March 9. 2005
Lc Carl Bornshine 'Mendenhall'

I bought this one at the GNYOS in 2000. I had admired a beautiful large specimen plant in full bloom in one of the exhibits and purchased a small "starter plant".
The plant grew a lot of new pseudobulbs in all directions, but was reluctant to flower. I started to subject the plant to the strongest sunlight during winter in the greenhouse, and also in summer outside without any protection from trees. Most of the leaves are now a fairly light green and this year we have gorgeous large scented flowers.
Also see the close up below.
Pleurothallis tarantula -
bought in April 2004 at the GNYOS at Rockefeller Center from Parkside Orchids. The plant has never stopped flowering. All flowers were originally hidden underneath the leaves so when you  touched the underside of the leaves without looking, you had the odd sensation of perhaps having touched something hairy- arachnoidy....
Under my conditions, tarantulas are "crawling" above and below the leaves. A really interesting plant!!
And a closer look at the Tarantulas
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