Orchid Daze 2020

It's that time of year again! If you've never been to Orchid Daze at the Atlanta Botanical Garden, know that it's the most beautiful thing you can do in the dead of winter in Atlanta! It's stunning! This year's exhibition, on display through Sunday, April 12, is inspired by award-winning architect Luis Barragán from Mexico.

Orchid Daze 2020 | Atlanta Botanical Garden | Photo: Travis Swann Taylor

Luis Barragán (1902-1988) was an engineer and architect from Mexico whose serene and evocative houses, gardens, plazas, and fountains won him the Pritzker Prize in 1980, an international award given annually to recognize the contributions of a living architect. It's often been called the Nobel Prize of architecture.

Orchid Daze 2020 | Atlanta Botanical Garden | Photo: Travis Swann Taylor

As soon as you turn the corner to enter the Fuqua Orchid Center from the Conservatory, you'll immediately see the bright colors, smooth surfaces, and water features inspired by Barragán, who became one of the most influential modernist architects of the 20th century. You'll find yourself enveloped in the vibrant presence of orchids in a contemporary Latin America-inspired garden.

Orchid Daze 2020 | Atlanta Botanical Garden | Photo: Travis Swann Taylor

You can enter the Orchid Center via the Skyline Garden, but Orchid Daze begins in the lobby of the Conservatory, its entrance at the Great Lawn. The lobby has some stunning orchids that you might not see elsewhere in the Center, including the ones immediately above and below here.

Orchid Daze 2020 | Atlanta Botanical Garden | Photo: Travis Swann Taylor

Want the most concentrated orchid experience? Plan your visit around one of the Orchid Market Weekends, but I recommend attending an early one, because you'll likely want to see this exhibition more than once! The Market is in the Hardin Visitor Center (the main entrance) on select weekends, 10am-4pm, during Orchid Daze: 

• March 7-8
• April 4-5

Orchid Daze 2020 | Atlanta Botanical Garden | Photo: Travis Swann Taylor

If you've never been to the Garden's Fuqua Orchid Center, you're in for a real treat! It has one of the largest orchid collections of any public garden in the world! This collection features more than 200 genera and 2,000 species of orchids as well as a variety of other tropical plants.

Orchid Daze 2020 | Atlanta Botanical Garden | Photo: Travis Swann Taylor

The Orchid Center, connected to the Conservatory, is comprised of four main parts:

• The Orchid Center "Lobby" - where you'll find most of Orchid Daze displayed;
• Conservation greenhouses and laboratories - not open to the public, but there are windows so you can see what's happening;
• Tropical High-Elevation House - representing three distinct areas where orchids grow at 6,000 to 10,000 feet elevation; and
• The Orchid Display Room - where you'll find even more fascinating orchid species, including a few surprises!

Orchid Daze 2020 | Atlanta Botanical Garden | Photo: Travis Swann Taylor

This brightly colored entrance to the Luis Barragán-inspired Orchid Daze 2020 beautifully represents some of the beautiful contemporary gardens of Mexico. Influenced by European architects, Barragán primarily worked in Guadalajara and Mexico City.

Orchid Daze 2020 | Atlanta Botanical Garden | Photo: Travis Swann Taylor

On select Saturdays during Orchid Daze you can attend one of the Garden's "Orchid Care Clinics" where you can get expert orchid advice from Orchid Center staff. Drop in 10am-12noon with questions and a maximum of two orchid plants!

• March 7
• April 4

Orchid Daze 2020 | Atlanta Botanical Garden | Photo: Travis Swann Taylor

If you like this exhibition, mark your calendars for the Atlanta Orchid Society's annual Orchid Show & Sale, the last weekend of September at the Atlanta Botanical Garden!

Orchid Daze 2020 | Atlanta Botanical Garden | Photo: Travis Swann Taylor

If you're an orchid enthusiast and you're not already subscribed to The Orchid Column, written and photographed by the Orchid Center's manager Becky Brinkman, bookmark and subscribe now...you'll be so glad you did!

Orchid Daze is free with Garden admission—and admission is free with membership—and on display through Sunday, April 12. As the weather gets warmer, if you'd like to enjoy brunch, lunch or dinner at Longleaf, I recommend reservations, but walk-ins are welcome, too.

Orchid Daze 2019

Get out of the cold and get into the tropical warmth, vibrant colors and delightful fragrances that are this year's Orchid Daze at the Atlanta Botanical Garden! Your experience begins in the Conservatory Lobby...

Orchid Daze 2019 | Atlanta Botanical Garden | Photo: Travis Swann Taylor

Orchid Daze is one of my favorite wintertime getaways and it can be yours too through 
Sunday, April 7. (If you're a local, keep an eye out for the "Gently Used Orchid Sale" following the close of the exhibition.)

The exhibition begins in the Conservatory Lobby and continues throughout most of the connected Orchid Center. There's not a specific theme, per se, but the exhibition is cohesive and spectacular. The colors, the featured art, and the display techniques are all dazzling. I truly believe you'll just love it!

Orchid Daze 2019 | Atlanta Botanical Garden | Photo: Travis Swann Taylor

Throughout the Orchid Daze exhibition are brilliant, large-format orchid photographs! They're spectacular! The photo above is one of them, me peeking at it through live orchids on the right and upper right.

The artist of these magnificent photographs is local, award-winning photographer Parish Kohanim. I've just read a long article about his life and it's fascinating. More than that, his devotion to his craft is heartwarming and inspiring. 

See more of Parish's work at Parish Kohanim Fine Art.

Orchid Daze 2019 | Atlanta Botanical Garden | Photo: Travis Swann Taylor

My favorite feature of this year's Orchid Daze exhibition are the six pendulous displays of bamboo canes featuring a wide range of orchids in varying colors, many of them the large-flowered orchids! Those displays are in the Orchid Center.

Orchid Daze 2019 | Atlanta Botanical Garden | Photo: Travis Swann Taylor

Tomorrow is the Garden's annual Vanilla Sunday, 1pm-4pm. There will be activities for kids and adults, discovery stations, cooking demonstrations and more! 

Orchid Daze 2019 | Atlanta Botanical Garden | Photo: Travis Swann Taylor

There's another spectacular Parish Kohanim photograph behind these gorgeous orchids!

I've mentioned is many times before, but maybe you missed it or your a new wanderlust ATLANTA follower. If you're a avid orchid enthusiast, not only do you have to see this exhibition, you'll also want to follow The Orchid Column, a blog about orchids written and beautifully photographed by the Atlanta Botanical Garden's Orchid Center Manager Becky Brinkman.

Orchid Daze 2019 | Atlanta Botanical Garden | Photo: Travis Swann Taylor

Also, for every level of orchid enthusiast, the annual Atlanta Orchid Society Show & Sale will take place Friday-Sunday, March 8-10, 9am-5pm. I've attended many times over the years and it's always splendid! You'll be glad you went. 

Think about making it a day at the Garden. See the Orchid show in Day Hall, see Orchid Daze, see Atlanta Blooms!, make lots of photos to enjoy later, and then take in lunch or dinner at Longleaf! 

Orchid Daze 2019 | Atlanta Botanical Garden | Photo: Travis Swann Taylor

Be sure to stop by the Garden House Gallery to see "Conservation through Creation: The Works of Ed, Philip and Matt Moulthrop", three generations of woodturners! Some of the approximately 40 pieces on display are made from downed trees from the Atlanta Botanical Garden! 

To give you an idea of the level of craftsmanship and artistry you'll see in this exhibition, they have works on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the American Craft Museum of New York, the Carnegie Museum of Art, and Atlanta's High Museum of Art. The pieces on display are also available for purchase.

Orchid Daze 2019 | Atlanta Botanical Garden | Photo: Travis Swann Taylor

Speaking of the High Museum of Art, if you missed Yayoi Kusama's "Infinity Mirrors" exhibition, through spring of 2019 you can see her installation "Narcissus Garden" in Storza Woods. The site-specific exhibition is comprised of approximately 1,400 stainless steel spheres arranged by staff from Kusama's studio in Japan. This work dates to 1966!

Orchid Daze 2019 | Atlanta Botanical Garden | Photo: Travis Swann Taylor

Remember to see Orchid Daze at the Atlanta Botanical Garden by Sunday, April 7, and definitely remember your camera, phone camera, sketch pad, and/or eidetic memory...you'll want remember these beauties well into spring, summer and fall.

Orchid Daze 2017

Orchid Daze 2017, while it doesn't have a specific theme as have some past Orchid Daze exhibitions, is absolutely spectacular and as splendid as orchid fans have come to expect from this Atlanta Botanical Garden annual exhibition. 

Orchid Daze 2017 | Atlanta Botanical Garden | Photo: Travis S. Taylor

I wish I knew the name of the above pictured orchid...it's my favorite in the exhibition! And I'd love to know what in its evolution caused it to manifest such a gorgeous splatter pattern.

Hermann Rorschach inkblots, anyone?

Orchid Daze 2017 | Atlanta Botanical Garden | Photo: Travis S. Taylor

As with any Atlanta Botanical Garden exhibition, there's exhibition specific programming, much of which you've already enjoyed if you're tuned in, BUT there are always orchid opportunities at the Garden.

Stay informed all year long by following "The Orchid Column", authored by Fuqua Orchid Center Manager Becky Brinkman.

Orchid Daze 2017 | Atlanta Botanical Garden | Photo: Travis S. Taylor

The Atlanta Botanical Garden has an Orchid Library, available to staff and researchers, that features a collection of books specific to the study or orchids and to native an global plan conservation. This is one of the items that the Garden doesn't brag about, but totally makes it cool. 

Orchid Daze 2017 | Atlanta Botanical Garden | Photo: Travis S. Taylor

Speaking of orchid conservation, the Atlanta Botanical Garden is considerably more active than most tourists and even Garden members know. They're in the field, effecting positive conservation, on a consistent basis, not to mention what they do onsite.

Orchid Daze 2017 | Atlanta Botanical Garden | Photo: Travis S. Taylor

I recently had the awesome opportunity to bring yet another dear friend to the Atlanta Botanical Garden who had never been. Carole is an enthusiastic lover of orchids—and other plants and flowers—so it was an honor to share Orchid Daze with her. She absolutely love the thousands of blossoms!

Loving these huge purple planters in the lobby of the Conservatory! 

Orchid Daze 2017 | Atlanta Botanical Garden | Photo: Travis S. Taylor

The annual Orchid Society Show is happening right now! I've been to many of them before and highly recommend you go to or put it on your calendar for future years. You're going to see the best of the best!

Orchid Daze 2017 | Atlanta Botanical Garden | Photo: Travis S. Taylor

If you've entered the Orchid Center through the Conservatory, you'll finally pass by the Tissue Culture Lab. If you're a true fan, or future orchid enthusiast, please take one or a few of the information sheets in a tower in front of the Tissue Culture Lab. 

Orchid Daze 2017 | Atlanta Botanical Garden | Photo: Travis S. Taylor

I think we all have friends who are trying or have tried to grow orchids with little success. I know some of those people. Fortunately, for them the Atlanta Botanical Garden offers an Orchid Care Clinic, free with admission, during Orchid Daze! Seriously...learn how to care for these precious flowing plants!

Orchid Daze 2017 | Atlanta Botanical Garden | Photo: Travis S. Taylor

Another wonderful offering of the Atlanta Botanical Garden is its "Plant Hotline". When you have a gardening or plant or flower question, the Master Gardeners at the Plant Hotline will happily answer your questions with a phone all or email. What an awesome perk!!!

Orchid Daze 2017 | Atlanta Botanical Garden | Photo: Travis S. Taylor

Visit Orchid Daze now through April 9 at the Atlanta Botanical Garden to see thousands of spectacular blossoms that you'll only see once a year, and perhaps only once in a lifetime.

Orchid Daze 2016

A world-class exhibition, Orchid Daze: Nature's Wonders at the Atlanta Botanical Garden is magnificent! It's on display through Sunday, April 10, but go soon so you can so you can also see the hundreds of thousands of magnificent spring blooms throughout the 30-acre Garden!

Orchid Daze 2016 | Atlanta Botanical Garden

There are events associated with Orchid Daze, including one more Orchid Market Weekend, hosted in the Visitor Center—the next one is Saturday and Sunday, April 9-10. There's another Orchid Care Clinic coming up on Saturday, April 9, from 10:00 a.m. to noon, reservations required. 

Also going on right now is the annual Atlanta Blooms! exhibition featuring hundreds of thousands of blossoming tulips, daffodils, crocus and more! Having had a mild winter, you'll want to get to the Garden to see all the blossoms on the earlier side this year.

Orchid Daze 2016 | Atlanta Botanical Garden

My first visit to this year's Orchid Daze exhibition was also the first time I'd been to the Garden since December (cue: dropped jaw) and it was the first day of spring, one of the most anticipated dates on my calendar! 

I know, I know...why hadn't I been to the Atlanta Botanical Garden in so long? I had an extremely busy winter, but I was amazed and delighted at how refreshed everything at the Garden seemed. The Fuqua Orchid Center is manicured more than I ever recall it being, but not to the point that it seems unnatural...it's quite stunning. 

Orchid Daze 2016 | Atlanta Botanical Garden

If you're a first time visitor you should know that the Orchid Daze exhibition is displayed in three distinct areas. The introduction to the exhibition is in the lobby of the Fuqua Conservatory, which leads into the Tropical Rotunda. I overheard a visitor in the Conservatory lobby on this particular visit ask is wife, "Is this all?" She excitedly informed him that there was more.

After meandering through the Tropical Rotunda—which is absolutely stunning!—the Orchid Daze exhibition continues in the lobby of the Fuqua Orchid Center. AND it continues further in the adjacent Orchid Center Display Room. Be sure to visit the High Elevation Display Room, also adjacent to the Orchid Center lobby.

Orchid Daze 2016 | Atlanta Botanical Garden

If you're an avid orchid enthusiast I highly recommend subscribing to The Orchid Column, the Atlanta Botanical Garden's orchid blog written (and filled with gorgeous photography) by Fuqua Orchid Center Manager Becky Brinkman...it's an awesome blog!

Oh, and be sure to read the "How We Did It" post, which discusses the execution of this year's Orchid Daze exhibition!

Orchid Daze 2016 | Atlanta Botanical Garden

In recent years the Orchid Daze exhibition has been themed after various artists (2015, 2014, 2013) and they've been magnificent, but this year's show is particularly exceptional! 

Orchid Daze 2016 | Atlanta Botanical Garden

While these orbs presumably represent "worlds", being the space geek that I am, I saw an orchid constellation, so of course I Googled "constellations named for orchids". In my brief search I didn't find any, but I did come across Greek guitarist Andreas Kapsalis who performs "Orchid Constellation" in this video. Having lived in Greece listening to Greek music for more than two years, this was a treat.

Orchid Daze 2016 | Atlanta Botanical Garden

On this particular visit I renewed my Garden membership—I've opted for the dual membership for quite a few years now, so that I may bring a visitor who gets to enjoy the Garden as my guest and then goes and shares with everyone they know just how remarkable and spectacular it is. 

This is the Atlanta Botanical Garden's 40th anniversary, so there's a LOT of fantastic programming going on. If you've ever considered becoming a member, this is the year to do so.

Orchid Daze 2016 | Atlanta Botanical Garden

We went earlier in the morning and the lighting was prefect! If you can arrange an early visit and you're a shutterbug, you'll appreciate the early day light as much as I did.

Orchid Daze 2016 | Atlanta Botanical Garden

When we were at the Garden to see Orchid Daze the Atlanta Bonsai Society was hosting their annual show in Day Hall. It's always been a fantastic show, but this year was exceptional! From the entries to the way they were displayed, I was thoroughly impressed! I made a few photos with my phone, but none to share here, sorry. Be sure to mark your calendar for next year's show!

Orchid Daze 2016 | Atlanta Botanical Garden

I love the color yellow! Dark red is my favorite color of all, but yellow has been a lifelong favorite, too. The flower pictured above is not an orchid, but it's one of the many, many non-orchid flowers in the Fuqua Orchid Center. That's to say that the flora in the Orchid Center is as diverse as the species of orchid. 

Orchid Daze: Nature's Wonders at the Atlanta Botanical Garden is on display through Sunday, April 10. It's free with admission! Be sure to make time to explore the full 30 acres of our magnificent Garden!

Orchid Daze 2015

The Atlanta Botanical Garden is celebrating another magnificent Orchid Daze exhibition. For more than a decade, the Garden has celebrated this incredibly popular flowering plant with a signature display.

Orchid Daze: Pop! - Atlanta Botanical Garden

The last three exhibitions—including 2015—have been fashioned after a specific style of art. This year the focus is on Pop Art.

Orchid Daze: Pop! features three famous pop artists, each iteration located in a different area. And I love that they always print—on a wall, on the floor, floating in mid-air—a quote from the featured artists. Be sure to look for each of them!

Orchid Daze: Pop! - Atlanta Botanical Garden

Entering the Fuqua Conservatory lobby, where the first Pop artist is featured, you immediately recognize who it is. 

Orchid Daze: Pop! - Atlanta Botanical Garden

The dozens of soup cans and the brightly colored triptychs just scream Andy Warhol!

One of my favorites of his, and you'll probably know it too, is "Marilyn" Portfolio of 10 Silkscreens, part of the permanent collection at the nearby High Museum of Art. It's not currently on exhibit, but I distinctly remember seeing it in 2011.

Orchid Daze: Pop! - Atlanta Botanical Garden

If you're an orchid enthusiast, and so many of the people I know are, may I recommend subscribing to the Garden's orchid blog—The Orchid Column. It's authored by Becky Brinkman, who's more than an orchidologist. She's an excellent writer and a magnificent photographer! I think you'll really enjoy the blog. I certainly have. 

The blog has its own Instagram account, too!

Orchid Daze: Pop! - Atlanta Botanical Garden

Keith Haring, another personal favorite—evidently I like Pop Art more than I thought I did!—is featured in the Orchid Atrium in the Orchid Center. There's no denying that his work is one of the most widely recognized "visual languages" of the 20th Century. That fascination and his activism even today remain impressive.

Orchid Daze: Pop! - Atlanta Botanical Garden

What's your most prevalent memory of Pop Art?

Orchid Daze: Pop! - Atlanta Botanical Garden

As of this writing, there's one more Orchid Market Weekend scheduled during this exhibition. It features live orchids, orchid supplies, art, jewelry and more...including orchid advice!

The only remaining 2015 Orchid Market Weekend is scheduled for Saturday and Sunday, April 4-5.

I took a couple of friends to see Orchid Daze: Pop! last weekend when the annual Atlanta Orchid Show, presented by the Atlanta Orchid Society, was at the Garden. I didn't make as many photos as I usually do, but my friends enjoyed it immensely! If you've never seen it, be sure to watch for the announcement from the Garden for next year's Orchid Show.

Orchid Daze: Pop! - Atlanta Botanical Garden

If you've ever been a fan of comic books and are of a certain age, you can't not know the work of Roy Lichtenstein! Of course he's not a comic artist...he's an artist who often used comics to inspire his work...his magnificent work!

Orchid Daze: Pop! - Atlanta Botanical Garden

Tomorrow is the first day of spring and it brings with it the annual Atlanta Blooms! exhibition. Visitors will enjoy hundreds of thousands of blossoms, a great many of them my personal favorite flower...tulips! 

Atlanta Blooms! is seasonal and the length of the exhibition is determined totally by Mother Nature, but when I was there last weekend there were quite a few daffodils and other bulbs, including tulips, already making an appearance.

Orchid Daze: Pop! - Atlanta Botanical Garden

Orchid Daze: Pop! is on display at the Atlanta Botanical Garden through Sunday, April 12. See you at the Garden!

Saint Nick at the Garden

Known by many names—"Father Christmas" in England, "Papa Noel" in Argentina, and "Weihnachtsmann" in Germany—Santa Claus is being tracked by NORAD around the world...as I type! Many, many children are hopeful, as am I, that he and his reindeer stop in Atlanta.

Before he started circumnavigating of the globe—which he does in a single night, nonetheless—Saint Nick was at the Atlanta Botanical Garden for a visit with kiddies and families, now a Garden tradition of more than a decade. 

He shared with some of the kids his name variations in the different countries he visits, and they listened quite attentively, a favor he returned when they shared their Christmas gift wish lists.

Saint Nick at the Atlanta Botanical Garden

I've had the pleasure of meeting and talking with Saint Nick during more than one holiday season and I have to say...he's awesome! And he's brilliant with the kids...even the hesitant ones. A "gimme a high five" or a "are you a princess" and they're quick friends, anxious to share with him what they hope to be gifted for Christmas.

Saint Nick has made photos with visitors in various parts of the Garden over the years. When regaling his years of visits to the Garden, he recalled the Chihuly in the Garden exhibition back in 2004. For at least the last couple of years, he's visited with families in the Fuqua Orchid Center. 

Poinsettia Tree at the Atlanta Botanical Garden

This year's Poinsettia Tree, located in the Orchid Center, is yet another spectacle of holiday gorgeousness! This one, the backdrop for this years photos with Saint Nick, was made with a total of 500 plants—230 Jubilee Pink Poinsettia and 270 Dracaena Lemon Lime! At the base are more pink and green plants and flowers, including a smattering of pure white Amaryllis. 

Learn more about the creation of the Poinsettia Tree in The Orchid Column, authored by Fuqua Orchid Center Manager Becky Brinkman.

If you've not met Saint Nick at the Atlanta Botanical Garden, keep an eye out for next year's holiday events listing on their website. Oh, and photos with Saint Nick—which a Garden volunteer is happy to make with your own camera—are free with Garden admission.

Ho, Ho, Ho and Happy Holidays, Everyone!