A visit to the orchid festival at Kew

On Friday evening John and I headed to Kew Gardens with Katy and Olly to visit the orchid festival after hours. The event was celebrating the richness of Costa Rica with the gardens annual orchid festival. The event this year showcases the collaboration between local experts in Costa Rica, including Kew's partners at Jardin Botanico Lankester and the scientists at Kew. Between them they are on a mission to understand the rich plant life found in Costa Rica.  Costa Rica was recently awarded the inaugural Protect and Restore Nature Earthshot Prize and is also a major habitat for orchids. The venue was the Princess of Wales Conservatory, which is very difficult to get a good photo of so to see what it looks like and find out some interesting facts about it click Here.

The exhibition was a feast of colour  which was enhanced by a Costa Rican band and dancers. There was food from Costa Rica to sample and the bar served traditional cocktails. We had eaten before we went so didn't try any food but it looked tasty. As Katy is pregnant and so not drinking alcohol we all decided to keep her company and not drink. I took a lot of photos whilst we walked round. There were other flowering plants in the conservatory as well as orchids.

The lighting was set so you could see the flowers well against a dark foliage background, which made their colours more stunning. 

I loved the flower below. It looks so neat and delicate.

I also liked the long points from the petals on this flower.

There were animals on display as well. Not real ones but they provided interest amongst the flowers, sea turtles,

a sloth,

Cheetah

and white bats. Someone had fun creating the creatures. Children were not allowed at the after hours event but I'd have loved to see their faces when they see the animals. Even the adults were smiling and taking photos of them.

This one looked like it was performing a balancing act.

I loved this soft and fluffy creation. Well it may be fluffy but just as easily it could be prickly

Some of the flowers were really small.

I was very attracted to the colour of this one. I can envisage a quilt with this colour in it.

There were also these 4 masks on display. I thought they were fabulous but one or two people found them a little scary,

We also spotted some large birds, not real but beautifully made.

We may try to make time to visit during the day before the exhibition ends since there was so much to see. The conservatory has lots of different levels and I think we missed some areas by mistake.

I hope you enjoyed the photos. I'm hoping to finish the cushions either tomorrow or Wednesday evening. Whilst in Reading tomorrow I'll buy two cushion pads for when I'm ready to gift them. For now I'm off to bed as I am so tired and tomorrow is a busy day.

Take care

Lyndsey