Last week to see the Orchids at The New York Botanical Garden

Talk about eye candy!

Celebrating its 10-year milestone this year, the ever-popular horticultural show at The New York Botanical Garden (NYBG) is a sight for winter-weary eyes.

It’s akin to stepping from the world of black and white to color ¾ think Dorothy whirling and whipped to a froth from her two-tone farm in Kansas to the dazzling colored world beyond the rainbow and you kind get the thrilling sensual sensation of entering a portal into another world. 

Words are hard to come by to describe the star-studded beauty of the horticultural display.  It does leave you breathless.

While the world of orchids is stunning and the display gardens reminds us how much we adore the exotic and curious other-world of plants, the French artist and botanist, Patrick Blanc, along with the NYBG curators also deserve more than a few awards for determining how to set up and showcase this superb celebration of the plant world’s answer to Tiffany’s that so capture our imaginations. And our hearts.

Blanc is French. So there is more to love there and his winking insight to the botanic garden show is charming  

I saw the show being set up – and even that was an amazing site: it was a behind the scenes peek into the vertical magic being created.

And while orchids are found on every continent, you won’t see anything anywhere like Patrick Blanc’s Vertical Gardens NYBG Orchid Show at the Garden’s Enid A. Haupt Conservatory  

The show is a wonder and a must-see – even though it’s the last week of the show, the experts at NYBG know how to keep the plants as pristine as opening day, rotating any recalcitrant orchid divas out with fresh, new ingénues. 

Any not at all like the Philadelphia Flower Show this year.  I have it on the best authority that the tropical theme this year seemed to create plant fatigue.  So the displays were less than spectacular which is a whispered disappointment to those who expect the very best from this fairy godmother of all plant shows…

And as Donna Summer once sang, this is your last chance for love, your last chance for romance...

The romance of Orchid Evenings, that is. 

Friday April 20, 6:30 to 9pm is the last of the Orchid evenings.

This is where the fantasy really takes flight…

You can enjoy a signature cocktail, elegant beauty, and music.

That is some swanky razzamatazz.

The Vanilla Ginger Moon cocktail is a dreamy confection created for Orchid Evenings by the new Bar in Dylan’s Candy Bar

The cocktail is a sweet brew of plants that know how to party, including corn whisky, Liquor 43  -- that is a vanilla extracted from orchids – plus 42 other botanic flavors such as citrus, fruits, herbs and spices. (you do the math!)

One of the best write-ups for the NYBG Orchid show was blogged by my garden friends at Garden Bytes from the Big Apple  

The two Ellen’s are hort experts and writers – and if that is not Linked-In enough worthy, they are oh, so much more. 

If you love plants, the art of the garden and solid hort advice, you will find their blog a stimulating and informative destination.

Visit the Garden or visit the website if you are not lucky enough to be able to visit this gem of a cultural institution.

Visit NYBG this week.  Instagram the show (see NYBG notations) and Pin me at Gardens I love: http://pinterest.com/gardenglamour/gardens-i-love/