Orchids in the City

The Orchid Dinner at the Rainbow Room Tuesday lifted its New York Botanical Garden-loving guests out of the winter duldrums. Those Tiffany champagne glasses guests received on their way out assured they arrived home in warm spirits. Click here to see a screenshot of the column as it appeared in the newspaper today on page 12. The text of the column can be found here. For more pictures, see my photo album of guests and the one featuring the orchid centerpieces. Here are highlights of the Garden's Orchid Show, which starts February 24 and runs through April 8: * In the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory, water will cascade over dark volcanic rocks into a pol full of orchids * In the Lowland Tropical Rain Forest Gallery, visitors can discover orchids as they grow in nature: clinging to branches and twining around massive trunks. * Miniature orchids will be on display in the terranium -- these are tiny flowers ranging from two to four millimeters wide * The Orchid Collector's Garden will feature blue and purple vandas, green and yellow cymbidiums, maroon slipper orchids, tall nun's cap orchids, and more. * The curator of the show is Marc Hachadourian and the designer for the show is Philip Baloun. * As a government-designated Plant Rescue Center, the garden saves wild orchids that are under threat of extinction. Thousands of plants from India, Mexico, Peru, the Philippines, and Thailand have been nursed back to health at the garden. Some of those will be on display in the Rotunda of the Library Building. * The garden is offering classes tied to the show such as "Orchid Growing for Wimps" and "Orchid Hunting at Home and Abroad." * Sponsor are the Tiffany & Co. Foundation and the Bank of New York