PHOENIX — See the fruits of spring in the vibrant blooming flowers! The Desert Botanical Garden has a new indoor exhibit at The RAF Exhibit Gallery that features endangered and rare orchids.
“There are over 3,000 blooming orchids in this space, and it's really special for us because we just premiered this new building that allows us to show plants indoors. It's something that we cannot do outside on the trails, something that we can only exhibit in this space that is specially designed to care for plants,” said Laura Spalding Best, senior director of exhibits at the Desert Botanical Garden.
Here's an in-depth look at ‘Orchid Fever.’
‘A DESERT OASIS’
The exhibit hopes to highlight a “juxtaposition of orchids in both desert and tropical environments.” To do so, there was much thought given to the arrangement of the flowers.
“We want you to feel like you've entered an orchid desert oasis when you come into this space. So we have all of these terraced beds at different heights, and these are referencing the mountains of the Sonoran Desert,” said Spalding Best. “A lot of these [orchids] that you're seeing here indoors are not native to the Soren desert, but what we've done is mixed in a really beautiful Sonoran Desert plant palette. So, these beds you'll see have agave, prickly pear, ocotillo. We have these gorgeous Saguaro skeletons that are part of the design. When you enter the space, you smell the orchids, you feel the change in temperature and humidity, you see the color, and you're kind of immersed in the beauty of this space.”
BEAUTY & BUILDING INFRASTRUCTURE
This is the Garden’s first-ever orchid show, and they were able to create this blooming experience because of their new building, RAF Exhibit Gallery.
“The amazing thing about this space is it lets us have a beautiful exhibit that really has this high impact. You know, it's a really saturated, blooming floral exhibit of orchids, but then it also lets us show what we're doing and what our conservation efforts are for orchids in Arizona, a lot of people don't know that there are 26 native Arizona orchid species, and majority of them are endangered, and our scientists have been doing a lot of work to help them,” said Spalding Best to ABC15.
The infrastructure of the building has much to do with the ability to house indoor plants, like the orchids that thrive in humid environments.
“We have these gorgeous north-facing, clear story windows that let in the light to support the flowers we have. There are drains in this floor so we can water the garden beds, and then the temperature and humidity are designed to support plant life. So, Flora culture shows flowers shows being able to show rare living collections from our collections greenhouses, we'll be able to share that with our guests in a way we never can out on the trails,” explained Spalding Best.
IF YOU GO
- Cost: Included with general admission or membership.
- The orchid exhibit runs until May 11, 2025, daily from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.
- Where: Desert Botanical Garden [1201 N Galvin Pkwy] in Phoenix
The video in the player above showcases some of the best things to do in the Valley this April - read more about it right here.
