Blooming in the Office: No-Calorie Chocolate

My office smells like chocolate, and it isn’t because I have leftover holiday candy! Instead, the Oncidium Sharry Baby is in full, glorious bloom.

Just inhale deeply and you’ll fall in love with this orchid. Sharry Baby is often called the “Chocolate Orchid” for its fragrance, and one of the fascinating things about it is, it only emits that heady scent during the day.

This orchid is a hybrid, meaning a cross between two other oncidiums, and it was officially registered (got the nod from the American Orchid Society) in 1983.

My Sharry Baby has at least three dozen flowers, each about two inches tall, on a single, graceful spike that is more than two feet tall. I tried to get the whole plant into a single photo, but no luck. With weekly watering and bright (but indirect) light, it should bloom for at least a month.

From orchid-care websites, you can get the technical details – it’s a sympodial epiphyte. Say what? Epiphyte means it naturally grows on trees or between rocks in the wild; sympodial means the new growth shoots off sideways, from the old growth, instead of the plant growing on a single stalk and becoming taller and taller.

Don’t let the technical terms keep you from trying your luck with orchids – if you stick with it, they’ll become familiar, a little at a time. And you don't have to be an expert to enjoy this delicious, no-calorie chocolate fix!