What is this odd almost-flower with the cordovan-colored leaves and tiny flower in the middle?

First pic, I think, is a Milo.
Second one, me and my girlfriend think it might be a kind of orchid.

I disagree… I don’t think it’s an orchid.

But I can say for sure that the first picture is most definitely a Felis catus milos ;)

Milo here; She really is almost too dopey to be allowed outside alone, isn’t she?

Try this

I’ve been wondering the same thing for two weeks. There was a pair of these in a bunch of fresh flowers I picked up at the grocery store. They looked to me like cuttings from some sort of ornamental shrub that I had never seen before (or at least never looked at up close). They outlasted the rest of the flowers, so I saved them and added them to the next arrangement. They still look nice today even though they don’t seem to have opened or changed at all.

Where did you get yours?

From a bunch of fresh flowers that a friend picked up at the grocery store and presented to me as a “thank-you” for a ride to the doctor’s.

Milo here. That was easy. It is a Bromeliad Neoregelia carolinae Some cultivars

Bromeliad. Ok. I’ve never hitched the name to the plant before. It’s a name that turns up in the sort of novels I read.

Watch the slide show for some of the varieties.

Here

And the winners in the Houston Bomeliad Society annual show

Here

Milo. you are one smart cat, I tell you!!!

Keep your eye on Gail and help her in any way possible.

Milo here; I am making an effort, but she really tries my patience.