The most exciting aspect of Adventure Gardening is the thrill of the hunt. No matter where I am, if I see a plant, it's mine. If it's not legal to take for being in someone's yard, I'm still grabbing a cutting or a seedpod. That's just how I roll.
Anyhow, wandering in the Florida woods we came across this lovely Monk Orchid. Actually, we came across dozens of them. We've seen them in Fort Lauderdale and again in the Keys. They have lovely mottled leaves, and dainty little flowers. They were growing in the shade, and I wouldn't have even noticed them except my eye instantly recognized the shape of the orchid leaves and was drawn to them.
This lucky fellow had one leaf when we found/stole it, and after kidnapping it a second leaf grew, and the entire thing doubled/tripled in size. It's potted in soil, and seems to be quite content. It sent up a flower stem about a week ago and today it bloomed- the first time I've ever seen the flowers.
I'm planning on grabbing some more if I come across them again- they aren't protected and are considered more of a weed, strangely enough.
I was happy enough about the foliage but the flowers were a nice surprise, and even more happy to know that they tend to self-pollinate and make seed pods, which is fun for me because I'm going to start flasking soon! I'm very excited about flasking, and I shall document my misadventures here. I ordered some orchid seeds from Thailand for experimentation. I also plan to attempt to tissue culture various rare/expensive plants in my yard. I'm stepping up my game on the plant propagation front.
Cost: $0
Source: Woods in south Florida somewhere
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