I had spent close to two hours, taking almost 200 photos in the orchid garden of the Naples Botanical Garden (Florida), but my real excitement was focused in the Caribbean Garden. I had learned that the garden had erected trellises and had planted vanilla orchid plants (V. planifolia) with plans to plant another variety, V. x tahitensis, in the near future.

Now I will wait and watch for the orchids to bloom and produce vanilla seed pods. From reading the Garden’s blog I have learned that it is a long and work intensive process to get from new plant to vanilla extract. According to the blog, the Horticulture Team hopes to eventually supply Garden’s Fogg Cafe with Garden-grown vanilla. But it seems that it will be well over a year before that will happen. Stay tuned.

I couldn’t decide which challenge this post should be linked to – so I’ll do both. Now you can check out both and join in.

A Photo a Week Challenge: Something New

Life in Colour: Yellow