ORCHID COLLECTION | Getting to Know Orchids

Before coming out to The Huntington this weekend for the annual Southland Orchid Show, listen to Jim Folsom's recent talk on "Getting to Know Orchids." Folsom, the Marge and Sherm Telleen/Marion and Earle Jorgensen Director of the Botanical Gardens, spoke yesterday at the Second Thursday Garden Talk & Plant Sale.

At the orchid show, exhibitors from across the southland are joined by international orchid growers as they display their best blooms for the benefit of judges and the public alike. Large, creatively designed floor installations and intricate tabletop compositions feature hundreds of exotic oncidiums ("Dancing Ladies"), brassias ("Spider Orchids"), paphiopedilums ("Lady Slippers"), and miltonias ("Pansy Orchids"), as well as cattleyas, cymbidiums, vandas, epidendrums, and many other orchid species and hybrids.

The lush floral displays are on view in the Botanical Center's Banta Hall, with additional displays from The Huntington's orchid collections in the adjacent Rose Hills Foundation Conservatory for Botanical Science. And for those who can't resist taking a few exotic plants home, more than a dozen venders are offering a wide variety of orchids and related merchandise for sale.

The orchid show takes place today from noon to 4:30 p.m., and on Saturday and Sunday from 10:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. All activities and exhibits are included with Huntington admission.

Matt Stevens is editor of Huntington Frontiers magazine.