I recently showed off my new Phalaenopsis orchids, bought as rewards for achieving my food goals, now enlivening my kitchen window sill.  From your comments – here, on social media, via personal email – I discovered many orchid lovers among our readers, and in garden clubs near me.  Y’all are so enthusiastic, it makes me wish I had room for more of them, and in-person chances to meet these orchidphiles. (Is that a word?)

Then I was invited to the press opening for this year’s Smithsonian/U.S. Botanic Garden Orchid Show, which alternates between those locations and this year is at the USBG.

Here are just a few examples of the variety in color and form on display now in the USBG’s conservatory until April 30.  Out of the 3,000+ orchids in the USBG’s permanent collection, several hundreds are on view during the show at any given – they’re changed out frequently to keep the blooms on display.

What’s new this year? Two fun design features.  One is lamp posts like this one covered with orchids, which I think looks very cool. The other is to display orchids in the shape of DC’s iconic cherry trees, like the one above with the man who designed the whole exhibit (and all the USBG’s exhibits, including the really big holiday show) – Chibueze Ariguzo.  I asked how he learned design and the answer shouldn’t  surprise me – on the job, and “just by making things,” which he calls a life-time habit (including print-making.)  He’s now Supervisor of Exhibits and Displays at the USBG.

So how did he get the job? (I love press events coz they give me  license to be even nosier than usual.) The answer – he studied environmental horticulture at the University of Maryland, so we got to chat about the plant sciences classes there  and a class that we wish were taught there – plant design. Currently he’s enrolled in Oregon State’s online botany class – one of the few like it in the U.S., and one he recommends highly.  We could have chatted for longer, as we live near each other and frequent some of the same hang-outs, but it was time to move on…

…to George Guenthner, someone I think of as the Orchid Whisperer, since he’s responsible for growing them. His title is Orchid Collection Horticulturist, the same job he last held at the Atlantic Botanic Garden.  I also queried George about his schooling (Carleton, U. Minnesota) and he very patiently put up with my nagging him to call plants “plants” instead of “plant material.” Anyone else annoyed by that?

Not far from the temporary exhibit is the permanent Orchid House in the USBG’s conservatory, where we get a glimpse of where orchids might live in the wild. Finally, my selfie with one of the orchids on display in the ladies room, including what may just be the first toilet to appear on GardenRant.

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One more Orchid Show feature worth mentioning are the live online Q&A sessions where you at home can show the orchid whisperer your very own orchid and get his help with your problems. The first such session attracted hundreds and there will be at least two more during the run of the show.  (I’ll post the announcement on our Facebook page.)

(An aside for George:  Are those orchid tats I spy on your arms? Can we get a better look at them?)