Chic Goes Wild: Orchids, part 1

Orchids. I’ve never been a fan of them, they are the typical ”I’m very well looked after by your mum” freckled-faced, pompous looking aliens, that sits proudly in the living room bay window at your parents’s house. Orchids are known for being as high maintenance, attention greedy prima donnas, and picky little buggars. Also, they’re perfect as Mother’s Day gifts, my mum has about 7 altogether and they’re mostly identical, 3 went to a new home, and accidentally killed one because I didn’t bother water the plant for several weeks, it died of drought.

It wasn’t until recently that I’ve changed my mind about orchids, when Bicester Village* teamed up with Kew Gardens to host a morning orchid master class as part of this spring’s Chic Goes Wild campaign, and to support global conservation projects and protect some of the world’s most endangered wild flower species. The masterclass was held at The Tropical Nursery, Orchid Collection Manager, Christopher Ryan talked us through the wonderful world of Orchids and had a little wonder in the nursery which houses cacti and succulents, moist tropical, orchids, and temperate and island flora, my idea of paradise. Did you know there are over 20,000 species of Orchids growing in the wild? They mostly grow in the rainforests all over the world except Antarctica, no wonder they love the humidity and shaded environments, albeit high maintenance. The Orchid family is the most diverse group of plants on earth with so many various unique characteristics – shapes, sizes, scents, colours and patterns, along with the commercially-grown supermarket orchids, there are about 150,000 hybrids. A big kowtow to the Orchid Family.

Stay tuned for part 2 of the Kew orchid festival.

*Kit Lee of Style Slicker was a guest of Chic Outlet Shopping - Bicester Village and Kew Gardens.

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