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 2018 - A Lush Wintertime Escape!

Your escape from winter doldrums is at the Atlanta Botanical Garden in the form of their spectacular annual Orchid Daze exhibition, on display now through April 8.

Orchid Daze 2018 | Atlanta Botanical Garden | Photo: Travis S. Taylor

The Dorothy Chapman Fuqua Orchid Center is home to one of the largest orchid collections in the U.S., featuring more than 2,000 species of the 25,000 species of orchids around the world. This annual exhibition features additional thousands of orchid blooms during the coldest time of the year...the perfect excuse to visit the Atlanta Botanical Garden in winter! 

Orchid Daze 2018 | Atlanta Botanical Garden | Photo: Travis S. Taylor

Presented in the Fuqua Conservatory and Dorothy Chapman Fuqua Orchid Center, this annual exhibition complements the country’s largest permanent collection of species orchids—more than 2,000 species—with thousands more bold, bright flowers and tropical foliage.

Orchid Daze 2018 | Atlanta Botanical Garden | Photo: Travis S. Taylor

Jewel-toned Vandas will be the highlight of the Orchid Display House. Striking geometric forms, designed by Ryan Mathern, will provide a hanging framework for blue, pink, yellow and orange Vandas—among the most spectacular of the large-flowered orchids.

Orchid Daze 2018 | Atlanta Botanical Garden | Photo: Travis S. Taylor

Orchid Daze finds the most avid orchid enthusiasts examining even the more commonly known orchids in great detail. The Atlanta Botanical Garden itself has a decades long program that involves orchid research and conservation.

If you entered the Orchid Center through the Conservatory, just beyond the display rooms you'll find an observation window looking into an orchid research lab. There's even an Orchid Library, one of two of the Garden's libraries.

Orchid Daze 2018 | Atlanta Botanical Garden | Photo: Travis S. Taylor

The primary display in the Orchid House, home to orchids 6,000 feet elevation and below, is enhanced with geometric forms and towering almost to the ceiling. 

Orchid Daze 2018 | Atlanta Botanical Garden | Photo: Travis S. Taylor

Orchid Daze is always supplemented with other tropical plants. One of this year's is a real treat. It's a dozens of Nepentheses Pitcher Plants! If you noticed the green Chihuly chandelier when you entered the Garden through the Visitor Center, you've seen a Nepenthese Pitcher Plant! 

That sculpture is from the Chihuly exhibition of 2004. It's one of the two sculptures the Garden kept after the exhibition, this particular one being a gift from a Garden member, gifted in memory of a friend. At the top of the chandelier are three maroon lipped pieces that were designed after Nepenthese Pitcher Plants...actually, from live plants from this Garden! 

Orchid Daze 2018 | Atlanta Botanical Garden | Photo: Travis S. Taylor

As part of the Orchid Daze extravaganza the Atlanta Botanical Garden is offering FREE Orchid Care Clinics! You can bring in two orchids to receive care and you can get new planting material for a nominal fee.

Orchid Daze 2018 | Atlanta Botanical Garden | Photo: Travis S. Taylor

There are a couple more Orchid Market Weekends where you can pick up an orchid or a few, as well as supplies, orchid advice, orchid art, and jewelry! 

Orchid Daze 2018 | Atlanta Botanical Garden | Photo: Travis S. Taylor

I like to take this time to remind my readers, especially those who are serious orchid enthusiasts, to read The Orchid Column by Becky Brinkman. It's free and Becky does her own photography—she's brilliant!

Orchid Daze 2018 | Atlanta Botanical Garden | Photo: Travis S. Taylor

"Towering" is the word to describe this year's Orchid Daze exhibition at the Atlanta Botanical Garden. Crane your necks upward and prepare to be wholly delighted. Make your way to the Garden by Sunday, April 8 to see the magnificent thousands of extra blossoms!

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 Society Show 2014

One of the perks of the Atlanta Botanical Garden's Orchid Daze exhibition is that the Atlanta Orchid Society holds their annual Orchid Show at the Garden...and it was pretty awesome!

Atlanta Orchid Society's Orchid Show, Atlanta Botanical Garden

The Show is presented in Day Hall, adjacent to the Parterre Garden, and fills the entire space. I can't imagine how many orchid blossoms there are in the show! And I always see varieties that I've never seen before—not terribly difficult given orchids have more varieties than any other flowering plant on Earth!

Atlanta Orchid Society's Orchid Show, Atlanta Botanical Garden

I'm loving the first few photos in this post. All the photos are of course mine, but they turned out well because some of the vendors provided dramatic lighting...fantastic for those of us who had cameras—and there were a LOT of us!

Atlanta Orchid Society's Orchid Show, Atlanta Botanical Garden

One of the vendors, artist Larry Mayse of Nature Glassworks, "was one of only 17 artists worldwide selected by the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., to have works included in their The Artistry of Orchids exhibit." His resume is quite impressive!

Some of his Mayse's work was on display at the Show and it's stunning!

Atlanta Orchid Society's Orchid Show, Atlanta Botanical Garden

A few of the others at the show were Kool-logs, Peach State Orchids, Orchid Inn, Marble Branch Farms, J&L Orchids, Owen's Orchids, Odom's Orchids, Chidori Orchids Study Group, and several others.

Atlanta Orchid Society's Orchid Show, Atlanta Botanical Garden

"The Atlanta Orchid Society was formed in 1947 as a non-profit organization for people to learn about orchids, share their knowledge and experiences, and promote their love of orchids." - Atlanta Orchid Society website

They've been around since the year my mother was born! And they're one chapter of approximately 550 local chapters associated with the American Orchid Society. Who knew there were so many?!

Atlanta Orchid Society's Orchid Show, Atlanta Botanical Garden

The Atlanta Orchid Society meets at 8:00 p.m. on the second Monday of each month at the Atlanta Botanical Garden and they welcome visitors! I've not seen any hard data, but I believe that given the popularity of the Fuqua Orchid Center as a Garden destination, the Society's membership must be pretty enthusiastic. 

Atlanta Orchid Society's Orchid Show, Atlanta Botanical Garden

If you'd like to learn more about orchids, the Atlanta Orchid Society has a decent Orchids 101 on their website. And of course the Atlanta Botanical Garden has a number of resources, including The Orchid Column, a blog authored by Becky Brinkman, Manager of the Fuqua Orchid Center, and an orchid reference library.

Atlanta Orchid Society's Orchid Show, Atlanta Botanical Garden

If you missed the Show, you can still catch Orchid Daze through Sunday, April 13, and you can visit the Fuqua Orchid Center all year long! You'll never be for want of spending time exploring the amazing world of gorgeous and interesting orchids.

Atlanta Orchid Society's Orchid Show, Atlanta Botanical Garden

If you'd like to see a few more unique orchids, check out these on the Orchid Society's website.

Atlanta Orchid Society's Orchid Show, Atlanta Botanical Garden

The Orchid Show takes place every year during Orchid Daze, and there are LOT of other shows at the Garden throughout the year, so "Like" them on Facebook, become a member and get the member newsletter Clippings, or sign-up for Garden emails, which include event announcements.