did you get that?

SPEAKER_01 36:21

Do you have that in your coat? Yeah, yeah. May we have some? Yeah, right. That's awesome. Yeah, yeah. I am pretty positive. I don't think the Meyer, the Frederick Meyer Gardens and Sculpture Park allows you to have a beer or wine around. I don't, I think that I think there's a Dutch, a Dutch influence there that would stop that.

SPEAKER_00 36:40

That's the devil.

SPEAKER_01 36:41

Yeah, exactly. Exactly. But, you know, uh not for me. Yeah, no, no. I love that. Yeah. Anytime, anytime someone's like, oh, and you when we went to the ABBA concert in Sweden. Oh, yeah. Okay, this was just shocking to me. They were like, I was like, Oh, we can look, we can get champagne. You can get food there too. You can get like you can get chicken noodle soup. You can get yeah, there's all this stuff you can, all this food. Yeah. And I said, and I said champagne, and they were like, and they said, Well, do you want a bottle? And I said, Well, yeah, but and they said, You can take it to your seat. We took bottles of champagne to our seats and we're pouring stuff at the avocado. That's incredible with Grace and Nick, and we were just like, you know, this is incredible, you know. And Grace, like, I'm gonna go get another bottle. And I was like, We will be right here.

SPEAKER_00 37:23

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_01 37:24

It was wonderful, it was really fun, you know, and I loved it. We are we're going to Soho in London to the theater district to see Jinx Monsoon in End of the Rainbow with in London. That with your ticket, you get a pizza. Oh. Okay. So I was like, awesome. Yeah. And so you get there early and you have a pizza and you can drink and have a pizza if you you can buy your ticket with the pizza, or you can buy a ticket without the pizza. Yeah, but you gotta move it with. Well, why would you not have the pizza? I'm gonna have the pizza, of course. So yeah, I mean, I just think it's interesting that that's a whole different, you know. Yeah, it's a whole different thing. It makes it fun. Yeah, that you could take the champagne that they trusted you to take your champagne bottle to your seat and you wouldn't throw it or something. Right, right. You know, but it's Sweden. People are civilized, right?

SPEAKER_00 38:15

Yeah, that's not gonna happen there, you know.

SPEAKER_01 38:17

Oh, it's actually London. Sorry, yeah, it's in it's in London. At least telling me. It's in London, it's not in Sweden. Uh but the Swedes are very civilized. Yes, yes. But London is also civilized, so there's that as well. So yeah, so it's yeah, it's a London thing. All right, well, hey, thank you so much.

SPEAKER_00 38:31

Thank you, Jay.

SPEAKER_01 38:36

Thanks for joining us this week on Behind the Bloom Podcast with Jay Schwanki and R.J. Pohl. If you loved what you heard, be sure to follow or subscribe so you never miss an episode. And share it with a friend to help us spread the joy one bloom at a time. Thank you for taking the time to slow down with us. And hopefully, you left feeling a little lighter and inspired to try something new. Make sure to join us next week for a brand new episode. Thanks for being here with us, Behind the Bloom. Hey, just one more thing. If you love flowers, you've got to check out uBloom.com. It's the online home of Jay Schwanki's Life in Bloom, where you can stream every episode for free. Plus, you'll find Behind the Bloom videos, my blog, show recipes, and so much more. There's also a massive video archive, over 1,800 how-to videos, flower farm documentaries, and even my very first series, JTV. All Life in Bloom episodes, exclusive web content, and farm documentaries are totally free. Just sign up with your email. And if you're ready to dive deeper, there's a paid subscription option that unlocks the full library of how to videos. Everything from creating bridal bouquets to centerpieces, croissages, and more. Tons of content to explore. You're gonna love it.