Winter may be stubbornly lingering in New York City, but spring has already arrived at the New York Botanical Garden. The Botanical Garden's highly-anticipated annual orchid show, which features hundreds of brilliant blooms, spectacular displays, and informative and fun-filled events, is a great way to escape the cold and get a taste of spring.
"A lot of people are just looking for a great escape," explains Karen Daubmann, Head of Exhibitions at the New York Botanical Garden. "Maybe they can't take a vacation and they're looking for an escape within the city. They can come inside the tropical observatory. It's warm and balmy--a nice way to spend the day."
2018 marks the sixteenth edition of NYBG's Orchid Show and will feature a series of installations created by Belgian Floral Artist Daniel Ost, one of the world's most celebrated floral artists.
The Botanic Garden will hold a wide range of educational opportunities and fun celebrations, including orchid care demonstrations, expert Q&As, film screenings, Thai dance performances, and the popular Orchid Evenings. "The Orchid Evenings are great," Daubmann says. "You can see the orchids and have a cocktail. It's a great romantic date night, a girls' night out, or what-have-you."
The show's central draw, however, remains the orchids themselves. "Orchids are notoriously difficult to grow," Daubmann says. "They're incredibly flashy and extravagant, so people really do want to come out and see them." These incredible flowers come in a dazzling array of colors and an almost infinite range of forms. "There are orchids as small as your hand and others that are enormous," Daubmann says. "There are orchids that grow up in trees, on rocks, on the ground--they come in vastly different sizes and colors, but they all have the same parts."
Visitors can take advantage of the signage throughout the exhibit and the audio tour to learn fascinating information about these breathtaking flowers, but the experience can be as light or as substantive as desired. "You see the orchids in a landscape," Daubmann says. "It's an active experience. People can walk through the conservatory and take a closer look at the things that interest them. You really can go at your own pace."
The orchid show is an incredible opportunity to see some of the world's rarest and most beautiful tropical flowers. "It's the perfect time of year for the Orchid Show," Daubmann explains. "Orchids are incredibly colorful, so it's a wonderful thing to see while it's so snowy and dreary and gray outside."
The Orchid Show runs Saturday, March 3, through Sunday, April 22, at the New York Botanical Garden.
-- By Ettractions Digital Content Editor EMILY JARMOLOWICZ
-- Photos courtesy of the New York Botanical Garden
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