Utah Orchid Society Spring Show

Portagrow exhibit at Red Butte Gardens

We had the opportunity recently to take our Portagrow Indoor Growing Environment exhibit on the road to the Utah Orchid Society's Spring Show at the Red Butte Gardens in Salt Lake City.  We had a great time at the show and felt very welcomed by the Utah members we met there.  A big thank you to Sean Quealy with the UOS, for all his assistance in making this show a success for us.  We got a lot of positive feedback from the people who saw our exhibit in Utah, and sold several growing stands and greenhouses during the show.  We also saw some beautiful plants, and, much like the Fall show in Denver, we met some great photographers and were able to persuade them to let us share their photos with you on our blog.

Portagrow exhibit at Denver Spring Show

Since we didn't have a chance to tell you about the Spring Show for the Denver Orchid Society, we will combine some words and pics about both on this blog.  The Denver show was held at Paulino's Gardens, and there were some truly memorable plants exhibited there.  Unfortunately you only get to see our amateur photography of the Denver exhibits.

Phrag. "China Dragon"

Epicat "Rene Marquez" "Flame Thrower"

Incredible colors

Elegant shapes

What a beauty!

Cattleya "Beautiful Sunset"

View from Red Butte Gardens

 The Utah show was held in the stunning Red Butte Gardens, a beautiful glass pavilion with incredible views of the mountains and a really wonderful place to spend a weekend in Salt Lake City.  We took a few minutes to walk around the outdoor gardens at Red Butte before the show, and although little was in bloom yet, it was still very evident that this is a spectacular botanic garden.  There was one area with thousands of beautiful yellow, purple and pale blue/white tiny flowers blooming, and only after we got very close could we see that they were all tiny miniature iris!  Each flower was about the size of a nickel.  They were really 
wonderful.

Small daffodils with tiny iris

Tiny yellow Iris

Tiny silver white iris

Tiny purple iris

We met a couple of wonderful photographers at the Utah show who have kindly agreed to share their work.  Jill Spriggs has an eye for the wonders of the macro lens especially when applied to Phaphs and Phrags.  She writes a facinating blog about all things floral at http://jillthinksdifferent.blogspot.com.
You can also reach her about her photographs at  jillspriggs@gmail.com.

Doug Johnson's photos have a wonderful abstract quality to them that many of us, who are fascinated by the wonder of orchid structures and colors, appreciate.   Thanks to both Doug and Jill for sharing their work.