Spring Fling: 2026 NYC Orchid Show at the NYBG

When it’s still snowing in March, I get depressed. After a long winter, I’m ready to hose off the patio furniture, load up on flats of pansies from Home Depot and make a serious decision about whether this is the last year I can realistically go sleeveless. Spring is supposed to feel hopeful. Slushy sidewalks and a gray sky do not help the cause.

My sure-fire way to beat the late-winter blues is a trip to the annual Orchid Show at the New York Botanical Garden, tucked into the Bronx near Arthur Avenue—New York’s real Little Italy. Centered around the iconic Enid A. Haupt Conservatory, the NYBG is home to all good things flora. Held from mid-February through mid-April, the Orchid Show is a lush, mood-lifting escape, featuring dazzling displays of both familiar and exotic species that make you forget, at least temporarily, that you’re still wearing a coat.

The Big Apple in Bloom

Mr. Flower Fantastic at work on an exhibit at the NYBG Orchid Show. Photo credit: Cathy Bennett Kopf

This year’s show adds a distinctly New York twist. Designed by contemporary floral artist Mr. Flower Fantastic, the exhibition transforms recognizable city streetscapes—newsstands, subway stations and other everyday corners of the city—into vibrant, bloom-covered dreamscapes. A Queens native, Mr. Flower Fantastic works anonymously, famously donning goggles and a respirator (a necessity, he’s told The New York Times, thanks to his pollen allergies). Through his work, he invites visitors to see the Big Apple through a softer, more romantic lens—one where orchids tumble down chain link fences and flowers reclaim the city, just in time to remind us that spring really is on its way.

2026 NYBG Orchid Show: Mr. Flower Fantastic’s Concrete Jungle

The 2026 NYBG Orchid Show “Mr. Flower Fantastic’s Concrete Jungle” is open to all visitors with the purchase of an exhibit ticket that includes admission to the garden and grounds. The 2026 dates are February 7 – April 26, 2026. On select Saturday evenings, NYBG hosts Orchid Nights for the 21+ crowd, featuring live music, cocktails and light bites.

2025 NYBG Orchid Show: Mexican Modernism

The 2025 NYBG Orchid Show “Mexican Modernism” is open to all visitors with the purchase of an exhibit ticket that includes admission to the garden and grounds. The 2025 dates are February 15 – April 27, 2025. On select Saturday evenings, NYBG hosts Orchid Nights for the 21+ crowd, featuring live music, cocktails and light bites.

Past Highlights of the NYBG Orchid Show

sherbet colored orchids at the NYBG orchid show — A trip to the Orchid Show at the New York Botanical Garden in NYC will fill your Instagram feed for a year. Photo credit: Cathy Bennett Kopf

This year’s orchid show is solidly rooted in New York City. Last year’s show transported visitors to sunny Mexico. The 2024 theme, “Florals in Fashion,” was inventive and playful. Young designers dressed models in blooming costumes. Some were silly. Others were so gorgeous I wished I could wear them home.

“I want visitors to come away with an unforgettable impression of the color and beauty of orchids.” That was Jeffrey Leatham’s goal in designing the 2020 Annual Orchid Show. Leatham is a noted celebrity floral designer and creative director of the Four Seasons Hotel George V in Paris. The 2020 exhibit felt very intentional, in a good way. The displays were lush, colorful and repetitive to reflect the kaleidoscope theme.

The 2019 orchid exhibition featured a partnership with the Singapore Botanical Gardens and Gardens by the Bay. Guess what the national flower of Singapore is? Duh! The NYBG went to Asia in 2015 too, replicating a Thai “sala” – a traditional pavilion for relaxation, draped with exotic orchids. Both Thailand and Singapore pride themselves on a rich history of cultivating orchids.

An Orchid that Smells Like Vanilla?

Kaleidoscope sculpture at the NYBG Orchid Show by Jeff Leatham — A dramatic kaleidoscope sculpture at the 2020 NYBG Orchid Show. Photo credit: Cathy Bennett Kopf

Old favorites re-appear at the NYBG Orchid Show. Pansy orchids echo the shape and color of spring’s more familiar harbingers and showy corsage orchids attract crowds of photographers. I enjoy the muted shades of some of the taupe and mauve specimens. Did you know that the vanilla bean (used to make pure vanilla extract) is the seed pod of the vanilla orchid? Imagine a room that smells like Grandma’s baking but looks like her chintz sofa.

The Darwin Star is a perennial favorite. Apparently Charles Darwin, after examining a sample of this orchid, insisted that a moth with an extremely long insect tongue must exist in order to pollinate it (think Gene Simmons). Darwin was roundly mocked as no such moth was known to exist in Madagascar, the orchid’s home. Four decades after Darwin’s death, a moth was discovered with brag-worthy tongue proportions supporting the naturalist’s theories.

Interior of the Enid Haupt Conservatory of the NYBG in New York City — The Orchid Show at the NYBG is a popular NYC destination in late winter. Photo credit: Cathy Bennett Kopf

Take Home an Orchid

The New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx, NY, uses the hashtag #plantlove to reinforce the vital connection between people and the living world. One way you can participate is to purchase an orchid. Several varieties are available for sale in the NYBG gift shop including Phalaenopsis, Catleya, Oncidium and Paphiopedelum. Prices are $20 and up. Afraid you’ll kill it? Buy orchid-related merchandise instead.