Voice: Jim Cocos Resource: Talking Orchid script, Bulletin articles, 2005 and 2006 Orchid Show brochures, Public Relations fact sheet I’m Jim Cocos, Vice President of Horticulture. Orchids are the largest family of flower plants in the world, with some 30 to 35,000 species. That’s nearly 10 percent of all flowering plants! They grow on every continent except Antarctica. About 200 orchid species grow in North America. Thousands more grow in tropical countries. More than 3,500 species are...

Voice: Pat Scace I’m Pat Scace, the exhibit designer. Our exhibit begins as a concept between my assistant and me more than a year before its installation. We change themes each year. Props are designed by us and built by volunteers specific to each show. The display is installed by a team of volunteers and the Horticulture Division staff. Each orchid plant here is part of our permanent collection. We display them to look as natural as possible with epiphytic orchids in trees and...

voice: Babs Wagner Resource: Kemper Center fact sheet I’m Babs Wagner and I take care of the Garden’s orchid collection. It’s one of the largest and finest in the country. We grow more than 8,000 orchid plants behind the scenes, in our greenhouses. They make up our largest living collection, representing over 2,500 unique species, varieties and hybrids. For this display, I try to show you as many different varieties as I can, so you can appreciate their amazing diversity. We grow many rare...

Voice: Deb Springer I’m Deborah Springer and I’d like to tell you about an unusual and fascinating orchid. The Madagascar Star Orchid, also known as “Darwin’s orchid,” blooms only once a year. Charles Darwin suggested that this species and its pollinator, the hawk-moth, provided a dramatic example of co-evolution - how plants and their pollinators influence each other. This flower grows an incredibly long tubular extension, called a nectar spur, up to 11 inches long. A very long spur forces a...

Voice: Jennifer Wolff I’m Jennifer Wolff. Our orchids have a long and proud history at the Garden, but they didn’t always grow here. Back in 1926, the orchids were threatened by dirty city air from coal smoke and industrial pollution. So, the Garden moved them 30 miles west, out to Gray Summit, to what is now the Shaw Nature Reserve. Greenhouses were built there especially for this purpose. The next year, in 1927, an orchid seedling department was started. From the late 1920’s until 1958,...

Voice: Babs Wagner Resources: Public Relations fact sheet, Bulletin articles, Kemper Center handout I’m Peter Raven. The Garden’s orchid collection has a historic connection with one of St. Louis’s longest standing traditions. The Veiled Prophet Parade is one of the country’s oldest parades. The first one was held here in 1878, sponsored by a group of civic leaders who wanted to promote St. Louis commerce. It was modeled on New Orleans’ Mardi Gras celebration. Today, the annual Veiled...

Voice: Chip Tynan Resources: Kemper Center fact sheets, Plant Doctor I’m Chip Tynan of the Horticulture Answer Service. The Garden offers a number of sources for plant care advice. You can call us on weekday mornings at (314) 577-5143. For fact sheets prepared by the Kemper Center for Home Gardening, go online to the Web site, www-dot-gardeninghelp-dot-org. The Garden also offers classes for both novice and experienced orchid growers. Stop by the Kemper Center to use reference materials or...

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