I have had this plant since it was just a sprout with three leaves. A brother from Mepkin Abbey, a monastery near Charleston, SC, gave me this plant about six years ago. I was giving a presentation about the native orchids of South Carolina to an orchid society, and he presented it to me after I had finished.

Well, I understood that one could not get Cymbidiums to bloom without greenhouse conditions -- especially in the South. I babied it and coaxed it to add new pseudobulbs each year. This year, just before I retired, I noticed that it was putting out another shoot. I took it home and put it in a cool room in front of a window with plenty of light.

The sprout turned out to be a bloom spike with seven buds. It took about a month for the first bud to open. The fragrance is just lovely -- a citrus smell that just fills the room with its sweetness...

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Make:	OLYMPUS IMAGING CORP.
Model:	E-5
Exposure:	0.8
Aperture:	f/13.0
ISO Speed:	400
Focal Length:	105 mm
Lens:	SIGMA 105mm F2.8 MACRO