Orchid Mania Sweeps the Botanical Garden

Orchid mania is well-documented, from the 36,000 square feet of greenhouses that the sixth Duke of Devonshire devoted to his vast collection to the obsessed poacher of Susan Orlean’s “The Orchid Thief.” So it’s no wonder that the New York Botanical Garden’s annual orchid show, which opens on Saturday and runs for six weeks, has become one of the Garden’s most popular events.On Wednesday afternoon, a dozen gardeners were working busily on the final stages of the installation, under the direction of the Garden’s senior curator, Francisca Coelho. The theme of this year’s show is Singapore, which, despite its tiny size, is one of the largest orchid producers in the world.“When you see the word ‘orchid,’ you think of places like Hawaii, or maybe Brazil,” the curator of the Garden’s permanent orchid collection, Marc Hachadourian, said. “But in terms of the orchid industry, Southeast Asia has become one of the major centers.” The major design elements of the exhibition, which was designed by Thomas Noel of Event Design Incorporated, were inspired by the classical parks and gardens of Singapore. There is a two-story pagoda fronted by a pond, as well as a lane of trees arching overhead, covered with flowers.Of the 4,000 or 5,000 plants that will be on display over the course of the show, a majority come from the Garden’s own collection, Mr. Hachadourian said. Others by necessity are purchased from nurseries around the country. To do a show without purchasing plants, Mr. Hachadourian explained, would require more greenhouse space than the Garden has, in order to keep all the different species at the temperatures that would induce them to bloom at the same time. The flowers that are purchased from elsewhere arrive at the Garden on the verge of blooming, and “we finish them off, manipulating the temperature to either speed them up or slow them down,” Mr. Hachadourian said.None of the plants were purchased from Asia, since international laws governing the trade of endangered species make it complicated to transport orchids internationally.The Garden has around 8,000 plants in its collection, many of them rare species and some over 100 years old. The Garden is also a federally designated rescue center for plants confiscated by the Department of Agriculture. In 2005, for instance, 1,100 wild orchids were confiscated at Miami International Airport, after having been imported under a permit that falsely identified them as artificially cultivated.The plants were sent to the Garden in dire condition — dehydrated, shriveled, and torn — and the gardeners, like emergency-room doctors, immediately went to work to save as many as possible. In the end, around 80% of the plants survived, Mr. Hachadourian said. Some will be on display in this year’s exhibition.Orchids grow wild on every continent except Antarctica. There are 30,000 naturally occurring species and over 150,000 man-made hybrids, with thousands of new hybrids being created every year.Mr. Hachadourian attributed the interest in creating hybrids to “a combination of man’s desire to control nature and the desire to create the orchid that, in the hybridist’s eye, is a kind of ideal.”Orchid cultivation dates back to the time of Confucius, who compared “the association with a superior person” to entering a room full of orchids. The first known hybrid was created in 1856 by John Dominy, a grower for the English nursery of James Veitch & Sons.The Victorians were obsessed with orchids, building vast greenhouses (similar to the Garden’s Enid A. Haupt Conservatory) to display their collections, which were seen as symbols of wealth and status.English nurseries sent orchid collectors to the far corners of the earth. The most famous of these was Benedict Roezl, a Czech botanist who worked for an English importer and commercial grower of orchids, Frederick Sander. Roezl, who traveled throughout North, Central, and South America, was famous for having lost a hand in a mysterious accident. Fortunately, the hook he had in its place made him particularly adept at prying orchids out of trees.Ms. Coelho, who has worked on every orchid show at the Garden since the first in 2003, began installing the exhibition in late January. But the process of caring for the Garden’s own orchids is year-round, Mr. Hachadourian said.“When the plants come back from the show, they go into the greenhouses, and then it’s a year-long process of repotting, fertilizing, et cetera, to make sure they’re in good condition for next year,” he said. “They need constant attention and care — all 8,000 of them.”

Orchid Mania Sweeps the Botanical Garden

Orchid Mania Sweeps the Botanical Garden

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