It’s orchids’ time to shine
So, you got sick and tired of shoveling snow in February, huh?
Imagine being the person who has the job of watering the 4,000 hydration-loving blooms on display at Longwood Gardens' annual Orchid Extravaganza.
With snow, you just move it out of the way and let Mother Nature do her thing to melt it and send it bye-bye.
The orchids don't play nearly as nice, says Lee Alyanakian, Longwood's senior gardener and lead orchid grower.
She points to one of the show's centerpiece features, the orchid curtain in the fern room, as an example.
The curtain itself features 350 purple phalaenopsis orchids massed around a diamond of green philodendron plants. but you can't just switch on a hose and spray them down.
"They're two different types of plants," she says. "They take a different kind of watering."
The orchids want more, more, more. The philodendrons are more modest drinkers.
Longwood solves the problem by giving each plant its own drip tube.
Otherwise, she says, "You would be watering one and killing the other."
Longwood's orchid show isn't the only one at big gardens in the region. The United States Botanic Garden in Washington offers "Orchids! A Cultural Odyssey" through April 11. The new York Botanical Garden offers "The Orchid Show: Cuba in Flowers," also through April 11.
But Longwood is the only garden to end its orchid show with a bang: The International Orchid Show and Sale, featuring plants and juried exhibits from the American Orchid Society, March 26 through 28.
Orchid shows are popular for a simple reason: January through April is the orchids' natural blooming cycle, Alyanakian says.
The shows also help fill a void between the spectacle of Christmas and the dazzling blooms of spring and summer shows, such as Longwood's upcoming "Making Scents: The Art and Passion of Fragrance."
The show, beginning April 10, explores the art, science and mystery of making fragrances. A giant 18-foot wrought iron perfume bottle at the entrance to the orchid show is meant to remind visitors of the fragrance show.