Festival highlights one of world’s beloved blooms
Print Edition
The second annual Chenshan International Orchid Festival, China’s biggest exhibition in tribute to the popular flower, will be held from March 29 to April 20 at the Shanghai Chenshan Botanic Garden.
A sea of color will sweep the garden’s seven exhibition halls, with more than 1,000 orchid species from the mainland, Hong Kong, Taiwan and 15 foreign countries.
On each weekend during the festival, science lectures and activities related to orchid growing and appreciation will be offered to visitors.
The orchid is a flower appreciated across the world. Its delicate beauty belies its name — which means “testicle” in ancient Greek, after the shape of its root — and its somewhat macabre mythological origins. The ancients told of Orchis, the son of a nymph and a satyr, who drank too much at a forest orgy and attempted to rape a priestess. As punishment, he was torn to shreds. His father prayed for him to be restored, but the gods instead changed him into a flower.
Visitors to the festival will have the opportunity to view the many incarnations of Orchis up close. Horticulturists will be on hand to show visitors how to distinguish different orchid species by their color and shapes.
Chen Longhui, a Taiwan orchid expert and consultant at the botanic garden, will be there to give professional advice on how to grow orchids at home.
Children will be encouraged to join in the festivities by painting pictures of the flowers.
In its first year in 2013, the orchid festival attracted about 280,000 visitors.
The website of the botanic garden offers up-to-date information on orchids and the festival. It also sells orchid pots and other gardening tools. The garden is using the popular WeChat mobile-phone tool to attract more young people to the event.
To entertain visitors, Songjiang folk art performances will be given on the central stage.
Date: March 29-April 20, 8am-5:30pm (The greenhouses close at 5pm)
Admission: 60 yuan
Address: 3888 Chenhua Rd
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