Royal Orchid Paradise

[Jai Dee]

Royal Orchid Paradise – at Siam Paragon next week – is ready to live up to its tantalising name

Orchids are, quite simply, amazing. They’re the standouts at any flower show, and the variations never seem to end. So it’s going to be a major treat for the senses when 20,000 orchids are displayed next week at Siam Paragon.

There will be nine different lineages in 80 colours at “The Royal Orchid Paradise” from May 18 to 24 – the number of hues corresponding to the birthday in December of His Majesty the King, in whose honour the show is being held.

His Majesty pointed out in 1991 that there are many rare species of Thai orchids and encouraged people to help preserve and cultivate them.

Thailand has since become the world’s second-largest orchid exporter after the Netherlands. We ship some Bt2.5 billion worth of blossoms annually and Bt500 million worth of plants.

And yet the Bt10-billion orchid industry is a fraction of the country’s overall flower market, estimated at Bt500 billion, so growers know there’s still a lot of room to grow.

The Thai climate has been found to favour more than 174 separate orchid lines, and these have been nurtured into more than a thousand hybrids.

In fact, says Horticultural Science Society of Thailand president Ananta Dalodom, local orchid cultivation has advanced in leaps and bounds.

“Apart from the natural species, there are plenty of hybrids, which are more distinguished and more beautiful,” he notes.

“Orchids have become an important economic crop thanks to the prices they command, the growers’ competence and the initiative and support of Their Majesties the King and Queen. Her Majesty, for example, sponsors her own project to preserve and develop the Lady Slipper species.”

Next week’s show – to which admission is free – will feature a competition for the Crystal Royal Trophy, to be awarded by Her Royal Highness Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn, and an exhibition of watercolour paintings by Somjai Reiss.

The plants on view at the Royal Orchid Paradise will come from the gardens of Chaiwat Withayatornrat, Suwan Hirunworawuttikul and Viroj Varasrai.

- by Kupluthai Pungkanon - The Nation