Garden Diary - February 2026

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Upcoming: Every Year is Different: Orchid Show at the New York Botanical Garden

Sunday, 1 February 2026

UPCOMING Next Saturday, February 7, is when the 23rd edition of the New York Botanical Garden's annual celebration of all things orchids opens to the public, and runs through April 26, 2026.

Every year is different. Which helps to explain why this event has a permanent place on my "must attend" list.
For example . . . This year, 2026, currently presents a winter landscape in February.

So it was 15 years ago in 2010 when I approached the Enid Haupt Conservatory in a snowscape setting.
But inside, ah yes, inside carries visitors to a tropical landscape. The construction details are meticulous.

Signage provides details: In Havana, the tower and statue of La Giraldilla sits atop Castillo de la Real Fuerza,
one of the oldest stone fortresses in the Americas built in 1538 after an attack on Havana by French pirates.
.
It is the orchids that are mesmerizing, that seize and hold our attention
.
demanding another look, a closer look. Our awe and admiration.

See more about that year's event at my BelleWood Garden's entry about the orchid show from 2010

Understand that serious thought and planning goes into these events. It is not a matter of winging it, just bring in masses of orchids and call it good. Yes, masses of orchids. But there is also a theme. So let's jump forward eight year, to 2018 and see how this orchid show developed. The creative mind behind the event was Daniel Ost, a Belgian floral artist, floral designer and garden architect.

Conceptual renderings provide the potential for what will become reality.

image courtesy Ben Orlove, copyright, all rights reserved
Turning plastic tubing and pots of orchids into a magical tower.

Who would have thought of this but a bloembinder.

See more about that year's event at my BelleWood Garden's entry about the orchid show from 2018

This Year: Visitors will step into a dazzling floral dreamscape, where street scenes become floral dreams as visionary designer and native New Yorker Mr. Flower Fantastic transforms the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory into a breathtaking orchid tribute to the spirit, style, and New York City's streetscape.

If you have any comments or questions, you can e-mail me: jgglatt@gmail.com

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