The Orchid Show: On Broadway has begun its limited engagement at the Garden, and it’s garnering rave reviews. The spotlight shines bright on The Orchid Show: On Broadway!
The New York Times featured interviews with several Orchid Show staff, including designers Scott Pask and Drew Hodges, and orchid curator Marc Hachadourian.
The definitive magazine for U.S. theatergoers, Playbill, created a slide show to display our botanical divas.
Meanwhile, Broadway World spread the exciting news about Hirschfeld’s Broadway Scrapbook, which tells the story of the Great White Way as seen by its foremost chronicler, Al Hirschfeld.
But don’t just take their word for it! Come see one of New York’s most spectacular flower shows for yourself. What’s more New York than Broadway?
In ancient Greek the word for theatre (theatron) means a place for seeing. As the New York born actress, Stella Adler once said ‘It is the place people come to see the truths about life’. The Orchid Show: On Broadway with the award-winning set designer Scott Pask and image maker Drew Hodges will be celebrating the universal truth that myriad members of the Orchidaceae family are some of the biggest divas in the plant world.
In the 19th century, Covent Garden used to rely on the brilliant white light produced by lime or calcium flares to illuminate their leading ladies hence the expression “in the limelight”. Every year when the long and dreary winter extends endlessly the Garden explodes with light, color and sensual perfumes from the Orchid Show.
Brassia or spider orchids will send shivers up your spine; Oncidium or dancing ladies mimic tiny flamenco dancers dangling from their flowery spikes and their perfume is often enticing. Ondontoglossum will grab you with the barbs on their labellum; mother natures’ way of giving insects something to take hold of when they feed and pollinate. One of my favorites, Zygopetalum will be giving the ensemble a run for their money with their exquisite hyacinth perfume.
Leave the lime flares at home – most of these orchids like bright dappled light similar to the conditions of their native rainforest homes. The Zygopetalum is semi-terrestrial and prefers a slightly damp moisture-retentive mix that is capable of providing good drainage. The rest of the troupe are epiphytic and do best if you saturate them with water (a heavy rain storm) and then let to begin to dry out. Many of the orchids you will find in the show are complex hybrids that are easy to care for.
With the theatrical backdrop, the producers of the show will make sure that they look their best for opening night. These ladies have their routine down and will not disappoint. The Orchid Show will be open on Saturday March 5th (Friday, March 4th for Member’s Only) and runs until Monday, April 25th.
Home Gardening Demonstrations on basic orchid care will be given on Saturdays and Sundays at 2 and 3:30 p.m. There will also be Cabaret performances in the afternoon. Visit our website for full details of events.
Jessica Blohm is Interpretive Specialist for Public Education.
The statue of La Giraldilla you see atop a tower in the Conservatory’s Palms Gallery reflecting pool as you enter The Orchid Show: Cuba in Flower represents one of the most ancient and best-loved symbols of the city of Havana. The statue sits atop one of the oldest stone fortresses in the Americas, Castillo de la Real Fuerza (Castle of the Royal Force), a defensive fort built in 1538 after an attack on Havana by French pirates.
The bronze statue, created by Cuban sculptor Jeronimo Martin Pinzon, was added to the Castle in the early 1630s. The female figure is thought to represent Doña Isabel de Bobadilla, wife of Cuban Governor Hernando de Soto. When Governor de Soto sailed from Havana in 1539 to conquer Florida, he left Doña Isabel to govern in his stead, making her Havana’s only female governor.
Legend has it that from that day on, Doña Isabel spent hours in the highest part of the Castle awaiting her husband’s return. Governor de Soto died four years after his departure from Cuba on the banks of the great river he discovered, the Mississippi. A few days later, Doña Isabel is reported to have died of a broken heart. She is posed forever looking out to sea for her husband’s ship.
Sonia Uyterhoeven is Gardener for Public Education. For hands-on demonstrations and orchid tips, join her in the Conservatory’s GreenSchool every Saturday and Sunday at 2 p.m. throughout The Orchid Show.
In the past two weeks I’ve blogged about making a potting mix for orchids, removing the orchids from their pots, and cleaning up the roots. Now let’s actually repot some Cattleyas.
You might have thought you were in charge of the process, but in reality, the plant ultimately dictates how it is repotted. For example, as Fintan O’Sullivan and I were tackling our orchids to repot, we saw that the foliage on one of the plants was badly puckered, a sign of either overwatering or underwatering. When we removed it from its pot, we discovered that most of its roots had rotted (overwatering).
Let’s See Your Pictures of The Orchid Show and the Outdoors
Saturday marks the first day of spring! Bulbs are popping up all over. Birds are singing their songs in anticipation of mating season. The Orchid Show: Cuba in Flower is in glorious display.
We invite you to visit the Garden with your camera during this marvelous season and during this stunning orchid exhibition. Share your beautiful images on our Flickr site, where dozens of visitors have already done so.
Jessica Blohm is Interpretive Specialist for Public Education.
Orchids are one of the largest genera of flowering plants, with about 30,000 species worldwide. Orchids vary widely in their appearance. Many have stunningly beautiful flowers with stripes and spots, while others are almost ugly with hairs and even warty bumps. What do all these striking flowers have in common?
In describing a plant genus so vast and so diverse, it is almost safe to say that there are no rules. However, botanists generally agree that one feature above all others defines the orchid and differentiates it from virtually all other flowering plants: the fusion of the male portion of the flower (stamen) and female portion (pistil) into one structure called the column—often visible protruding from the center.
Look for these orchid parts on the more than 7,000 orchids in The Orchid Show: Cuba in Flower. (Click on the image to view it larger.)
Sepal—one of the three outer parts of an orchid flower that protects the petals Pollinia—a solid mass of pollen found in the anther Column—the fused sexual organ of an orchid flower Petal—the three petals on an orchid are the true flower; one is modified into a lip Lip (or Labellum)—a specialized petal, unique to orchids Ovary—the part of the flower that develops into the fruit Ovule—a small protuberance in the ovary, capable of forming a seed when fertilized Stigma—the sticky area of the pistil that receives the pollen
Sonia Uyterhoeven is Gardener for Public Education. For hands-on demonstrations and orchid tips, join her in the Conservatory’s GreenSchool every Saturday and Sunday at 2 p.m. throughout The Orchid Show.
Last week I blogged about making just one of the many types of potting mixes for orchids. But more prep work is needed before actual repotting takes place.
My colleague Fintan O’Sullivan (pictured) and I we were repotting orchids in the Nolen Greenhouses for several reasons, among which were length of time since last repotting and because some had outgrown their containers.
Some of the orchids were not very large and certainly were not pot-bound, but when we looked at their labels we discovered that they had not been repotted for several years.
Jessica Blohm is Interpretive Specialist for Public Education.
Christopher Columbus first landed in Cuba in 1492, leading the way to the country’s being settled in 1511 by the Spanish, who quickly discovered how well suited the land was for growing sugarcane. The plant, which is from the South Pacific island of New Guinea and thrives only in tropical areas, had been introduced to the New World by Columbus during his second voyage (1493–96).
European colonial powers established huge slave-based sugar plantations throughout Cuba and the Caribbean. The cane sugar industry became Cuba’s economic mainstay of the 17th and 18th centuries.
But by the 20th century, the popularity of sugarcane gave way to an alternative source of sugar—the sugar beet, which could be grown in Europe and other temperate regions. This new sweetheart crop plant, coupled with the abolition of slavery in 1886, resulted in the closing of numerous sugar mills throughout Cuba and the Caribbean. Ruins dotted these lands, many of which have since been reclaimed by native forest.
The Orchid Show: On Broadway has begun its limited engagement at the Garden, and it’s garnering rave reviews. The spotlight shines bright on The Orchid Show: On Broadway!
In ancient Greek the word for theatre (theatron) means a place for seeing. As the New York born actress, Stella Adler once said ‘It is the place people come to see the truths about life’. 
