This is one of the 8,000 orchid plants at the 2006 Orchid Show, running through April 2, 2006, at the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx. Special events are planned throughout the exhibit's run, such as lectures on how to care for orchids, flower photography, and chocolate and vanilla activities for children.
Few people -- even flower lovers -- know that vanilla is an orchid. Plants are hand pollinated by pushing back a membrane that separates the male and female organs of the hermaphrodite plant.
Moth orchids, one of the most popular varieties for growing in homes, get their name because they appear like moths in flight.
Orchidmania was explored in Susan Orleans' bestseller "The Orchid Thief," and subsequently, in the movie "Adaptation." Orleans describes the incredibly varied plants as looking like "butterflies, bats, ladies handbags," or like an "ethereal and beautiful flying white frog."
Orchid buyers should try to find an orchid that can grow in the conditions of their home, rather than trying to adapt to the climate an orchid needs, said Marc Hachadourian, the curator of glasshouse collections at the Botanical Garden.
This year, the New York Botanical Garden decided to recreate the feeling of a garden from 1920s South Florida for the main show, highlighting big blocks of color in a formal display, with flowers cascading into a fountain. In another section of the garden, orchids climb up tropical trees in a humid rainforest.
These Phalaenopsis orchids are known as "Dancing Ladies" or "Ink Spots," and are on display at the New York Botanical Garden through April 2, 2006.
Marc Hachadourian, the curator of glasshouse collections at the New York Botanical Garden, said orchids never fail to attract attention. "Everyone seems to have their favorites, and sometimes it changes by the minute as they walk through the show," he said.
Orchids are the largest family of flowering plants on earth, with between 25,000 and 30,000 known species and appear on every continent but Antarctica, said Kenneth Cameron, director of the Cullman program for molecular systematics at the New York Botanical Garden.