The scent of an orchid....

This Bee orchid mimics the look of a bee in order to attract bees to their pollinia which hooks onto the back of the bee...(yellow orbs dangling)

This is one of the many flies that resemble bees....it is also a pollinator-Hover fly

fly with pollinia on its back headed out from its orchid perch

As I immerse farther into my orchid imitating, I discover more about the orchids, the pollinators and their mutual or deceptive relationships.
Orchids can be deceptive with their pollinators. Many orchids produce visual aspects to seduce a bee or other insect to land on certain parts of their flower in order for the packets of pollen-pollinia- to be dispersed to other orchid plants (upper right pic).
In another deception, many other orchids use scent to attract insects. It can be the rotting smell of decay or pleasant scents mimicking pheromones or other kinds of flowers.
This research has led me to a new way to express imaginatively in the world of orchids....

Last week I assembled essential oils and research and began to set up a little fragrance lab of my own. 
I am mimicking intuitively the scents of the orchids I am sculpting. Though I have only seen a few of the native orchids in the wild, I have never smelled them so my scents will only be reminiscent of the descriptions of other orchid sniffers!!!
What will be done with them? Well they could be diffused near the sculptures. Or they might be best used as perfume, a reminder or an incentive for you to go out and see these beautiful and rare orchids of the Northwest.
Either way each sculpture will include a bottle of custom scent in its purchase. The orchid scents are customized for Mountain Slippers, Phantom orchid, Stream orchid, coralroot, and Fairy orchids.
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Assembling outside in the spring weather!

The mini Scent lab! I use photographs of the actual native orchids, the orchid sculpture themselves and my research to intuit scent blends for each orchid.