NYBG: Orchid Show 2017
This was my fifth year in a row attending the Orchid Show at the New York Botanical Garden. Even though the design of the show changes from year to year—this year's theme is "Thailand"—the flowers are pretty similar, and yet I'm still nowhere near over the thrill of seeing so many beautiful orchids in one place.
As far as I'm concerned, orchids are basically aliens—or maybe we're the aliens that invaded Planet Orchid. I feel that way about a lot of nature (have you ever really looked at deep sea creatures??), but orchids are so intricate and varied that it's hard not to be in complete awe of their beauty. I think it's their variation that amazes me the most—there are orchids that look like slippers, people, animals and mimic other types of flowers. There are orchids with blooms as big as your hand and as tiny as the tip of your finger. There are green ones and purple ones and orchids with stripes, spots and blotches. Some orchids smell like chocolate, and others have no scent at all.
For the second year in a row, the slipper orchid managed to be the most memorable for me. The single blooms are easy to miss at the show—this year they're low to the ground around the centerpiece—but they're so incredibly intricate and just downright strange-looking. The veiny, kiwi-colored one simultaneously grossed me out and intrigued me, and no matter how long I look at them they're hard for my brain to process.
Despite my best intentions, I still seem to have trouble keeping my own plants alive so it's nice to be able to surround myself with such top-notch specimens just for the price of admission. After some false starts, spring has been dragging its feet coming to the city, but I've come to regard the Orchid Show as an essential ritual to welcome the season.