Million Orchid Project

Fort Lauderdale Orchid Society has joined Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden’s “Million Orchid Project” to help restore endangered native orchid species in Broward County. We are looking for partners for 2021 like local schools, governments, neighborhood groups, civic associations, and other orchid societies. Get in touch!

History

Our Kickoff Event was on January 23, 2019, at War Memorial Auditorium. We had a great crowd and many helpers to install native orchids into the trees in front of the Auditorium.

Longer video is available too!

In 2019 we partnered with Broward College South Campus, Colee Hammock Homeowners Association (CHHOA), and the City of Fort Lauderdale to install native orchids in their environments. We trained Florida Master Gardener volunteers, Boy Scouts, students, faculty, city staff, and residents in the orchids’ installation and maintenance.

In 2020 we continued to develop Broward County partnerships, including:

  • Colee Hammock Homeowners Association
  • Riverland Manors Civic Association
  • City of Oakland Park
  • River Oaks neighborhood

Due to COVID we worked in smaller groups but we still got out over 2,000 orchids. The Stunson Nature Trail installation was particularly rewarding. ( link to article )

2021 Partners

This year we are looking forward to working with many cities and organizations including:

  • Colee Hammock Homeowners Association
  • Coral Springs Garden Club
  • City of Oakland Park, Stunson Nature Trail
  • Equality Garden Club and the City of Wilton Manors
  • City of Fort Lauderdale – Snyder Park
  • Broward County Extension
  • City of Weston

How does it work?

Plantings are done in summer to take advantage of the rainy season. The following is a general outline of how a project is structured:

  1. Site visit – experts from FLOS will visit your site and do an assessment of the landscape and species that would do well. We pick a date for planting.
  2. Volunteer recruitment – you get volunteers to help on planting day and arrange for watering on an as needed basis.
  3. Ceremonial event and initial installation – kickoff event, featuring training and support by FLOS. Volunteers from the partnering organization are trained in how to install orchids in trees and plant terrestrials in the ground. We usually install about 100 orchids at the “ceremonial”.
  4. Follow up plantings… we will deliver orchids on a weekly basis for installation by your volunteers.

Orchids are planted in groups, with anywhere from ten to fifty per tree for tree orchids. Ground orchids also look best in groups.

Partners will be responsible for

  • Installing orchids (with training and assistance) following recommendations of FLOS and Fairchild
  • Commit to watering for first five weeks, and occasionally thereafter during dry spells until they are established. Standard protocol is daily water for a week, then every other day for a month.

What orchids are included?

The varieties of orchids used on any given installation will vary depending on availability and suitability for the site. Species we have worked with include:

Bletia purpurea
Cyrtopodium punctatum
Encyclia boothiana
Encyclia tampensis
Epidendrum anceps
Epidendrum nocturnum
Oncidium ensatum
Prosthechea cochleata var. triandra
Trichocentrum undulatum

Culture sheets for several species are available for downloading.

selected installation protocols

Videos and articles – FLOS Projects

Videos and articles – Fairchild and Pine Jog

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