Every
year, the annual Orchids Festival at Kew Gardens in London impresses me! This
year was no exception, once I actually got inside the conservatory. When we went
on opening weekend, the queue to get inside Kew’s 24th annual orchid
show was more than an hour long, so I had to return on one of my days off work
right before it ended.
This
year’s theme focused on Columbia’s diverse landscape and its flora and fauna
that inhabit it, complete with a gigantic sloth and jaguar replicas. The show
included approximately 6,200 orchids, including Columbia’s national flower –
the Flor de Mayo (Cattleya trianae).
Did
you know that Columbia has more than 4,000 orchid species – more than anywhere
else in the world? That’s four times more than what grows in the “tiny” country
of Thailand which featured in Kew’s Orchids Festival last year.
Stepping
into the Princess of Wales Conservatory, at first, I felt like I was in an arid
dessert complete with cacti, but soon the temperatures turned tropical and
humid as I moved to the next rooms. I love visiting Kew Gardens anytime of the
year, but during the winter months, the orchids seem to add an extra dose of
cheerfulness on otherwise grey days. Of course, I couldn’t resist taking more
than 200 photos – no surprise there!
Hope
you enjoy the orchid photo show!
Which photo is your favorite?
Which photo is your favorite?
RAINBOW
Seriously, the different shades of orchids look like a tropical rainbow!
Look
closely at this red, yellow and white orchid below…doesn’t it look like a Ronald McDonald character in the
center?
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Columbian
artists like Omar Castañeda created original sculptures such as these to
feature alongside the Colombian orchids from Kew’s collections.
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Thanks for sharing such a great article.
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