Opening Ceremony: A Preview of New York's Orchid Show - Gardenista
The New York Botanical Garden’s annual Orchid Show could not have come at a better time for snow-blind New Yorkers living at the cutting edge of the Siberian Express. Photography by Marie Viljoen for Gardenista. An avenue of orchids, inside the botanical garden’s Enid A. Haupt Conservatory. Outdoors, the scene was less tropical. Francisca Coelho designed this show, and is NYBG’s Vice President for Glasshouses and Exhibitions. In a private home there last year, Gregory Long, NYBG’s President and CEO showed Ms. Coelho “a living chandelier.”. The tropical orchids cascading from the glass ceilings are members of the largest flowering family on earth more than 30 000... ...species strong The central chandelier holds 500 plants including luminous white Phalaenopsis and electric yellow Oncidium tucked among lush ferns and moss Smaller hanging baskets of 35 plants each are suspended all over the conservatory. Many of the thousands of long orchid stems in the “Chandeliers” exhibit are individually staked for support, giving a sense of the intense labor and preparation required to mount a show of this scale. While these flamboyant flowers are often considered delicate and difficult to grow in their natural habitat many orchids are extreme plants attaching themselves... ...to trees in order to survive said Marc Hachadourian the NYBG s resident orchid expert and Director of the Nolen Greenhouses for Living Collections For hopeful first time orchid owners the Chandeliers show is very encouraging The interactive exhibit offers good advice for growing your... ...own at home highlighting what is necessary for their successful care and explaining the difference between Dendrobium and Cymbidium Phalaenopsis and Epidendrum Oncidiums, tree dwellers known commonly as dancing ladies because of their ruffled skirt-like petals, are often perfumed. For success at home most tropical orchids require less rather than more water tepid water not cold good drainage and air circulation... ...a 50 percent diluted liquid fertilizer every three waterings and a distinct fluctuation between day and night temperatures to produce flowers successfully A poster of the poem Orchids by Roethke stands in the snow at the show s entrance They lean... ...over the path Adder mouthed Inside the humid conservatory the sinister beauty of Brassidium orchids bring these lines to life You can buy an orchid now–usually Phalaenopsis, or moth orchids–at big box stores for under $10 (orchids have overtaken poinsettias as Americans’ most popular potted plant). But “the orchid turned out to be a dud,” said Hachadourian. In Taiwan, the commercial heart of the international orchid trade, new orchid cultivars are kept jealously in locked and alarmed greenhouses, and fetch thousands of dollars because of their breeding prospects. What effect will thousands of visitors have on thousands of orchids? In answer, Ms. Coelho presented the structure of a perfect Cymbidium. The bright and transitory orchids are shown within the context of a permanent collection of plants. And if bromeliads–cousins of pineapples–are your thing, you will not leave disappointed. Finally, get more ideas on how to plant, grow, and care for various houseplants with our Houseplants: A Field Guide.