With the 21st edition of the Orchids Festival opening yesterday, the Kew Gardens in London, the UK, have become a veritable carnival of exotic colours.

The festival captures the essence of Brazil.The festival captures the essence of Brazil.

The most famous garden in the UK this month is set to be transformed into a spectacular carnival of dazzling Brazilian colours, with thousands of orchids and tropical plants on display. Set to lure thousands of tourists to the Princess of Wales Conservatory at the Royal Botanic Gardens of Kew, the Orchids Festival sees a veritable tropical paradise melting away the winter blues for anyone lucky enough to be in the UK during the month-long event that kicked off yesterday.

Besides the rich colours of the plants and flowers on display, the festival also sees a series of talks, workshops and tours given by Kew Garden experts to complement visitors’ understanding of the value that plants add to our lives.

Working on one of the displays.Working on one of the displays.

This 21st edition of the festival will see a wide range of new plants and flowers adorning the remarkable architecture of the conservatory to create a sensory journey through the striking flora of Brazil during carnival season.

Visitors will be able to gently weave their way through a series of delicately suspended orchids before passing through a tunnel made up purely of lush tropical plants. Two enormous Rainforest Tree structures, proudly swathed in the riotous colours of oncidium and bromeliads, show off Brazil’s magnificent plant life to the fullest, while visitors are invited to travel from the Amazon rainforest to the desert of north-Eastern Brazil as they encounter glowing, hanging droplets clothed in tilllandsia, suspended among Brazilian cacti.

Two enormous Rainforest Tree structures, proudly swathed in the riotous colours of oncidium and bromeliads, show off Brazil’s magnificent plant life to the fullest

Five explosive figures take centre stage in the pond, alluding to the vibrant and flamboyant costumes of Brazilian carnival dancers. Household favourites such as bromeliads and phalaenopsis, as well as Brazilian hybrids such as cambria and miltonia make up this eye-catching display.

The festival brings an explosion of contrasts and vibrant shades to the conservatory and explores Brazil’s biomes in depth, from the Pantanal’s seasonal flooding, a time when the ecosystem bursts into life and explodes with colour, to the Cerrado’s spectacular plants, some of which have adapted to withstand fire. Kew experts will also be giving a series of talks, demonstrations and fascinating insights into this spectacular glasshouse, the tropical plants on show and Kew’s longstanding connection with Brazil.

Getting the display wall ready.Getting the display wall ready.

Display horticulturalist Elisa Biondi, who worked on this year’s display, says: “This year, the pond display will be a true explosion of colour – a real carnival. With 2016 being the year of Brazil, we wanted to capture the essence of this incredible country, takingvisitors on a journey through its biomes while showing the range of conservation and science work that Kew is doing with South America.”

The elaborately set up Brazilian wilderness right in the middle of the UK will also help visitors discover the work of adventurous Victorian plant hunters who journeyed to Brazil to expand Europe’s knowledge of its miraculous plant life. The wild splendour of these South American plants and the diversity of Brazil come alive in a dramatic display, giving visitors a chance to immerse themselves in the pivotal work of Kew Gardens to collect, record and conserve such a breathtaking range of tropical plants.

The Orchids Festival runs until March 6 at the Princess of Wales Conservatory in Kew Gardens, London, the UK. Admission is included with entry to the gardens.

www.kew.org

Do not miss

Today

Kew experts Wolfgang Stuppy and Mark Chase give talks, demonstrations and fascinating insights into the spectacular Princess of Wales Conservatory glasshouse, the tropical plants on show and Kew’s long-standing connection with Brazil.

Stuppy focuses on exploring the seeds of the rainforest, through a virtual journey to the Brazilian city of Manaus and the tropical rainforest around it. Chase addresses the question that so many others have before him: why are orchids such unusual plants and how (and why) do they do things so differently?

Talks are held at noon, 2pm and 3pm in the Princess of Wales Conservatory Film Room.

February 27 and 28

Art curator Lynn Parker explores orchid collecting through botanical illustrations with an emphasis on collectors and artists working in Brazil, from William John Swainson’s discovery of Cattleya labiata (the so-called ‘Queen of Orchids’) to Margaret Mee’s portrayal of the night-blooming moonflower which blooms only once a year, for a single night.

Project officer Virginia Mills brings visitors tales of 19th century plant hunters from Kew’s archives. Focusing on Joseph Hooker, his pioneering collecting in India and the Himalayas, and his scientific collaborations with Charles Darwin, Mills also discovers other daring botanists’ stories about their (sometimes bizarre) collecting methods and the dangers of seeking plant treasures.

The talks take places at noon, 1pm, 2pm and 3pm in the Princess of Wales Conservatory Film Room.

March 5

Botanical horticulturalists Elisa Biondi and Paul Rees give a talk titled ‘Botanical Horticulturalist, Dry Tropics, Tropical Nursery’, delving into the wonders of cacti from Brazil, to find out more about their diversity and how they are grown and conserved at Kew.

Conservatory supervisor Nick Johnson talks about Kew’s conservation work and the tropical nursery; visitors will also be able to accompany him on a tour of the conservatory to find some of the conservation plants on site.

The talks take place at noon, 1pm, 2pm and 3pm in the Princess of Wales Conservatory Film Room.

March 6

House supervisor Scott Taylor and nurseries manager Lara Jewitt follow the footsteps of artists Margaret Mee in the Amazon, in this account of two horticulturists’ scholarship trip to the Amazon in search of epiphytic plants painted by the artist. The trip was intended to shed light on whether the plants Mee had painted 30 years ago were still present, as well as to stud the various strata of vegetation and climatic conditions in the rainforest to improve cultivation techniques in Kew’s nurseries and display houses.

The talks take place at noon, 1pm, 2pm and 3pm in the Princess of Wales Conservatory Film Room.

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