Costa Rica Orchids - Six for only US$25 means this is a great place for orchid lovers
Scott Oliver
Professor Edgar Suarez is our kindly Costa Rica orchid tutor and he and his cheerful wife Idania obviously have a real passion for orchids.
They welcomed us into their small, comfortable home in the center of San Jose where the Costa Rica orchid course is held in their luscious back garden surrounded by hundreds of Costa Rica orchids in various stages of development.
The Costa Rica orchid course lasts for three hours every Saturday for six weeks and costs only about US$70.
At the beginning of every lesson, there is an 'oracioncito' - a small prayer and it is comforting that this small group of passionate Ticos like to give thanks to God (Gracias a Díos) for the good and simple things in life including all those beautiful Costa Rica orchids.
There are approximately 25,000 species of orchids in the wild and perhaps another 25,000 varieties of hybrids that have been catalogued. Orchids occur naturally all over the world with the exception of Antarctica and have even been encountered at elevations of 14,000 feet.
These are the traits that virtually all orchids share:
 - Long lived herbaceous perennial
- Three sepals and three petals (the most important one is called the lip or labellum)
- The column (the male and female tissues)
- Pollen gathered in larger bodies called pollinia
- An inferior ovary
- Wind dispersed seeds lacking an endosperm
Orchid pollination typically occurs through bees, flies, moths, butterflies and birds.
The Costa Rica national flower - the Guaria Morada (Cattleya skinneri) is bold, large and violet, and also happens to be an orchid. Two of the best locations to indulge in orchids are Lankaster Gardens, on the outskirts of Cartago, and the Orchid Project, found in Monteverde.
There are estimated to be about 1,400 different Costa Rica orchids, 386 of them are found nowhere else in the world and the major problem for me here was 'Which photographs do I include?"
They are all so gorgeous and a few of them smell delicious too but unfortunately 'scratch and sniff' has not yet been developed for the computer so we can't help with that part of the equation...
Professor Suarez or 'Don Edgar' is a knowledgeable and caring teacher who tries hard to make sure that everyone knows what's going on which includes this Brit who's Spanish is not fluent but who still managed to understand 90% of what's going on and as usual, there is always some kind-hearted Tica lady there who seems very enthusiastic about helping me with my Spanish (?)
| 
Homes For Sale
del.icio.us
Digg
Reddit
Facebook
StumbleUpon
GoogleBookmark
Technorati
Furl