Okay, so those are bananas. But this conservatory was originally for the banana trees, with two cases of orchids at one end. As the orchid collection grew, they took over from the bananas. The Longwood conservatories were practical as well as ornamental; now you can buy bananas practically everywhere. (Their orangery isn't an orangery any more either, although they did have some grapefruit trees scattered about this time around...)
This doesn't quite do justice to the actual retina-burning color, but it's close...
Even though last year's shot was one of the best, I had to snap this one again. Perhaps you just can't take a bad photo of this whiter-than-snow lovely...
Orchids are weird.
Lovely...
But weird. (Or perhaps that's just what humans have done to them.)
Even Jimmy Mac succumbed to their photographic lure...
