Lily Kwong inside The Orchid Show
Lily Kwong inside The Orchid Show

Orchid Show in Bloom!

The Orchid Show returns to the New York Botanical Garden.

An orchid can be beautiful. It can smell sweet as well. But these flowering plants aren’t just nice to see and sniff. They can connect to culture and tell about history. That’s why the New York Botanical Garden (NYBG) hosts an orchid show each year. This is the 20th year of the event. The Orchid Show: Natural Heritage opened on February 18.

The NYBG 2023 orchid show features thousands of colorful flowers. Some shine bright white in the light of the garden’s giant greenhouse. Several sparkle with a pretty pink hue. There are purples and yellows and bold blues too. Some are striped or spotted, and a few feel fuzzy. Many hang high inside the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory, and others grow low to the ground.

Each NYBG orchid show has a different guest designer. This year it’s landscape artist Lily Kwong, Her family came from Shanghai, China — and she grew up with old paintings of Chinese mountainsides in her home. Many types of orchids were first grown in those mountains. Kwong used her to help her design the flower show. She chose to include orchids that came from Asia.

Kwong said she wanted this year’s orchid show to “offer a sense of community.” And she hoped it would provide “grounding into ancient wisdom and traditions that have guided us for millennia.” She explained how it connected to her family history. “The piece took shape through meditation and exploration of my roots stretching back generations to Shanghai,” said Kwong. She called the exhibition’s design her “most work to date.”

“As the first woman of color to step into the role as guest designer, it felt urgent to celebrate an Asian-centered perspective,” explained Kwong. There have been recent acts of violence against members of the Asian American community. Kwong said she designed this orchid show “to offer a bridge of cultural understanding across the valley between us.”

Over the past few days, visitors from across the world have stopped by the NYBG to smell the flowers (and sometimes to snap selfies by them too). That includes Caitlin Stewart, who popped inside the show in its opening weekend. “I loved it!” Stewart told News-O-Matic. “My favorite was the slipper orchids,” she explained. “I’d never seen them before!”

Kwong hopes that all the visitors to the NYBG will enjoy the orchids. But she also wants them to use the flowering plants to think more deeply about different cultures — including their own. Kwong said she hoped the show would “act as an invitation to celebrate the that make up our country.”

The Orchid Show: Natural Heritage will remain on view through April 23.

Updated February 21, 2023, 5:03 P.M. (ET)
By Russell Kahn (Russ)

Lily Kwong inside The Orchid Show
Lily Kwong inside The Orchid Show

An orchid can be beautiful. It can smell sweet as well. But these flowering plants aren’t just nice to see and sniff. They can connect to culture and tell about history. That’s why the New York Botanical Garden (NYBG) hosts an orchid show each year. This is the 20th year of the event. The Orchid Show: Natural Heritage opened on February 18.

The NYBG 2023 orchid show features thousands of colorful flowers. Some shine bright white in the light of the garden’s giant greenhouse. Several sparkle with a pretty pink hue. There are purples and yellows and bold blues too. Some are striped or spotted, and a few feel fuzzy. Many hang high inside the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory, and others grow low to the ground.

Each NYBG orchid show has a different guest designer. This year it’s landscape artist Lily Kwong, Her family came from Shanghai, China — and she grew up with old paintings of Chinese mountainsides in her home. Many types of orchids were first grown in those mountains. Kwong used her to help her design the flower show. She chose to include orchids that came from Asia.

Kwong said she wanted this year’s orchid show to “offer a sense of community.” And she hoped it would provide “grounding into ancient wisdom and traditions that have guided us for millennia.” She explained how it connected to her family history. “The piece took shape through meditation and exploration of my roots stretching back generations to Shanghai,” said Kwong. She called the exhibition’s design her “most work to date.”

“As the first woman of color to step into the role as guest designer, it felt urgent to celebrate an Asian-centered perspective,” explained Kwong. There have been recent acts of violence against members of the Asian American community. Kwong said she designed this orchid show “to offer a bridge of cultural understanding across the valley between us.”

Over the past few days, visitors from across the world have stopped by the NYBG to smell the flowers (and sometimes to snap selfies by them too). That includes Caitlin Stewart, who popped inside the show in its opening weekend. “I loved it!” Stewart told News-O-Matic. “My favorite was the slipper orchids,” she explained. “I’d never seen them before!”

Kwong hopes that all the visitors to the NYBG will enjoy the orchids. But she also wants them to use the flowering plants to think more deeply about different cultures — including their own. Kwong said she hoped the show would “act as an invitation to celebrate the that make up our country.”

The Orchid Show: Natural Heritage will remain on view through April 23.

Updated February 21, 2023, 5:03 P.M. (ET)
By Russell Kahn (Russ)

Draw it AskRuss