Plan Your Weekend: Last Chance to See The Orchid Show

Posted in Exhibitions, People, The Orchid Show on April 10 2009, by Plant Talk

Living Orchid Chandeliers and Wall Dazzle Visitors

Karl Lauby is Vice President for Communications.

Francisca Coelho has outdone herself this time.

The Senior Curator and Associate Vice President for Glasshouses and Exhibitions is principally responsible for the creation, implementation, and management of the exhibitions that have solidified The New York Botanical Garden’s reputation as an international leader in horticultural display.

But she’s taken her work to new heights with the sensationally popular Orchid Show: Brazilian Modern, which takes its final bow this weekend.

While the whole show is her handiwork, in particular she has created a set of four massive hanging baskets of tropical aroids and descending orchids that alone are worth the trip to The Orchid Show. The baskets or chandeliers—each containing a huge philodendron, six smaller philodendrons, six grape ivies, and 120 orchids overflowing and pouring down from high overhead—embody living art with hidden engineering, creative design, and clever construction.

Fran took designer Raymond Jungles’ illustration and executed it brilliantly, using pipes, cables, and four-foot metal baskets that, once arranged with flowers, became six-foot-wide creations. In rummaging through her storeroom, Fran saw just the right-sized tree baskets—baskets usually used for moving big trees in the nursery trade—and traced the manufacturer to McKenzie Nursery Supply in Perry, Ohio. She asked the company to make eight baskets to her design and placed one basket within another and tied them together to make four strong baskets that would hold the weight of the hanging plants. A smaller, 30-inch-wide basket holding the large philodendron was then placed within the large basket on a wire frame placed six inches above the basket bottom. Each large philodendron is flanked by six more philodendrons and six grape ivy vines.

To suspend the whole apparatus, Fran rigged up crossed galvanized pipes in a square formation from which the baskets are suspended. Then the whole planter was lifted—using two lifts, one for the basket and one for the person hanging the basket—and hung from the conservatory ceiling. It took four staff members working in unison to accomplish this.

The outside of the entire large basket was then wrapped in black chicken wire. The basket-within-a-basket design left enough room for Fran’s able gardening colleagues to create the chandelier effect by edging the baskets with two types of orchids, Phalaenopsis and Dendrobium, in the pink-lavender color range and hung upside down, defying gravity, 120 orchids to each basket.

But the chandeliers are only part of the fun.

Fran also built the Orchid Wall. While it looks spontaneous, whimsical, and picturesque, in fact, the wall is meticulously designed and executed with artifice, contrivance, and calculation. The wall, 8 feet tall by 25 feet wide, is covered with 800 orchids, all Phalaenopsis, each hand-tied one by one to create a wall of flowers that mesmerizes visitors. In the center of the wall is a giant staghorn fern, surrounded by the five varieties of Phalaenopsis. Fran herself tied each of the 800 orchids onto the wall and has great stories about how she arrived at that number, tied each one, and managed to keep the entire wall seemingly in subtle motion from top to bottom as well as appearing fresh for the six-week run of the show.

Come see for yourself these magnificent, unique orchid creations in this, the final weekend of The Orchid Show: Brazilian Modern. Meanwhile, take one last chance to vote for your favorite type of orchid in our poll at right. So far, Vandas are in the lead by a large margin.

As we say goodbye to the orchids, we say hello to the Auricula Theater, a display in the Herb Garden of two types of alpine primroses in a presentation based on a centuries-old tradition.

And, of course, it’s spring all over the Garden. Walk around and see what’s in bloom, look for seasonal birds that are arriving and the recently born baby owls, participate in waking up the Family Garden, and more. Click on the daily highlights below.

Check out all of Saturday’s programming

Check out all of Sunday’s programming