“Orchidelirium” focuses on the frenzy created by Victorian orchid hunters and collectors (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

The New York Botanical Garden
Enid A. Haupt Conservatory
2900 Southern Blvd., Bronx
Tuesday – Sunday through April 17, $8-$10 children two to twelve, $20-$25 adults, 10:00 am – 6:00 pm
718-817-8700
www.nybg.org
orchidelirium slideshow

The Orchid Show at the New York Botanical Garden is always one of the highlights of spring, and the fourteenth annual presentation is one of the best yet. Part of the NYBG’s ongoing celebration of its 125th anniversary, “Orchidelirium” zeroes in on the history of orchid collecting, focusing on some of the Victorian botanists and explorers who risked their lives to find and collect the rare, beautiful plants during a particularly fruitful frenzy around the turn of the nineteenth century. The excellent signage explains that one of the elements that makes orchids so special, so unusual and compelling, is “the fusion of the male portion of the flower (stamen) and the female portion (pistil) into one structure called the column — often visible protruding from the center.” This makes it easy to project a rather erotic look on many of the thirty thousand species’ blooms — not that we’re claiming that the sensual, sexual nature of orchids is what has driven men to go to extreme lengths to capture the spectacular flowers. The show spotlights a few of the more fascinating field botanists: Czech farmer, inventor, and gardener Benedikt Roezl became known at the Prince of Orchid Hunters, discovering some eight hundred species in Central and South America. William George Spencer Cavendish, the sixth Duke of Devonshire, and his gardener, Joseph Paxton, amassed a huge private collection. Medical assistant and naturalist Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker traveled to India and the Himalayas with a large entourage to bring back orchids. Henry Frederick Conrad Sander, the self-described Orchid King, became royal orchid grower to Queen Victoria and would leave no orchids behind for others when his hunters came upon new species. (An orchid bought by the NYBG from Sander in 1904, still alive and growing, is on display in the show.) John Dominy, responsible for the first man-made hybrid in the 1850s, earned the following declaration from orchidologist John Lindley: “You will drive the botanists mad!” And William Arnold, Gustav Wallis, David Burke, and František Klaboch (Roezl’s nephew) all died while hunting orchids.

Fourteenth annual orchid show is a highlight of the NYBG’s 125th anniversary celebration (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

As always, the show, arranged this year to evoke Victorian-era glasshouse designs, particularly those of collector and scholar James Bateman, features wonderful quotes and poems. “I never was more interested in any subject in my life than this of Orchids,” said Charles Darwin, for whom Darwin’s star orchid is named. “Wildly, that I be unfathomed / Of this strange miracle, / My own seeks the cloven foot-print / The orchid clutched like a shell,” Howard McKinley Corning wrote in his poem “I Seek the Orchid.” In “Short Talk on Orchids,” Anne Carson points out, “We live by tunneling for we are people buried alive. To me, the tunnels you make will seem strangely aimless, uprooted orchids.” And in “Orchids,” Theodore Roethke explains, “They lean over the path, / Adder-mouthed, / Swaying close to the face, / Coming out, soft and deceptive, / Limp and damp, delicate as a young bird’s tongue.” That description works for the show itself, which consists of hundreds of orchids, gorgeously arranged in pots, on trees, in a Wardian case, and in central displays bursting with unique shapes and color. Other plants and flowers have their beauty, but there’s something about orchids that sets them apart from the rest of the natural world, like they know something we don’t and we can only bow down to their grace and elegance. When we’re not taking photos, that is.

Gamelan Dharma Swara will perform on April 9-10 as part of NYBG orchid show (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Numerous programs are being held at the NYBG in conjunction with “Orchidelirium.” On Saturdays and Sundays, “World Beat: Music & Dance Around the World of Orchids” includes performances by New York City-based Indonesian troupe Gamelan Dharma Swara on April 9-10 and Nego Gato Afro-Brazilian Music and Dance Ensemble on April 16-17. Also on April 9-10, Spike Jonze’s Adaptation., inspired by Susan Orlean’s book The Orchid Thief: A True Story of Beauty and Obsession, will be screened in Ross Hall. Experts lead orchid care demonstrations on Saturdays and Sundays at 2:00 and 3:00, while other experts will answer your questions in the shop on Saturdays and Sundays from 1:30 to 4:30. Tours are held Tuesdays through Fridays at 12:30 and 2:30. A special class on fragrant orchids will be held on April 9 at 10:00 ($59). And “Orchid Evenings” ($35, 6:30 – 9:30) are take place April 9, 15, and 16, when the show is open at night and you can sip ginger vanilla fusion and other cocktails while enjoying this stunning show in a different light.