Since today is supposed to be dedicated to all things frightful, here is a cycad whose very name tells you it is ferocious: Encephalartos ferox. It was growing and coning (the bright salmon-colored cone is a female cone) in the Fern Room at Phipps Conservatory. For the purposes of the Fern Room, cycads are honorary ferns.
Today is the last day of the Fall Flower Show at Phipps Conservatory. This is how the East Room was decorated.
At the Phipps Fall Flower Show.
In the Japanese Courtyard Garden at Phipps Conservatory.
This is the last weekend of the Fall Flower Show at Phipps. They’re already starting work on the Winter Flower Show. Every year each show has a whimsical theme, but for fall the stars of the show are always the chrysanthemums.
Looking across the rowhouses and apartments of central Oakland toward Phipps Conservatory. In the distance at upper left is the Park Mansions apartment building.
A carefully orchestrated symphony of textures.
There are many species of Habenaria orchids, including several native to North America. But this one wins the prize for unusual flowers. Enlarge the picture above to appreciate the individual flowers.
Habenaria medusa is a terrestrial orchid (it grows in the ground, whereas most of the tropical orchids we cultivate grow on tree branches), so Phipps Conservatory keeps this one in a big terra-cotta pot that probably takes two strong volunteers to move.
Begonia masoniana, grown for its strikingly patterned leaves, at Phipps Conservatory.
Its parents come from Indonesia, but this paph speaks with a Picksburgh accent. According to its tag in the Orchid Room at Phipps Conservatory, it has won an Award of Merit from the American Orchid Society.
Papihopedilum Transvaal is an old hybrid, first made in 1901, between P. chamberlainianum and P. rothschildianum. Orchid genetics are complex enough that the seedlings from a hybrid are all different, so each one can become a named clone (with the name in single quotes) if someone likes it well enough. Obviously, with AM-AOS after its name, someone would like this one a great deal.
