NEW YORK, United States (Reuters) — Bright pinks, golden yellows, vivid purples – a burst of colorful flowers brightens New York City’s concrete jungle. The New York Botanical Garden previewed its 15th Annual Orchid Show Thursday (February 16).
This year’s theme is “Thailand” and thousands of colorful orchids are on display. The exhibition allows visitors to walk through a lush, wondrous, orchid-draped Thai garden anchored with examples of traditional Thai architecture.
“Throughout the exhibition there are thousands of plants in bloom, all shades of color, fragrance, everything you could image in terms of color and pattern. But incorporated are a lot of important elements. You have Thai Garden design, some cultural elements as well to sort of provide the framework for us to display these thousands of orchids in bloom, including these standing behind me – the elephants. Something that is very iconic and very important to Thai culture,” said Marc Hachadourian, Director of the Nolen Greenhouses and curator of orchids at the New York Botanical Garden.
Thailand is home to more than 1,200 native orchid species and is the biggest exporter of tropical orchids in the world, according to the Botanical Garden.
“If you think about beautiful, tropical gardens, Thailand always comes to mind as an important center of tropical horticulture. So this is one of the reasons why we chose it this year as the theme for this year’s Orchid Show,” Hachadourian added.
This year’s exhibition includes both rare and popular orchids planted and timed to bloom just in time for the show.
“The New York Botanical Garden has one of the largest orchid collections of any botanical garden in the world.”
“The Orchid Show: Thailand” opens to the public on February 18 and runs through April 9, 2017 at the New York’s Botanical Garden in The Bronx.
