Mystery of the disappearing orchid flower

I invited the president of the Wilton Manors garden club to come  over to see my garden after he was nice enough to host the members of the club to his house.  Problem was, I blurted it out spur of the moment, not thinking of the overgrown shrubs, foot high weeds, and dead potted annuals that succumbed to the summer sweltering heat.

Since I work full time as a horticulture therapist during the day in the field (pun intended) and do administrative duties in the evening and social networking, it gave me little time to prepare.  Early in the morning before work, and early evening after work, I weeded, raked up leaves and purchased some summer annuals to spruce up the yard.  Here is the orchid before it vanished. 

My pride and joy was a wonderful Vanda orchid that was blooming a second time this year.  Low and behold when I looked at the orchid, the flower had vanished.  I was shocked and very disappointed.  It looked as if the stem was cut off at the base of the plant.  What could have happened to it?  Several scenarios ran through my head.  The president was coming over the next day and this was the best flower of the orchid collection. 

Over the weekend I was shooting a video near the orchid the day before my visitor was scheduled to arrive.  My cameraman spotted the flower nestled among the branches of a shrub under the hanging orchid on the tree.  I decided to re cut the stem and take some wonderful photos.  Just make the best of a tough situation.  My guess is that when we were removing large palm fronds from the garden, they brushed into the hanging orchid and it severed the stem.  Mystery solved.

The tour went well and the president got to take home a care package of cuttings from my garden for his garden.  Have a wonderful week and thank you for coming by!  See you again soon. 

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