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How Did They Do That? Towering Nine-foot Tall Orchid Standards

First impressions matter. And for many visitors the first impression of Orchid Extravaganza occurs when stepping inside the entry pavilion of the East Conservatory—where four larger-than-life, violet orchid standards are planted in colossal concrete urns greet each guest.

These spherical orchid displays look more like a work of art than a floral arrangement. Each standard towers at 9-feet tall, has 120 orchids and has 26 asparagus ferns. It takes a team of eight gardeners and designers to create each one.

“Every year we get faster and better at putting these show-stoppers together,” says gardener and project leader Jason Simpson. “This is the third year we’ve done the orchid standards and it only took our team a day-and-a-half to build the four displays, which is much quicker and more efficient than before.” 

How They Do It, Step-By-Step:
Simpson says Longwood’s orchid standard team starts with an empty metal 9-foot frame.

“We best describe these frames as a globe sitting on top of a large tree trunk,” says Simpson. Next, the root balls of the orchids and asparagus fern are inserted into the metal frame with a thin layer of sphagnum moss on the outside to cover the frame.

Each root ball gets held firmly in place with a long metal pin, so they all end up interlocked together.

“One of the secrets to our success lies within the center of the topiaries,” says Simpson. “The team uses plastic baggies of packing peanuts as space fillers because they’re a lot lighter than potting soil so the topiaries aren’t any more top heavy than need be," Simpson explaines.

Finally, each flower stalk gets staked with a bamboo stake so that as the flowers open up and the stems get heavier, they don’t all settle toward the bottom and the topiaries keep their shape throughout the display.

(See photo of the orchid standard assembly above).

‘Longwood Debutante’ Makes Her Debut Into Clivia Society

The luminous yellow ‘Longwood Debutante’ flower has been keeping Clivia enthusiasts waiting and Longwood Gardens horticulturists busy at work for the past 35 years. And on March 19, 2011 the wait is over.

Longwood Gardens is releasing its first named Clivia from the Gardens' on-site breeding program during the North American Clivia Society International Symposium and Show hosted at Longwood Gardens on March 19-20, 2011. An international cast of speakers will present during the symposium, including Ken Smith from Australia who manages the Clivia registry, James Abel from South Africa who is an expert on Clivia in the wild, Harold Koopowitz who wrote the book on Clivia, Jim Comstock who dazzles with a 3D Clivia slide show, and Dr. Robert Armstrong who started the Clivia breeding program at Longwood.

Research Assistant Alan Petravich has been leading the quest to develop a rare yellow-flowered Clivia plant since 2007. He says, “For me the most exhilarating part of the entire breeding process was finally seeing the ‘Longwood Debutante’ bloom.”

Petravich says that ‘Longwood Debutante’ won’t be the final Clivia release developed by the Longwood Gardens breeding program. “Although this is the first release, there are future Clivia releases in the works,” says Petravich.

The development of this Clivia stems all the way back to 1976 when the breeding program started at Longwood Gardens. “Back then, orange was the common color of Clivia,” says Petravich who studied how beautiful and rare yellow flowers on Clivia plants were.

He says,” ‘Longwood Debutante’ has achieved the goal of the breeding program. Her flowers are slightly fragrant with petals that overlap to produce a beautiful floral display.”

Why did it take so long to release the first plant? One factor that slowed the program was the extended period of time that it takes for a Clivia seedling to mature. Seedlings can take up to eight years to bloom from the time the seed is planted.

“The process is sped up in the research greenhouses by keeping the seedlings actively growing all year long,” says Petravich.

‘Longwood Debutante’ Clivia are not allowed to go dormant in the winter. Petravich says, “The trick is to get the seedling to mature quickly and maturity occurs when the plant produces 13 leaves. At 13 leaves the plant is ready to produce a flower.”

When you finally have a blooming plant, the plants are slow to multiply. Petravich says it can take years for the parent plant to produce offsets. Results are slow in Clivia breeding, but they are worth the wait.

A limited number of these extraordinary and rare Clivia ‘Longwood Debutante’ will be available for sale at the Gardens Shop beginning March 20 for $900. Please call The Gardens Shop at 610-388-5472 to inquire about pre-ordering a ‘Longwood Debutante.”