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Carol at Maydreams has once again challenged us with a pop quiz/competition. This time she is asking for our most exotic bloom photo. Her photo of the night blooming cereus is exquisite and will be hard to beat. Especially since exotica is in the eye of the beholder. Really, those of us with orchids are at a serious advantage, since every orchid bloom is other wordly. Here is my entry, Paphiopedilum ‘Quasky’. It bloomed for the first time since purchased, ten years ago, last spring. It was going to get the heave ho if it didn’t come up with a flower, and it responded to that threat beautifully. So glad it didn’t get tossed! Don’t you agree it looks like a semi finalist, if not a winner?
Fairegarden 
Yes, that is pretty good, surely good enough to be in the running for second place. Perhaps if we get a few more entries, I’ll put a poll on my blog and we will let the readers decide!
And it is true that good things come to those who wait. I waited quite a while for my night bloomer to bloom the first time, years and years!
Carol, May Dreams Gardens
Very exotic indeed and how wonderful it finally decided to flower. What patience you have for waiting 10 years. I probably would have tossed it after one year. 😉
Wow! How cool is that!
I like the size of Carol’s, and there is a certain beauty in the all-white of it, but yours is stunning too, because of the colors.
But, since I have a brown thumb, I’ll plead that I’m not qualified to judge, and simply say that I like them both.
Absolutely stunning and exotic orchid…well done! You get my vote for first place….even if it needs to be shared with another photo! Fran
Carol…I will gladly settle for second place. Thanks for setting this up.
Yolanda…It just goes to show the importance of patience in gardening.
Sherry…thanks for staying neutral, I know you would be an impartial judge though.
fransorin…thanks. Really we can all share in the glory, picking one over the other would be like choosing which child you love best.
That is a lovely bloom indeed.
Frances, I believe you mentioned once that you didn’t like long space at the end of your posts. That can easily be corrected. When you’re doing a new post on blogger, up in your right hand corner is a button that says edit HTML, click on that , go to the bottom of your post and clear the blank space by hitting your backspace button on your computer keyboard.
Robin’s nesting place….you are an absolute angel!!!!!Thank you so much for that tip about the spacing. I have fixed the bromeliad post and will try and fix the others as time permits. You are brilliant! That is the kind of advice that is desperately needed here at Faire Garden, being a total computer dunce.
Frances, I’m so glad it helped you. I’m having to learn so much by trial and error too. I am very simpleminded when it comes to technology.
Frances this is a lovely bloom. Definitely in the running.
Isn’t it funny that flowers seem to get a message from time to time.
I threatened to take out a Lilac Tree becasue it hadn’t bloomed so it started blooming and has done so every spring since. Ha..
Don’t feel bad about not being able to figure out the techy things. I don’t know how to do much of anything. I am impressed that you can get pictures and widgets on your sidebar.
lisa…thanks. I had help on the spring fling badge, and am still experimenting with everything else. Finally the mysteries of logging in to blotanical have been solved, again with help from Stuart.
Some may wonder how you could keep a plant ten years without it blooming, it is in a small pot, or it would have not been moved to three different houses!
What patience you have, Frances! This orchid is certainly spectacular and exotic. Both the bloom and the gardener deserve honor and respect….guess I’ll duck and run after I tell you that I don’t, however, think it’s pretty… while the cereus does fit that qualification.
Annie at the Transplantable Rose
annie…I agree, pretty it ain’t, but I thought the idea was exotic, and to me that means something along the lines of Martian. HA
You have my first place vote.
chickenpoet…thanks for your vote.
That is a gorgeous bloom, Frances. I think you were rewarded for your patience.
I think it definitely qualifies for exotic and while I may not say it is ‘pretty’ in the frou-frou sense, it has an unusual beauty that draws me to it. (But then, I’m totally drawn to strange-looking plants and flowers!)
kate…The unusual draws me also. Some of the orchids are much more attractive than others. I love the paphs, lady slippers, but they are sort of strange.