AboutOrchids

The Palm House is a remarkable, historic masterpiece, and also home to a living, tropical rainforest. First opened in 1848, this glasshouse stands as an icon of Kew Gardens. The Palm House’s enormous steel frame holds 16,000 panes of glass. Along with tropical palms, it features many more exotic plants, too.

Orchids hang throughout the Palm House, but only a couple were in bloom during our visit at the beginning of summer. The Cymbidium species in the next photo was one of the orchids enjoying the warmth and humidity. At the end of the next row of photos, a bizarre bloom from a small, tropical tree resembles a jellyfish more than a flower.

The Palm House is a multi-level experience. Staircases lead to an upper walkway with spectacular views of the jungle canopy. The basement level contains aquariums with plants and fish from several marine ecosystems.

Among its lush beauty, the Palm House is home to the world’s oldest potted plant, shown in the final photo below. This cycad palm was originally sent by ship from South Africa in 1773, over 240 years ago. It arrived at Kew in 1775, and was one of the first plants moved into the Palm House when it opened. It’s another one of Kew’s remarkable, historic treasures.

Enjoy these photos from July’s Orchids in the Park in San Francisco. Brilliant orchid colors and strange flower shapes filled the show.

Colorful miniatures competed for my camera with their dinner-plate sized orchid cousins. Flowers with twisted horns like an antelope stole the focus from other blooms with more vivid hues. The diversity always seems endless in the orchid world. Check back soon for more photos.

Orchid shows are truly global, but this month it’s especially obvious: the first five listings below are on five different continents. No matter where you are, orchid shows are great ways to see gorgeous flowers, talk to orchid experts, take pictures, and buy plants for your collection.

Read the rest of this post »

Every year, Orchids in the Park puts on an amazing display. This past weekend, the event again filled Golden Gate Park with fantastic orchids. San Francisco’s smaller annual show can’t compare with the Pacific Orchid Expo’s size and spectacle, but it always boasts outstanding and unusual plants. Of course, I especially love the bizarre varieties, which stretch the definition of what a flower can be. Check back soon for more photos from this remarkable event.

London’s Natural History Museum needs your help. The museum has started an Orchid Observers citizen science project, and it’s looking for volunteers to help study how climate change is affecting native British orchids. Scientists have already found that some species have been blooming earlier, consistent with warmer springtime temperatures.

At Orchid Observers, you can choose whether to photograph native orchids, identify the orchid species in the pictures, or transcribe data from online museum specimens. Of course, you need to be in Britain to take photos, but anyone in the world can help examine pictures or plant specimens online.

Check out the video below for more. It includes some spectacular footage of the native British orchid species you’ll be helping.

The San Francisco Orchid Society presents Orchids in the Park this coming weekend, July 25^th – 26^th. Check out the orchids at the County Fair Building in Golden Gate Park, near the park entrance by 9th Avenue & Lincoln Way. Enjoy orchid displays, vendors, talks by orchid experts, book sales, and raffles. To further whet your orchid appetite, here are a few photos from past events. Don’t miss it!

Where can you find orchids in London besides Kew Gardens? Try the smaller, lesser-known, and older Chelsea Physic Garden. Inside its glasshouses, Chelsea Physic Garden houses a small but impressive orchid display. Founded in 1673 to study medicinal plants, it’s one of the oldest botanical gardens in the world, 86 years older than Kew. I visited at the end of June, and found some great orchids in bloom. There were several beautiful and bizarre Stanhopeas in bud, and a couple more in flower.

These orchids were on display in the glasshouses next to the Gift Shop. The Tropical Corridor Glasshouse showcased this brilliant white Sobralia blossom and climbing Vanilla vine.

There were several large orchids hanging in intermediate glasshouses, too, including the Dendrobium and Coelogyne in the final two photos. They must be spectacular when in bloom, and they’re both fragrant, also.

Orchids are just a small part of Chelsea Physic Garden. Its main displays highlight medicinal, edible, and other useful plants, and also feature a new woodland grove. Don’t miss historic Chelsea Physic Garden when visiting London!

Kew Gardens is packed with botanical treasures, and it’s impossible to see them in a single visit, or a single blog post. Here are some more photos from our recent trip to the world’s preeminent botanical garden. The first picture shows the Palm House, which features orchids scattered among its tropical plants. The second picture has the Princess of Wales Conservatory, with two rooms devoted to orchids, and the third highlights one of those rooms, the Tropical Orchid Zone.

The remaining photos show a few of the fascinating orchids on display during our visit. The next six pictures are orchid species. Some are common, like the Chinese Ground Orchid, and others are much more unusual, like the Grammatophyllum. They are just a fraction of Kew’s orchid gems.

We couldn’t find name tags on the orchids in these last three photos, but they’re certainly worthy of inclusion. An antelope-type Dendrobium, and two colorful Vandas, round out this visit to Kew. Check back soon for more.

Kew Gardens is the heart of the botanical world.  It’s one of the oldest, largest, and most important botanical gardens, and it maintains the largest collection of living plants on earth. Kew is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and it’s also one of London’s top tourist attractions. And, of course, it has lots of great orchids. Dave and I visited Kew Gardens at the end of June, and were astonished by all its botanical beauty. I’m just starting to sort through our photos. Here are my first orchid shots from Kew Gardens.

We found lots of orchids in Kew’s remarkable Princess of Wales Conservatory, and a few more in the majestic Palm House. The Princess of Wales Conservatory has zones for both tropical and temperate growers. The blooming orchids feature rare species, including some which Kew has brought back from the brink of extinction.

Dating to 1759, Kew covers 300 acres (121 hectares) with gardens, glasshouses, statues, and historic buildings, including the royal Kew Palace. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew has been at the forefront of plant conservation and research for more than two centuries. It maintains one of the largest botanical libraries, and one of the largest collections of dried plant specimens, in the world. Continuing an effort begun by Charles Darwin to register all plant names, Kew publishes the International Plant Names Index, as well as the Plant List. There’s so much more to this incredible institution — check back soon to see more pictures from Kew.

The orchid world focuses on the southern hemisphere this month, with busy show schedules in Australia, Brazil, New Zealand, and South Africa. There are still shows up north, too, in Louisiana, Iowa, Hawaii, Ontario, and more. San Francisco Bay Area residents, don’t miss Orchids in the Park in Golden Gate Park on July 25th-26th! Enjoy incredible orchids on display and on sale at San Francisco’s smaller annual orchid show.

Read the rest of this post »