Orchid people can be a bit of a bore. They’ll provide quotations about how many species there are, how quickly they’re discovered, how many of them are endangered…
I figure all that just means that they’re a highly unstable set of plants that really need to get their evolutionary act together!
But it’s hard to deny their variety, colour, and appeal when you get a chance to look at them in large quantities. There are two great places to do that.
The first is the National Orchid Garden at the Botanic Gardens in Singapore. That’s where I first came to appreciate orchids properly. They have an incredible permanent outdoor display that you could easily spend hours in (as long as you don’t pass out from the heat first).
The second place is this month at Kew Gardens. They’re running a special orchid exhibition starting yesterday, February 9, and running until March 3. Full information is available on their web site and
According to the BBC, who have created this excellent picture tour, the team at Kew have installed more than 4,550 orchids, 550 bromeliads, and 350 assorted foliage plants in the Princess of Wales Conservatory. I suspect that this show might be pretty popular, so you might want to book early.
