AboutOrchids

Vanilla is a very delicious orchid, and the most important orchid crop. The Crop Trust, a non-profit group which works to safeguard crop diversity, wants to protect vanilla. Native to Central and South America, it was cultivated for millennia by Mayans and Aztecs. Nowadays, most beans come from Madagascar, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, India, and […]

Celebrate today’s equinox with more photos from the recent Pacific Orchid Expo in San Francisco. As spring arrives in the northern half of the planet, after a winter of strong storms, our drought appears to be over in California. That’s great news. I’ve lived through several droughts during my 34 years in the Bay Area, […]

The Guardian reports on the New York Botanical Garden’s (NYBG) latest big exhibition, and also its efforts to rescue endangered orchids. Behind the scenes, there are orchids salvaged from the illegal plant trade. When stolen species are confiscated by customs officials, they are sent to botanical gardens like NYBG to be saved. The plants are […]

“I’ve never seen an orchid like that!” “How strange!” “That can’t be a real flower!” These exclamations were all overheard at the recent Pacific Orchid Expo. Fittingly, this year’s show theme was “Celebrating Diversity.” With tens of thousand of varied species, and hundreds of thousands of varied hybrids, the orchid family is surely a diversity […]

March is a busy month, with orchid events all over the globe. The Santa Barbara show is one of the largest in the country, and is returning for the first time in three years. Other major shows are happening in Tainan City, Taiwan, Montreal, Canada, and Wisley, UK. March 1 – 5 Exposición Nacional de […]