Invasion of the Body Snatchers

After my success in resurrecting half-dead orchids I have been searching the Internet for fellow fanatics.

I came across the website of the North of England Orchid Society with details of an annual orchid showcase.

Unfortunately I missed it by days but discovered that a smaller show was being staged deep in the Cheshire countryside.

After tapping the details into my sat nav I was taken through breathtaking countryside before ending up in a pretty village.

The venue was opposite the village pub packed with families and visitors to a farmers market.

As I walked into the community hall I could almost imagine tumbleweed rolling across the floor in front of me.

It was virtually deserted apart from four elderly orchid lovers standing behind their stalls.

The woman behind the entry desk looked up from her cup of tea blinking in surprise at finally encountering a visitor. “Oh no dear. You don’t have to pay to come in,” she smiled.

The show was small with only a few blooms but some truly spectacular specimens. 

The Best in Show was a huge towering orchid with matching vertical rows of jawdropping white blooms.

How would the winner would have managed such a feat I asked?

Heated greenhouses are the secret one craggy-faced stallholder confided. 

In Holland they can get better flowers because they don’t have to abide by the same horticultural rules as the British, he added.

As I browsed his stall he held up a pot which contained bunches of fat green pods.

I couldn’t help being reminded of Invasion of the Body Snatchers, a creepy 1950s science-fiction movie where aliens grow doubles of the townspeople in pods. I knew I had to own it.

“It’s a Coelogyne cristata”, he explained. “Very easy to look after”.

Coelogyne cristata

As I was leaving the elderly woman by the door offered some words of advice. 

“Keep all your orchids in a tub on the floor. That way you can have more in a restricted space”. 

As I left the cries rang in my ears. “She’s got the bug all right. Join us.” Just what the alien invaders would have said.



Some other orchids I snapped up on the day.

Dendrobium nobile virginalis

Dendrobium Kingianum