Showing posts with label #OrchidsNYBG. Show all posts
Showing posts with label #OrchidsNYBG. Show all posts

Thursday, February 25, 2016

The New York Botanical Garden 2016 Orchid Show Exhibit Orchidelirium celebrates the enduring spell of orchids.



Let’s just stop pretending that anything other than beauty matters when it comes to orchids.... Just like any of us who have ever been hopelessly in love, we all swoon when seeing a truly irresistible romantic. Here, at The New York Botanical Garden's orchid show extravangza, there are rainbows of colors, the (good) fragrances, and the incredibly, intricate forms or shapes of an orchid to capture our hearts desire. Plus there is something so inextricably intimate about the orchid blossoms. They are seductive. They draw you in - not unlike their unwitting pollinators. (More on that later - but according to Marc Hachadourian,  Director of the Nolen Greenhouses and Curator of the Orchid Collection, on a pre-event tour of the Orchid Show,
"Most, if not all of the orchid's pollinators, prefer the flower to the female."  Sexy...

We “lean in” to see and smell and admire these exotic plants. They captivate us like no other plant for any number of reasons. So, I’ll let their elegant beauty tell the story.


I was honored to again have an invitation from New York Botanical Garden (NYBG) - (and disclosure, I once worked at the Garden) to attend the 14th Annual Orchid Show. I remember the initial thinking and strategy behind the Orchid Show exhibit. What a blockbuster the Orchid Show has become. This year all exhibits will be, in some way, an homage to the Garden’s 125th Anniversary.

First up: the beauty. As NYBG noted in their background material: “The 19th-century craze sparked by a single orchid bloom, which came to be known as Orchidelirium, is the inspiration for The New York Botanical Garden’s 14th annual Orchid Show, which opens on February 27 and runs through April 17, 2016. Visitors to the landmark Enid A. Haupt Conservatory will be transported on an epic journey that engages all of the senses and underscores the allure and intrigue of these exquisite beauties.

Thousands of orchids in a stunning array of colors, sizes, shapes, and textures will be showcased, highlighting the far-flung adventures of daring explorers who risked life and limb to secure these captivating and exotic flowers from danger-laden jungles around the world for determined collectors. From its origins in England as a symbol of power, wealth, and opulence, the frenzied fascination with orchids underpins the exhibition, which illustrates their transition from the wild to their display and cultivation as well as the Garden’s important role in their conservation today.

And seeing the displays today and with regard to the background information on the Garden’s impressive work to conserve and preserve orchids, I feel there must have been an interloper of sorts listening to a conversation about the upcoming orchid show on a return train trip from the Garden not that long ago with fellow horticulturists. I was detailing how I wished the Garden could could showcase the orchids they’ve respectfully taken care of all these many years - as part of the their abundant role as a designated Plant Rescue Center. So I was thrilled to read this paragraph from NYBG. Maybe in future years we can all view these rescue orchid plants and learn their stories as told from the “bad” plant hunters. There’s a lesson here for all…

"Orchid exploration today is inextricably tied to conservation efforts to preserve species in the wild. Since 1990, The New York Botanical Garden has been a designated Plant Rescue Center, charged with nurturing and bringing back to health orchids that have been collected illegally in the wild and seized at international borders through the Convention on Illegal Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). NYBG’s orchid experts, Matthew Pace, Assistant Curator of the Herbarium, and Marc Hachadourian, Director of the Nolen Greenhouses and Curator of the Orchid Collection, are at the forefront of modern orchidology and conservation. "  Yeah!!
Marc Hachadourian, Director of the Nolen Greenhouses and Curator of the Orchid Collection

Did you know?  
NYBG will tell you, "Orchids belong to the largest family of flowering plants, with more than 30,000 naturally occurring species. NYBG’s celebrated permanent orchid collection represents all of the floristic regions of the world, including Australia, Africa, South America, and Madagascar, and this exhibition will showcase some unusual and rarely seen gems. Specimens of the spectacular Psychopsis papilio, which inspired the Duke of Devonshire’s obsession with orchids that contributed to Orchidelirium in London, will be on view along with Paphiopedilum sanderianum, named for nurseryman Frederick Sander, the self-proclaimed “Orchid King,” renowned for the remarkable length of its petals."

Aesthetic delights in the Haupt Conservatory begin in the Palms of the World Gallery’s Reflecting Pool, which will be festooned with a plethora of bold orchids in pots and delicate orchids perched in trees. Proceeding through the exhibition, visitors will be treated to displays of thousands orchids as they grow in the wild, in much the same way the Victorian-era explorers first encountered them in their travels through tropical habitats around the world— cascading from branches, nestled in crevices, reaching up from under rain forest trees. To create this irresistible world of fragrance and color, NYBG horticulturists assemble thousands of flowers from the Garden’s research collections as well as the finest growers across the country. From the rare and oldest to the unusual and iconic, orchids of seemingly every conceivable color, shape, and provenance will be on display.

Moving on through the Conservatory galleries, you’ll learn about the transition of orchids from growing in the wild to cultivation in the greenhouse. The trendsetting Duke of Devonshire began collecting orchids in 1833 at his Chatsworth House estate. His head gardener, Joseph Paxton, revolutionized the way orchids were cultivated in England by innovating larger and more effective glasshouses, beginning with the Great Conservatory there and culminating in his masterpiece, the Crystal Palace of Prince Albert’s Great Exhibition in London in 1851.


A series of vignettes will evoke the dazzling glasshouse displays that the Duke and other obsessed collectors went to great lengths to create with their newly acquired prized specimens brought back by hired hunters, who often endured shipwrecks, animal attacks, and even fatal competition among other hunters.

Antiqued, staged potting benches with specimen orchids of strange and rare species will be featured. Hanging pots, baskets, and Victorian walls containing a diverse selection of orchids from around the world combine formal features with less formal plantings to achieve a lush and enveloping glasshouse environment. A small stone patio will accommodate a stunning Wardian Cases (an early type of protective terrarium for plants that was used as a method of transporting and displaying the orchids) housing a selection of miniature orchids.


Also highlighted throughout the exhibition will be fellow British horticulturists and collectors such as James Bateman, whose beautifully illustrated manuscripts contained detailed renderings of orchids and vignettes depicting New World Spanish colonies. Oakes Ames, the great American botanist and NYBG Patron, traveled the globe with his wife, Blanche, who illustrated their finds. Ames donated his important collection to NYBG in 1906, and several rare plants will be on display.

The Orchid Show: Orchidelirium is designed by Christian Primeau, who oversees the extensive tropical/subtropical plant collections housed in 11 unique environments in the Conservatory. Marc Hachadourian curates the exhibition’s orchid selection and NYBG’s extensive groupings of living plants from around the world housed in the Nolen Greenhouses, the behind-the- scenes glasshouses where plants for the Garden’s indoor and outdoor displays and science program are grown and maintained.

Don't miss this enchanting orchid display.  In the meantime, enjoy this magical orchid hillock display in the video I shot at the preview:


Event Details:
The Orchid Show: Orchidelirium will be on display as NYBG marks its 125th Anniversary from February 27 to March 17th.
Plus: 

§ Orchid Evenings on Saturdays (March 5, 12, 19, 26, April 2, 9,16), Friday (April 15), and Thursday (March 24, LGBT night) bring a nighttime cocktail experience to The Orchid Show: Orchidelirium.

One of New York City’s most romantic date night activities, Orchid Evenings start at 6:30 pm and include a complimentary cocktail. On select evenings, visitors can also upgrade to V.I.P. status and enjoy an Orchid Lounge.

Non-Member $35/Member $25 (Adults 21 and over) Advance tickets recommended.

§ In partnership with the Poetry Society of America, Poetry for Every Season: Ada Limon features poems in the landscape celebrating spring, flowers, and beauty.

§ World Beat: Music and Dance Around the World of Orchids brings live performances from cultures around the world on Saturdays and Sundays throughout the exhibition.

§ On weekends during the exhibition, orchid care demonstrations with topics such as “Easy Orchid Care,” “Fantastically Fragrant Orchids,” and “Orchid Tips for Amateurs” show visitors how to care for their own orchids.

§ Cell phone/Mobile or Smart Phone tour stops at NYBG Shop will be available to provide answers to frequently asked orchid questions and allow visitors to dial up care tips on watering and feeding, reblooming, and repotting for several specific types of orchids. Thousands of top-quality orchids, from exotic, hard-to-find specimens for connoisseurs to elegant yet easy-to-grow varieties for beginners, are available for purchase at NYBG Shop, along with orchid products and books.

Saturday, March 28, 2015

From Healing Nature to Kimonos to Orchid Cocktails, Flora infuses Gotham (in spite of Spring in "holding pattern)

Potting Up:  Connecting to Nature is healthy. Photo: Brian Peterson; courtesy of Healing Gardens
 
Healing Nature, a compelling symposium produced by The Horticultural Society of New York, revealed  (to the initiated) that Nature is restorative – contact with nature, especially plants, promotes human health and well-being, reduces stress.
Keynotes speaker, Naomi Sachs, ASLA, EDAC, Master of Landscape Architecture, Healing Landscapes is a Sherpa – helping lead others to practice Horticultural Therapy which uses plants, gardens and other aspects of nature to improve people’s health and well-being.
Healing spaces matter. Sachs presented a series of research-based evidence to show how Hort Therapy not only reduces the impact of stress, but also improves cognition, productivity, creativity, immune function, satisfaction, and more. 


“The sense of being in a good place is powerful and energizing -- offering high-energy, highly-innovative environments,” according to Therapeutic Landscapes.


Did you ever hear of “forest bathing?”  Forest bathing, is a Japanese practice Shinrin Yoku, to describe getting out and walking in nature. “Green exercise offers a reduction in stress and produces NK or “killer cells,” noted Sachs.  She described how the trees emit wood essential oils as a way of warding off “intruders” (mainly for insects but hey – this plant adaptation benefits humans so all good).  
Forest Bathing
Essentially, the wood oils or phytoncides are antimicrobial compounds derived from the trees, that studies show, raise the level of white blood cells that are the NK, natural killer cells.  They white blood cells can last a week in women exposed to phytoncides forest air, according to a Earth Day Year of the Forest Therapeutic Landscape Network blog post  

Just too much snowy weather forecasts this weekend?  Then head to the Orchid Evenings at the New York Botanical Garden  Forest Walk this evening through the heady, oxygenated Enid A. Haupt Conservatory and luxuriate in the thousands of intoxicating flowers.  And if it couldn’t get any better than boosting your white blood cells, there’s music and specialty cocktails inspired by Guerlain’s Orchidée Impériale line to really get one’s blood pulsing!  

And finally, a rare exhibit of antique kimonos is on display this weekend only, at Stephen Globus' Globus Washitsu, KeiSui-an located in an ethereally beautiful Japanese world (in the Penthouse at 889 Broadway) as the curators prepped for the evening’s VIP event. 
Sensory delight: Stunning Antique Obi, rare fragrance, & Kokedama  (created by EunYoung)

This Examiner received a sneak preview of the weekend show by Osami Kitazono, Founder and COO of Japanese Culture Style and EunYoung Sebazco. 
Osami Kitazono, Japanese Culture Style
Think of the show as a Hanami – “flower viewing” experience. The kimonos, table runners or “obi” – and slippers are fairly dripping with flower blossoms, especially the Japanese royal flower: kiku – or the chrysanthemum.  Thought this was just a throw-away, fall mum?  Think again.  The Japanese Imperial Seal – as featured on every citizen’s passport and is the coat of arms for the Imperial family, and their “Chrysanthemum Throne.”  


I first experienced the wonder of Globus Chashitsu and https://www.facebook.com/TeaWhisk last year during a magical and mysterious demonstration of a Japanese Tea Ceremony and wrote about it for my Examiner Food & Drink column. 

The Power of Design, Antique Kimono Meets Interior Décor for your Home is a weekend only exhibit  – produced by Rinko Kimino and Tea-Whisk’s Souheki-san.
The exquisite kimonos are hung gracefully on the tatami covered walls.  Peaceful sounds of water add to the otherworldly effect.  
Wedding kimono
Together, they shared the history of this exhibit.  
During the Edo period Japan was closed to the outside world and had developed a unique culture of its own, however, since the first black ship arrival in 1853, Japan has adopted Western culture.  This can be seen especially in the fashion of the 1920s, influenced by the art deco design and the flapper’s fashion the Japanese women developed the Modern Girl – or MOGA Style.  Even though more people started to wear Western style clothes, the conventional kimono also changed during this time – becoming more dynamic and gorgeous.  The exhibition introduces the original designs of kimonos made during the 1920s to the 1950s.  The kimonos selected comes from a personal collector who has possessed them for many years and includes the highest quality antique kimonos of Meisen silk cloth with the Kinsha Chirimem of vibrant colors.  

All the art is available for sale.  (From $300 to $800 to "Ask" the price.)  












Child's kimono! 







EunYoung, ® with curator Rinko and Garden-State ceramicist

The very beautiful & talented EunYoung shows off the collection of Antique Kimonos at Globus Washitshu



I got the adorable Japanese slippers – great for yoga – (and are available for a more modest, $30.)  The slippers are explosion of happy blossoms. 



Happy spring.









Saturday, February 28, 2015

Look Up - Living Chandeliers Dazzle & Bejewel The New York Botanical Garden’s Orchid Show Opens February 28th




There is no getting away from it – the juxtaposition of two worlds colliding makes a special magic.  And so it was at the New York Botanical Garden’s Thursday press preview for the spectacular 2015 Orchid Show.  Snowflakes pirouetted outside – just beyond the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory’s windows. 
Inside the tropical, exotic, mysterious world of plants smiled their hothouse.











It is the 13th annual NYBG Orchids Show – and this is the Super Bowl of plant exhibitions.  It is easy to see why this show is a much-anticipated favorite  -- Attendance is expected to top the 150,000 visitors who came last year. Orchids are eye candy. Their brilliant colors are better than opening your own box of new Crayola’s.  
Plus orchids seem to beckon us in ways that are unlike other plants.  Perhaps its because orchids seem to have faces – their eyes and smiles seductively peering at the legions of admirers. 





This year’s Orchid Show theme is Living Chandeliers. It’s a brilliant choice of design inspiration.  


Made all the more so by the fact that this year’s show is curated not by an outside designer but for the first time by none other than the Garden’s very own Fran Coelho, Vice President for Glasshouses and Exhibitions.  
Fran Coelho, Living Chandelier Designer & NYBG VP


A graduate from the Garden’s School of Professional Horticulture, Coelho “was deeply involved in the major restoration” of the landmarked Enid A. Haupt Conservatory and its Living Collections.  
Fran Coelho & her Living Chandelier orchid design 

Why‘d they wait so long? 
Fran’s intimate relationship with the glasshouses reveals her unprecedented talent of the “greenhouse-as-palette.”  Her ability to create such a unique atmosphere in the crystal palace will make fine art curators pea-green with envy.  She knows where the light peeks in here or where the shadows cast a bit of drama there.   These subtle, garden art design elements all add up to a magical rare experience.

Entering the Haupt Conservatory is like stepping through the Alice in Wonderland looking glass.  The black pool of water is high drama in any show or display – but seeing the orchid orbs floating in the glistening, black pool of water beneath the 90-foot soaring cathedral-like ceiling, attended by soaring palm trees, is stunning. 

Talk about a Pinterest/Facebook/Instagram/Twitter moment! 
Free up the Cloud; bring a camera or two– you’ll want to share these images on all your social media “plantforms” – er platforms.
Utter “Eye Candy” hedonism. The world slips away and you are in a suspended state of awe.
You will have to tear yourself away.

But then, the doors to the main show open up like a portal to a Technicolor Never, Never Land.  You can’t help but blink back in astonishment and feel a heart-stopping moment.   What glamour.  What romance…
This is better than the any walk on a “Yellow Brick Road!” 
The plant compositions here on either side of the walk are studded with a variety of tropical companions including bromeliads, ferns, colecasia, palms, and ficus.

On each side are artful, hanging garden pendants, dripping with jewel-like, sexy orchids that wink at you with that come-hither look.  The Living Chandeliers here are suspended over pools of water, reflecting their glamorous beauty in a mirror image that even Dorian Gray would be jealous of.






You can’t help but notice there are orchids – everywhere!  Like stars in the heavens, there are exuberant displays of Phalaenopsis, Cattleya, Cymbidium, Oncidium and Epiphytes.
Yes, you are reminded to “Look Up” to capture the flower constellations.  And be sure to “Look In” – up inside the chandeliers.  It’s seeing plants from an entirely new, intimate, and exciting perspective.   
View Looking Up inside the Chandelier

At the same time, the Orchids have been accessorized with the tropical plants that provide form, structure, frilly greens, languid Spanish Moss, and regal tropicals.    

One of my favorite looks were the “Tree Warmers.”  This was my on-the-spot moniker for the small Moth Orchids: Phalaenopsis hybrids and Dendrobiums that Fran and her team have artfully wrapped on the Ficus trees standing happy sentinels on either side of the long axis walkway leading to the center, 45 -foot dome of the Conservatory.
Before I get to this show-stopper of the Living Chandeliers, I have to share the wonderful story Fran told me about those ficus.  They once belong to Enid Haupt – and she sent them along to the Botanical Garden with her collections.
Sweet.

While it’s true that every great garden tells a story; it’s also seems it’s true that every great seasonal exhibition has a backstory. 
Fran shared how the Living Chandeliers theme came about. 
While on a plant trip to Florida with NYBG’s president, Gregory Long, he noted the hanging Staghorn Ferns; Fran observed epiphyte hanging baskets nearby and it got her to thinking … Epiphytes grow on trees – many orchids are canopy-dwelling - so there’s that vertical look – and just like that – a show-stopping star design was conceived. 
Visitors can look up – to enjoy the orchid art from an entirely new perspective.

“The space for the show is the same every year, but we look to make the conceptualization of the display different each year,” Fran explained.  And speaking of space – this year’s Orchid Show was designed so that there is more open areas, allowing for better vistas – and accommodations for the robust visitors who come from all over the world to view this stunning orchid display.
I especially liked the diminutive bromeliads that adorn the moldings on both sides of the dome-area’s gateway.  Inspired garden glamour for home design, too. 
The plants are mounted and then attached with wire; covered with Spanish Moss.  Green moss would work too.

Fran noted it takes a about a year to bring the show from concept to putting the plants in place for the Orchid Show.  Which was what was happening Thursday as the press preview was trying to take it all in.

So back to that genormously huge central Chandelier in the center of the show.  In true “Hort-Art” fashion, I can’t take my eyes off this glamorous globe. 
I dream it could be a floral fairy from the planet Avatar where plants rule.
The Living Chandelier here is framed on the ground by two crescent pools on either side where the mirrored chandelier images radiate the orchids’ beauty. 
The water element is like breaking the third wall of a design dimension. 
The lighting effect that Fran so skillfully employs is yet another design dimension.

The size of this garden pendant is unprecedented: it’s three tiers – the top tier is 11 feet around  -- “And with the orchid flowers reaching out – it’s really more like 15 feet wide,“ noted Coelho.  The middle tier is nine feet and the bottom tier is seven feet around.

How did she come up with the royal chandelier color and design, I asked Fran.  And how did she choose the more than 500 white, yellow and puffs of pink/purple Phalaenopsis and Oncidiums, accessorized with lush ferns and moss that adorn the Living Chandelier? 
In a curious twist (no pun intended) Fran tells me she was inspired by the show graphic she produced for the marketing and advertising campaign.
She took me to see the poster and pointed out how she arranged the hanging basket for Dana Meilijson to photograph. 
When I pointed out that the graphic usually follows the real-life art, she smiled.  After all, she created both the hanging basket ready for its close-up and the Living Chandelier now ready for its starring role.
Fran finds the yellow, white and pinkish orchids in the chandelier, “Calming.”

There are more than 100 chandeliers, orbs, and hanging baskets, featured in the show! 
I asked Fran how many orchids are in the show.  “Approximately 4,500 and with the 2,500 orchids that will be used to replenish and refresh the show orchids, the total will be about 7,000 orchids by the time the show ends,” (April 17th)

Where do all the orchids come from?  I couldn’t help but think the NYBG Orchid Show must be a bonanza for orchid growers across the country.  Indeed.  According to Fran, while the Garden has a world-class orchid collection – managed and supervised by the Garden’s “resident orchid expert, Marc Hachadourian, Director of the Nolen Greenhouses for Living Collection, most of the orchids originate in California, Hawaii, and Florida. 
Hachadourian is the go-to orchid expert for garden notables across the country, including Martha Stewart who frequently hosts Marc on her television show and in her print media. 
At the show’s conclusion, some of the orchids will be selected to help build the Garden’s Collection.  Other orchids are donated to area hospitals, schools, and nursing homes.  How lucky are they?

Hachadourian noted, “Orchids are a charismatic group of plants – they draw visitors.” Almost like no other plant, I will add.  It’s that “eye candy” allure.  
He says that for the Garden this is an ideal “teaching moment” to demonstrate the Garden’s mission of Research, Education, and Display   “Here we can help teach the appreciation of beauty – visitors will not only see the diversity of the orchid world but also learn about the companion plants featured in the displays,” he said pointing out the red-hot bromeliads, for example.
The Garden has strategically placed Orchid Care signage throughout the show’s display too – in order to help us visitors understand about the living plant art.
I asked about the Darwin Orchid (Angraecum sesquipedale) - he told me they will bring out this very rare specimen for the show.  Don’t miss this conversation piece and star of its own horticultural historical adventure tale.
Marc added that Fran’s design for the Living Chandelier show this year demonstrates her perspective, her amazing eye for color -- and her passion. 

How will the gorgeous plants keep their “cover girl” looks?  Fran explained they water the plants very carefully! “It’s a challenge,” she said.  “Each plant may be in a different planting medium, different sized pot, with differing watering needs.”  This year there lots and lots of miniature orchids too (Good things come in small packages.)
For the giant Living Chandeliers, the Garden staff mounts a 10-foot ladder and a sprinkler with a special nozzle to get the precious water to the orchids’ roots.

Orchids are Romantic

Do not miss this show.  Go for the gorgeous, inspired orchid garden display designs. 
For the first time, the show runs throughout the Conservatory – so there’s more to see – plus walking through the show adds that jolt of oxygen we all need - especially in this “frozen” winter of extreme cold.  
The Living Chandelier Orchid Show is for everyone.  Kids will love it too.

And it’s so romantic – Orchid Evenings are perfect for a special date. Swoon with your lover(s) amid the magic and mystery of the Conservatory, stir in a few cocktails “inspired by Guerlain’s Orchidée Impériele line” -- or Champagne on select nights -- sprinkle in the sounds of live music, and even the orchids will be dancing and whispering sweet love songs for you and your sweetie.

There’s a smart-phone tour for the show, along with a companion guide you can use while shopping to learn more about orchid care.   The Shop in the Garden offers a variety of rare and easy-to-grow orchids.

Before you go:
Try to purchase your tickets ahead of time.  The show is understandably well attended so waiting in line shouldn’t be part of the plan. 
You can become a member and dispense with waiting on line! 
Here to all things Living Chandeliers Orchid Show 2015 – from transportation to hours to about.

A Few Facts about Orchids from NYBG:

Orchids represent the height of evolutionary success in the plant kingdom. With more than 30,000 naturally occurring species, they are the largest family of flowering plants.  Orchids are adaptable, diverse, and grow in almost every habitat – from semi-desert to Arctic tundra – on every continent except Antarctica.  They come in a dazzling range of sizes, from miniatures with tiny flowers less than 1/16 of an inch in diameter to giants more than 25 feet tall with flower spikes up to 10 feet long.  Orchids also come in an amazing array of colors and shapes. 
Some mimic bees, wasps, butterflies, and moths.  They are the entertainers and performers of the plant world.