London Orchid Show: Orchid Care at its Best

The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew in London, is one of the world's leading botanic gardens. For the past year, they were in preparation for a month-long festival to showcase thousands of exotic orchids and tropical plants.

Called “Dripping With Colour” it ran from February 6th through March 7th. The main display filled the steamy interior of the Princess of Wales Conservatory and featured a sculptural island covered with hundreds of varieties of exotic orchids including beautiful slipper orchids (Paphiopedilum), and tiered with bromeliads and anthuriums. There were arches adorned with Oncidium orchids and bromeliads including Guzmania and Vriesea, and a Vanda tunnel where you could surround yourself with color.

Their website tantalizes the orchid lover further:

“Enter the heat of the Waterlily House at Kew Gardens and be prepared to be bowled over by a riot of colour. The hottest glasshouse at Kew will be transformed, highlighting some of the world’s most exciting biodiversity hotspots. The usual waterlilies have been replaced with a stunning pond display of Cymbidium orchids which have been kindly supplied by McBeans’s Orchids – the country’s leading specialist orchid cultivator.

“The word 'biodiversity' describes the huge variety of life on Earth. Wild plants have amazing colours and patterns, and deliberately breeding them creates showy cultivated varieties like the orchids in the pond display.

“Learn how Kew’s earliest plant collectors had to risk disease, robbery, hurricanes and even being taken prisoner. If plants eventually reached the ships, they still had to survive months of sea-salt, extreme weather, rats, cats and dogs.” Proper orchid care was not a easy feat.

And finally, in Kew’s Victory Plaza, visitors could purchase beautiful phalaenopsis orchids or other varieties to take home, as well as picking up expert advice on buying and growing their own orchids.