Orchids in Winter by Kim Bridges

Orchids in Winter A highlight of botanical history frozen in time

Kim Bridges & Nancy Furumoto

2018 © K. W. Bridges www.kimbridges.com issuu.com/kimbridges/docs

We went to New York City for a short weekend. The New York Botanical Garden Orchid Show was on our short list of places to visit. This is the story of the two hours that we spent in the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory enjoying the annual orchid extravaganza on March 3, 2018, the day the show opened. We took a lot of photos. Creating this photo essay provoked a number of questions. The text accompanying the pictures attempts to answer some of those questions. Note the style of the images in this essay. The details have been removed. What remains is a simplified version of reality. This is an abstract representation. Colors are “painted” with a broader brush. You’re forced to see the overall pattern rather than to search for tiny features. This matches how you see the exhibition. You don’t have time to dwell on details. The crowd, and your schedule, move you along from one plant to the next. We want to acknowledge the assistance of Cindy Howland-Hodson. Her sharp eyes and language skills helped the text in many ways.

Contents

Going to a Botanical Garden. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Creating a Botanical Garden. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Searching for New Plants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Controlling the Climate in a Botanical Garden. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Establishing the New York Botanical Garden . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Attending the Orchid Show. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Creating Art with Orchids. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Thinking About Orchids. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Considering the Future of Orchids. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 Finishing the Orchid Show. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65 Viewing the Notes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71

Going to a Botanical Garden

It’s a cold March day in New York City. The temperature is just above freezing. We’re dressed to keep warm. The train ride begins close to our hotel at Grand Central Station. The Metro North Harlem Line trip is less than half an hour as we head out of the urban center to the suburban areas in the north. We get off the train at the Botanical Garden Station. That’s an appropriate name for our destination. Where are we going? We’re heading to the New York Botanical Garden to see orchids. It’s an easy, short-block walk to the Garden’s entrance. We planned this trip quite carefully. This is the opening day of an important annual event at the Garden. We ordered tickets online, just to make sure that we can get in. Our entrance tickets are in hand. No need to wait in line. That’s a relief. Stepping inside the Garden gates takes us far away from the surrounding urban environment. Very far away. Botanical gardens are relics of the past. We’ve just entered a kind of time machine. How did people justify setting aside hundreds of acres of land for such a purpose? It isn’t something that we do today. Now, we create parks with lots of open space. Make botanical gardens? Not often. What’s so different now?

The New York Botanical Garden is a sea of green, flanked by Bronx Zoo (bottom) and the northern part of Bronx Park (top).

Creating a Botanical Garden

Botanical gardens have a rich history of serving the public. The first botanical gardens were preserves that housed medicinal plants. It was here that the doctors of the time learned to identify species and associate them with treatments. These were the “physic” gardens that spread across Europe. Classic Greek civilization made use of plants as medicines. But gardens made this knowledge more practical. It was in cities like Pisa, Padova, Firenze, and Bologna that the garden concentrated the plants and gave the practitioner easy access to useful species. The Sixteenth Century saw the rapid increase in our knowledge of plant diversity. New species were being found. Each discovery brought the potential of a cure for an ailment. This positive impact brought a problem. How do you organize the new knowledge? Ships returning from the New World sped up the discovery of new plant species. Wondrous species like vanilla, chocolate, and tobacco created new pleasures for European society. New food crops were important; perhaps the most valuable introductions were corn, potatoes, and tomatoes. Establishing trading companies was part of the colonization of far-flung lands. “Send back plants” was a standard order to the overseas agents. Where would these collections end up? Many headed straight to botanical gardens. Colonial lands held some local species in new botanical gardens. This was important for species not able to grow “back home.” These outpost facilities were in places like the Mauritius (France), Calcutta (Great Britain), and Tenerife (Spain). New gardens were created in other centers of learning. Oxford and Paris established their botanical gardens in the early 1700s. Plant collectors increased the flow of new species as they traveled to distant places in search of undiscovered species. Gardens expanded into areas with major populations like London (Kew) and Madrid in the last half of the 18th Century. The importation of plants expanded the garden’s role. A garden wasn’t just a place for medicinal information. These sites became places to acclimate the imported species. Most of Europe is in the temperate ecological zone. Imported species were often from the tropics. Adapting the new species to the annual temperature changes is a challenge. Developing an economically important species became a strong incentive. Unexplored lands could hold valuable, undiscovered species. 5

Example Gardens Transported Landscapes

Compressed & Organized Landscapes

Ancient times

Pisa Padova Firenze Oxford Bologna Paris 1500

1600

Medicine & Plant ID

New

The evolving role of botanical gardens and the development of buildings whi 6

Mauritius Madrid NYC (Elgin) Kew US Bot Calcutta Missouri Tenerife NYC (NYBG) 1700

1800

1900

2000

w Crop Plants

popular

Pleasure Conservation Orangery Conservatory Greenhouse

ich can hold plant species in unusual environments. 7

Institutional gardens are tied to national interests. Individuals, can participate in the importation, too. Some wealthy people built and maintained their own collections. Perhaps there was an element of competition or pride. A knowledge of natural history, and botany in particular, was a sign of an educated individual. For the wealthy, creating a natural history collection was a sign of accomplishment. Problems remained for the exploitation process. How do you organize the organize the collections? What is the best system for naming species? These are critical questions. Authorities issue specific instructions that guide the collectors. The proper identification of specimens is part of the process of shipping specimens back to the patrons. It helps to have a simple system. One thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s easy to learn and use. Carl von LinnĂŠ (Linnaeus) had the answer. He used two-words for names and obvious floral characteristics for identification. In 1753, Linnaeus published the book that guides both collecting and organizing.

Sir Joseph Banks

Searching for New Plants

Many expeditions sailed to foreign lands. An example is James Cook’s search for the elusive “Southern Continent.” This voyage, which started in 1769, had the botanist Joseph Banks on board. After observing the Transit of Venus in Tahiti, the expedition searched the southern oceans. They found the lands we now call “New Zealand” and “Australia.” They discovered lots of new plants. Charles Darwin went on one of these voyages of exploration. His ship, the Beagle, explored the world from 1831 to 1836. This was a broad-based effort to learn about the geology, ethnology, and natural history of new places. Darwin wrote a detailed log of his travels. This isn’t unusual; field naturalists document their travels. Darwin gained valuable insights during the trip and through the study of his collections. He published his paradigm-changing book in 1859. There was little concern for species extinction before Darwin revealed the process of evolution. With Darwin’s insights, extinction became important, though not at first. The idea spread slowly.

The route of Cook’s five-year voyage. Explorers went ashore in many places to search in the inland areas. 9

ChĂ˘teau de Versailles orangerie

Controlling the Climate in a Botanical Garden

Expansion of the capabilities of botanical gardens was about to happen. The current gardens held the flora that grows in the local area. This was but a small portion of the world’s flora. The problem: how do you grow subtropical and tropical species in a temperate climate? We need to step back to around the 16th Century. Citrus (orange, lemon, lime) were popular in Southern Europe. The demand for citrus spread north. But cold winters prohibited growing citrus trees. There were several technological solutions. Covering the plants with a temporary shed was one form of protection. A popular alternative: build an indoor shelter, called an “orangery.” A simple design. Attach the building to a wall on one side and fill the other (which faces south) with glass windows. Keep the trees in containers. Move everything into the orangery for the cold half of the year. Temperature regulation was critical, so a fire provides the heat. Open the windows for ventilation. Running an orangery was labor-intensive. Nonetheless, many wealthy people created these protective structures. The building held other species needing a moderated climate. An orangery was helpful, but it’s not a complete solution to the problem. Big glass windows. That was the start of what would be needed for a modern greenhouse. Materials for small greenhouses were available in the early 1700s. These were better than an orangery. Locating a greenhouse in a public area was a problem of a different scale. Enclosing a large, public space? With glass? That required addtional technology.

Jump to 1851: The Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations. This was the first World’s Fair. The centerpiece of the Great Exhibition was the Crystal Palace. It was a true wonder. The building was huge; with almost one million square feet under cover. That’s three times larger than St. Paul’s Cathedral. This amazing building used glass to cover the exterior surfaces. Light streamed in. It didn’t need interior lights. Credit the Palace’s designer, Joseph Paxton. What was Paxton’s regular job? He was the head gardener at Chatsworth, one of England’s finest landscaped gardens. Several technological developments were on display in the Crystal Palace’s architecture. Cast iron is a compressive-strength material and a replacement for stone and brick. Production refinements of cast iron allowed construction with a thin supporting structure. New methods of manufacturing produced large sheets (49 x 10 inch) of high-quality plate glass. The Crystal Palace was the site of The Great Exhibition from May to October. This glass building was a potential heat trap. Movable shades, louver windows, and ventilation through the floorboards solved the excess-heat problem.

An artist’s depiction of the Crystal Palace in 1851. 12

The Crystal Palace showed that you can create a huge structure that lets in ample light. This sounded like the solution to a big part of the problem. It might be possible to grow full-sized tropical plants in such a building. The remaining problem? Winter heating. The heating systems used in orangeries were insufficient (both in the need for fuel and manpower) to handle the huge interior spaces envisioned for a large tropical greenhouse. Steam heating systems came along just in time. Boilers, fueled by coke (a high-quality fuel created from coal), provide an efficient and cleaner way to heat large buildings. Three modern technologies (plate glass, cast iron, and steam heat) combine to create a large public building. Botanists could now transport a tropical flora to a temperate region. This is the Victorian-era conservatory. The Royal Botanical Garden at Kew (called Kew Gardens or Kew) soon added several conservatories. Palm House came first (1844-1848) and Temperate House soon thereafter (1859). Temperate House is the largest remaining Victorian-era conservatory. The renovations of this historic building were completed in 2018. The cost: about $59 million. This is a sign that the British treasure this botanical garden centerpiece.

Temperate House at Kew Gardens. 13

Conservatories are impressive. Their function is also important. Displaying of tropical plants in winter is a great attraction. People flock to see floral beauty amidst the lush vegetation. Botanical gardens were once places of medicine and commerce (acclimate new species). Conservatories help the gardens become public venues for pleasure. A conservatory allows a garden to operate through four seasons. Most conservatories control the internal environment, so they can showcase plants from many parts of the world. Consider the impact of such a building in the days before movies, TV, and color printing. Seeing objects from nature that could scarcely be imagined must have had a powerful affect.

Palm House at Kew Gardens. 14

The Royal Botanical Garden at Kew is recognized as a world-leading botanical institution. This almost didn’t happen. Large gardens and their buildings require maintenance. Kew went through a very difficult period after the death of garden’s director, Sir Joseph Banks, and King George III (Kew’s patron) in 1820. Without proper support, the greenhouses became overcrowded with plants and the buildings showed neglect. Gardens had no particular order and specimens had no names. The situation became dire. A committee was formed in 1837 to determine whether the garden should be part of the Royal Household, a public garden, or a scientific resource. John Lindley produced the committee report. Science prevailed. The recommendation was to make Kew the nation’s center for botanical research. It took a few years for the transformation to begin.

John Lindley. 15

Establishing the New York Botanical Garden

Many botanical gardens started as the large estate of a wealthy patron. Such is the case for NYBG; New York City acquired 250 acres of the former Lorillard estate. Curators transformed this site by planting over a million species. This was more than a vegetation transformation. Visitors, more than a million a year, now stream into the grounds that were once the private preserve of a wealthy family. It was the visit of two botanists to Kew Gardens in 1888 that began what we see in New York Botanical Garden today. They were Nathaniel Lord Britton and his wife, Elizabeth. The London visit inspired a mission: build a world-class botanical garden in New York City. Accomplishing this goal took the efforts of many influential people. The 1891 establishment of the New York Botanical Garden was the reward of all this hard work. The Garden became a reality. Now it needed a centerpiece. What the Brittons had seen at Kew was the answer. A large, Victorian-era conservatory. Construction of the conservatory began in 1899 and work lasted until 1902.

Nathaniel and Elizabeth Britton, botanists. 17

Classic Victorian-era conservatories were not perfect. The original design is not strong enough. The disrepair of the NYBG conservatory became all too obvious in the 1970s, a decision needed to be made whether the building should be saved or demolished. Rebuilding old structures comes with a big price tag. You can save money by simplification. Several early renovations of the NYBG conservatory changed the ornamentation. Those werenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t good decisions. The external decoration of the pavilions is an integral part of the original design. The most recent renovation, completed in 1997, returned the building to its original design. The conservatory now appears the same as the original building. The structure also incorporates a modern environmental-support system while maintaining the original appearance.

The Enid A. Haupt Conservatory at the New York Botanical Garden. 18

One person is credited with saving the conservatory. Enid Annenberg Haupt saw some orchids at a friend’s house when she was a young girl. Orchids became one of her life passions. She provided the major grant for the conservatory’s renovation and future maintenance. This was a “building saving” contribution. The garden recognizes her role by calling this the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory. Note the connection; a love of orchids is behind the saving of a rare building. There are few remaining large Victorian-era conservatories. The hot, wet, tropical conditions that emulate a tropical climate take their toll on the structure. The wooden support beams rot. Ironwork rusts. Joints loosen. Windows fail. It’s remarkable that this elegant specimen survives. Today, it serves as a reminder of the great technological achievements of the Industrial Revolution.

Attending the Orchid Show

The Haupt Conservatory hosts several major exhibitions each year. This year’s Orchid Show is the sixteenth annual presentation on this theme. We enter the Conservatory on opening day, March 3rd. Outdoors, it’s very cold. Orchids could not survive these cold conditions. Inside, it’s warm. And humid. We’re excited to see the orchids. The sign outside, one of the few colorful items in a nearly monochromatic landscape, said we were at the correct place. The step inside confirmed this. We’re confronted by orchids basking in the heat and humidity. There are lots of orchids. First, we should orient ourselves inside of the conservatory. The overall plan is a “C” shape and comprises eleven pavilions. Entry is through Palm House, the central 90-foot-tall gallery. The entrance pavilion is the largest. Many pavilions are like long rooms; these connect with medium-sized corner pavilions. Controls create different climate zones within the pavilions. The result is collections representing lush tropical rain forests, cactus-filled deserts, and specialty groups such as palms, carnivorous plants, and orchids. A permanent collection fills each pavilion from floor to ceiling. Many of these are large, well-established plants. Other plants carpet walls. Look up; you’ll see plants that hang from building supports. The result is that you walk around the 512-foot circuit surrounded by plants, large and small. These plants often form a green tunnel.

The Palm House (1) serves as the entrance pavilion. You exit through the Lowland Tropical Rain Forest pavilions (2 & 3). The theme of the next connecting pavilion (4) is Aquatic Plants and Vines. The Upland Tropical Rain Forest fills the next two pavilions (5 & 6). A connector tunnel takes you to the Deserts of the Americas (7) and Deserts of Africa (8) pavilions. You find seasonal exhibitions in the remaining connector (9 & 11) and corner (10) pavilions. The Orchid Show has two large centerpieces. One is in pavilion 1, the Palm House. The other is in corner pavilion 10. The other pavilions have smaller displays. Letâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s return our focus to the start. Whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s inside the Palm House?

8 9

Entrance General layout of the pavilions of the NYBG Enid A. Haupt Conservatory. Blue areas are water features. There is a tunnel between pavilions 6 and 7. 22

Creating Art with Orchids

Daniel Ost is a Belgian Floral Artist. He calls himself a “bloembinder,” the Dutch term for an artist who works with flowers. Ost attributes his style to his experience in Japan. He has adopted the philosophy of ikebana. This Japanese style of flower arranging values “imperfection, asymmetry and impermanence.” Ost calls the first large installation the “Cascade of Orchids.” Physical support comes from a maze of large plastic tubes. The tubes carry light through the structure while holding the orchids, much as tree limbs and vines support epiphytic species. The tube structure forms a dome-shaped canopy. Many types of orchids punctuate Cascade’s canopy. The dominant color is purple. The profusion of this color holds our attention. Orchids come in many colors. Why does purple dominate here? Perhaps the flowers were selected because name-color associations include orchids. The named color, orchid, comes from the purple part of the spectrum. Defined in RBG color space, the color we refer to as orchid has the values (218, 112, 214). This is a popular color. Radiant Orchid, a slightly darker version (181,101,167), was the Pantone Color of the Year in 2014. It is a nice touch. The display of orchids starts with the familiar. Cascade of Orchids is a huge feature. It dominates the pavilion. Tall palm trees disappear into the background. You’re scarcely aware of their presence. Cascade is bright and airy. The extravagance of orchids is a delight.

Orchid

Radiant Orchid

Daniel Ost, the 2018 Orchid Show designer. 25

Linnaeus 28

Thinking About Orchids

Why do orchids capture us? Let’s consider the orchids. This will help us understand why we are here looking at orchids, why orchids are the focus of a major annual event at NYBG, and — perhaps — hint at something that might bring leading-edge technology back to the conservatory. We’ll start with the name. Remember Linnaeus? He’s the guy that devised a system that combines simple names and an easy tool for identification. The technical history of the name begins with an orchid species that Linnaeus described, Orchis militaris. This orchid is found across Europe. The name “orchis” comes from a characteristic common to members of this genus. It isn’t a flower characteristic. You’ve got to look below ground. There, you’ll find a pair of globular root tubers. They look like testicles. The generic name comes from a Greek word (órkhis) that means “testicle.” Perhaps, if we kept true to the linguistic roots, we would call this NYBG event “The Testicle Show.” Let’s stick with “Orchid Show.” Linnaeus attached the name Orchis to the genus. He wasn’t the first person to see the apparent similarity between the root tubers and testicles. This association, that of the shape of a plant organ to its medicinal use, stretches back to Classical Times. This is the “doctrine of signatures.” It was a powerful belief for many centuries. Look at the shape of a plant or one of its parts. Then you’ll know its use. Theologians said this is God’s way of giving us useful information. Use the doctrine of signatures to assess the two root tubers. Can this plant be an aphrodisiac? It must be. This use stretches back to Classical Times. An aphrodisiac for certain. But often, in complex ways. Nobody ever said sex aids would be obvious or easy. Back to Linnaeus and names. Having a hierarchical system of naming is essential. That’s important because there are lots of orchid species. Really a lot of them. The orchid family, Orchidaceae, has at least 28,000 species. To put this in perspective, this makes the orchids one of the two largest plant families. In addition, plant breeders have created about 100,000 hybrids and cultivars. It comes as no wonder that a botanical display can show so much diversity. 29

And that hierarchy? Linnaeus established eight genera to hold the species that he described. He got us started. We now recognize some 880 orchid genera. This grouping, sitting between the species and family, is a useful way to refer to a set of similar species. Examples of common orchid genera are Phalaenopsis (moth orchids), Cattleya, Paphiopedilum (Venus’ slipper), Dendrobium, and Cymbidium. The common name “orchid” seems obvious today. Haven’t we always called these plants orchids? Nope. This name was first used in 1845. John Lindley, the same guy that saved Kew Garden, shortened the family name, Orchidaceae. He published this new common name, with no fanfare, in the popular book “School Botany.” Thanks, John. “Orchid” is a great name. Why are orchids such a big deal? Consider that this group of plants is the centerpiece of a major annual exhibition. Might the focal role of orchids involve something more than their immense diversity? Stand apart, for a moment, from your current understanding of orchids. Put yourself in the England of the 1840s. Rich people are showing their wealth by engaging in interesting pastimes. Gardening, including plant breeding, is a popular activity. These gentleman growers covet rare plants. Where do they get these plants? It was difficult to grow most orchids. Planting tropical orchids in the ground rarely works. Most orchids are epiphytes and grow among tree branches. It wasn’t until 1830 that John Lindley (that guy again) provided most of the solution. Growers needed to mimic the original environmental conditions of the plant. Enough light, ample ventilation and not too much water. But let’s get real. Manipulating orchids requires special conditions, considerable knowledge, skill, and a lot of patience. It’s easier to harvest wild orchids. Expensive, but easier. If you want orchids, just buy them at the market. The flower merchants respond to the demand. They employ lots of collectors. These field naturalists disperse to distant lands. The search is on. Get orchids. That’s the mission. Who cares about the destruction left behind. The profits are all in the sales. Get all the plants before your competition finds out about them. Bring rare plants back to civilization (and the wealthy buyers). Most orchid collecting is done in tropical forests. Naturalists scour the forest and harvest as many orchids as they can find. There is no check on the wanton destruction. Many orchids are epiphytes growing among the branches of trees. Collectors don’t need to climb the trees—just chop down the old-growth forest and pick up the orchids from the felled branches. The only thing that matters is getting the orchids to market. The plants are shipped back to the European markets. Plants arrive by the thousands. 30

A typical batch of orchids can be as large as 5,000 individuals of a single species. The mortality is high. The early voyages on sailing ships are slow. A splash of seawater kills the plants kept on deck. Storage in the dark recesses below deck is also lethal. And there is a problem once the shipment arrives at its destination. You need to grow the plants! Wealthy people of the era now have two things: a supply of rare plants and some knowledge about how to grow them. Recent technology developments provide the one missing ingredient: a way to control the environment. The solution is the temperaturecontrolled glasshouse. Glasshouses provide a year-around tropical environment in England’s harsh temperate climate. Now, gardeners are free to use Lindsey’s information and master the difficult art of growing orchids. There are public benefits, too. The construction of large glasshouses — we call them conservatories — lets people see, most for the first time, the amazing orchid flowers. Stories about orchids appear in popular media. Romance, intrigue, daring, and mystery become linked to orchids. It’s a potent combination. Orchids were once just rare objects. Now they have symbolic links to strange beauty and mystery. The result: a social phenomenon known as “Orchidmania.” Who can display the most prized orchid? The initial orchidmania frenzy began in the 1840s and 1850s. An even more intense period of buying and selling followed in the last decades of the 1800s. Here’s an example of the mania. An Odontoglossum crispum cooksoniae sold for about $471,000 (in today’s dollars). This immense sum bought a single plant that had two bulbs and one leaf. Another example. Batches of a few thousand quite ordinary orchids sold for more than a million dollars (again, today’s value). Orchidmania cements a complex set of images and metaphors into the minds of Western civilization. The popularity of orchids comes with price. Only in hindsight do we see this as an unfortunate period of ecological plunder. The collateral damage isn’t obvious while it’s happening. Worse, even if it’s known, it isn’t seen as important.

Considering the Future of Orchids

Let’s return to the present and think towards the future. There is still an active international market for orchids. The estimated trade for 2017 is 1.1 billion plants. The good news: ninety-nine percent of these plants come from breeding programs, not wild collecting. You can own an orchid without guilt. The bad news: there are many collectors who treasure rare species. This is the same as during Orchidmania. Wild orchids face serious threats from over-collection. Collectors still seek out rare species. Most often, such species comprise just a few individuals growing in a tiny area. Zealous plant hunters can wipe out the population. They needn’t take all the plants. Extinction may happen with as little as 5% of the population removed. International agreements (e.g., CITES) recognize this problem and attempt to control the trade in species that need protection. Border agents seize illegal plants as they cross international borders. It’s not a perfect solution. Confiscated plants are sent to official plant rescue centers. NYBG is one of these centers. Some proceeds from The Orchid Show help support the activities of rescue center, as well as NYBG orchid research collection. Some rare plants from this rescue collection are on display in the exhibition. Most of the public’s demand for orchids is being met by responsible, sustainable propagation. This required a technology development: tissue culture. Now, a small piece of an orchid yields hundreds of new plants. This technology fuels the mass production of orchids. Note the scale of orchid production. Thailand is one of the major orchid exporters. In 2012, orchid production occupied 7,420 acres (equivalent to a square about 3.5 miles on a side). Efficient propagation may even lead to the eventual re-establishment of wild populations.

Sometimes you need to look up, way up, to see the orchids.

Everyone has a camera.

Finishing the Orchid Show

Let’s return our focus to the exhibition. We’ve worked our way through nine pavilions. A major Ost-creation fills the last corner pavilion. He calls this the “Ribbons of Color.” Here, we see a preponderance of yellow, orange, and gold orchids. These plants cover the dome formed from pieces of large bamboo. The dome fills the center of the pavilion. Corsage orchids are inside this Japanese-inspired structure. We’re not done. There is the walk through another orchid-laden pavilion and then a final look at the Palm House display. This year’s Orchid Show is excellent. But now it’s time to leave the tropical condition and head back into the cold of New York’s final days of winter. Thanks to the foresight of the founders, NYBG has provided a venue where we, the public, can escape winter, at least for a few hours.

Viewing the Notes

Image Sources and Information. Key: * — composite image; (value) — Exp. Comp. Page Cover 1 2 5 6-7 8 9 10 12 13 14 15 16 17 17 18-19 20 22 24 25 25 26-27 28 32 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 top

Subject Orchid Orchid Train Stop Satellite View Schematic Diagram Sir Joseph Banks Beagle Route Map Orangerie Crystal Palace Temperate House Palm House John Lindley Haupt Conservatory Nathaniel Britton Elizabeth Britton Haupt Conservatory Haupt Conservatory Conservatory Plan Entrance Sculpture Color Patches Daniel Ost Entrance Sculpture Linnaeus Orchid Canopy Plants Orchids Orchids Orchids Orchids Orchids People in Pavillion

Source Sony RX1R II, 35mm, f11, 1/1000, ISO 10000 Sony RX1R II, 35mm, f8, 1/1000, ISO 20000 Sony RX1R II, 35mm, f11, 1/1000, ISO 5000 Google Earth Original, multiple sources Wikimedia Commons Wikimedia Commons Wikimedia Commons Wikimedia Commons Canon 5D III, 18mm, f4, 1/2500, ISO 200 Sony T1, 10.3mm, f5.6, 1/320, ISO 100 Wellcome Collection Google Earth Wikimedia Commons Mertz Digital Sony RX1R II, 35mm, f2.8, 1/2000, ISO 100* Sony RX1R II, 35mm, f2.8, 1/2000, ISO 100 Original, after NYBG brochure Sony RX1R II, 35mm, f2.8, 1/1000, ISO 250* Original, Photoshop Exhibit Poster Sony RX1R II, 35mm, f2.8, 1/1000, ISO 640 Wikimedia Commons Sony RX1R II, 35mm, f8, 1/1000, ISO 12800 Sony RX1R II, 35mm, f8, 1/640, ISO 25600 Sony RX1R II, 35mm, f8, 1/1000, ISO 20000 Sony RX1R II, 35mm, f8, 1/1000, ISO 16000 Sony RX1R II, 35mm, f8, 1/1000, ISO 12800 (-1.3) Sony RX1R II, 35mm, f8, 1/1000, ISO 10000 Sony RX1R II, 35mm, f8, 1/1000, ISO 2000 Sony RX1R II, 35mm, f7, 1/1000, ISO 4000 71

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Subject Orchids, Spanish Moss Orchids in Urn Person Posed Orchids Orchids Orchids Orchid Orchids Orchids Orchids Orchids Orchids Orchids Orchids Orchids Orchids Orchids Orchids Orchids Orchids Orchids Orchids Bamboo Sculpture Pavillion with People Pavillion with People Orchids in Sculpture Orchids

Source Sony RX1R II, 35mm, f7, 1/1000, ISO 1000 Sony RX1R II, 35mm, f8, 1/1000, ISO 4000 Sony RX1R II, 35mm, f8, 1/1000, ISO 5000 Sony RX1R II, 35mm, f3.5, 1/1000, ISO 1250 Sony RX1R II, 35mm, f9, 1/1000, ISO 6400 Sony RX1R II, 35mm, f6.3, 1/1000, ISO 2500 Sony RX1R II, 35mm, f6.3, 1/1000, ISO 2000 (-1.3) Sony RX1R II, 35mm, f6.3, 1/1000, ISO 2500 (-0.7) Sony RX1R II, 35mm, f6.3, 1/1000, ISO 1000 (-0.7) Sony RX1R II, 35mm, f6.3, 1/1000, ISO 1000 (-0.7) Sony RX1R II, 35mm, f6.3, 1/1000, ISO 1000 (-0.7) Sony RX1R II, 35mm, f6.3, 1/1000, ISO 500 (-1.3) Sony RX1R II, 35mm, f11, 1/640, ISO 25600 Sony RX1R II, 35mm, f4, 1/1000, ISO 2000 (-1.0) Sony RX1R II, 35mm, f4, 1/1000, ISO 2500 (-1.0) Sony RX1R II, 35mm, f4, 1/1000, ISO 2500 (-1.0) Sony RX1R II, 35mm, f11, 1/1000, ISO 20000 (-1.0) Sony RX1R II, 35mm, f11, 1/1000, ISO 640 (-1.0) Sony RX1R II, 35mm, f11, 1/1000, ISO 10000 (-1.0) Sony RX1R II, 35mm, f4.5, 1/1000, ISO 2500 (-1.0) Sony RX1R II, 35mm, f11, 1/1000, ISO 8000 (-1.0) Sony RX1R II, 35mm, f4, 1/1000, ISO 1600 Sony RX1R II, 35mm, f11, 1/1000, ISO 10000 Sony RX1R II, 35mm, f11, 1/1000, ISO 3200 Sony RX1R II, 35mm, f11, 1/1000, ISO 8000 Sony RX1R II, 35mm, f8, 1/1000, ISO 3200 Sony RX1R II, 35mm, f5.6, 1/1000, ISO 2500

Literature Resources Endersby, J., 2016. Orchid: A Cultural History. University of Chicago Press. 288 pp. Hill, A. W., 1915. The History and Functions of Botanic Gardens. Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden, 2: 185-240. Jarvis, C. and P. Cribb, 2009. Linnaean Sources and Concepts of Orchids. Annals of Botany 104: 365-376. Johnson, N. C., 2011. Nature Displaced, Nature Displayed: Order and Beauty in 72

Botanical Gardens. I.B. Tauris, 288 pp. Lindley, J., 1852. Folia Orchidacea: An Enumeration of the Known Species of Orchids, Volume 1. Bishen Singh Mahendra Pal Singh. 350 pp. Lindley, J., 1866. School Botany, Descriptive Botany, and Vegetable Physiology; Or, The Rudiments of Botanical Science. Bradbury, Evans, and Company. 212 pp. Miller, B., W. Conway, R.P. Reading, C. Wemmer, D. Wildt, D. Kleiman, S. Monfort, A. Rabinowitz, B. Armstrong, and M. Hutchins, 2004. Evaluating the Conservation Mission of Zoos, Aquariums, Botanical Gardens, and Natural History Museums. Conservation Biology 18: 86-93. Osborne, M. A., 20001. Acclimatizing the World: A History of the Paradigmatic Colonial Science. Osiris, 2nd Series 15: 135-151. Spary, E.C., 2010. Utopia's Garden. University of Chicago Press. 304 pp. Website Resources https://www.kew.org/blogs/library-art-and-archives/john-lindley-man-who-saved-kew https://www.nybg.org/event/the-orchid-show/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conservatory_(greenhouse) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enid_A._Haupt_Conservatory https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_Botanical_Garden https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Crystal_Palace Photo Source Details Sir Joseph Banks (page 8) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Joseph_Banks_1773_Reynolds.jpg Beagle Route Map (page 9) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Voyage_of_the_Beagle-en.svg Orangerie (page 10) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ch%C3%A2teau_de_Versailles_orangerie.jpg Crystal Palace (page 12) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Crystal_Palace_in_Hyde_Park_for_ Grand_International_Exhibition_of_1851.jpg John Lindley (page 15) https://wellcomecollection.org/works/vwb6y2bt 73

Nathaniel Britton (page 17) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Portrait_of_Nathaniel_Lord_Britton.jpg Elizabeth Britton (page 17) http://mertzdigital.nybg.org/cdm/ref/collection/p9016coll20/id/942/ Linnaeus (page 28) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Carl_von_Linn%C3%A9,_1707-1778,_ botanist,_professor_(Alexander_Roslin)_-_Nationalmuseum_-_15723.tif Please Note: All of these images were subjected to creative enhancements.