I suddenly realised that our first orchid, the calypso orchid, might already be in bloom. Two years ago I was photographing them at this time, last year they bloomed over a week later. What if they were early this year? So I drove to our secret calypso orchid location and … they looked great! I didn’t see any withered individuals, so my timing was perfect. In fact, I could go back there this weekend and they will still look fine, I even found one bud. And happily, there were more of them now than last year, May was so warm and dry last year that the calypsos suffered from it. It was dry now also, but maybe the thick snowcover in the winter helped them.

In all of the calypso orchid pictures I’ve taken so far, those top petals have been flat or even curving down. So this time I tried to find individuals with the petals pointed up, but I only found a few such. Maybe it’s an indication that these fairy slippers haven’t actually even reached full bloom yet? To be honest, I don’t really know what regulates the flower’s behaviour. Makes it all the more interesting!