Installing large quantities of native orchids into a park or neighborhood can be a fun community project or can be handled by a city’s landscape crew. Volume discounts make it affordable for:

  • City Parks & Recreation departments
  • Home owners associations
  • Assisted living facililties
  • Garden clubs
  • Orchid societies
  • Anyone doing native plant restoration or wetlands mitigation
Stunson Nature Trail, Oakland Park

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:

  • Site visit – we will visit your site and do an assessment of the landscape and species that would do well. We pick a date for planting.
  • Installer recruitment – you schedule staff or get volunteers to help on planting day and arrange for watering on an as needed basis.
  • Ceremonial event and initial installation – kickoff event, featuring training and support. The installation team 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”.
  • Follow up plantings… we will deliver orchids in reasonable size batches 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)
  • 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.
  • Cost recovery of approximately $3.00 and up per plant; this will vary depending on the site requirements, quantities, and species used.
Variety of orchids awaiting delivery

What orchids are included?

The varieties of orchids used on any given installation will vary depending on availability and suitability for the site. Most installations are at least 80% Encyclia tampensis grown from seed we collected in Broward County.

Other species we have worked with include:

Bletia purpurea
Cyrtopodium punctatum
Encyclia boothiana
Epidendrum anceps
Epidendrum nocturnum
Oncidium ensatum
Prosthechea cochleata var. triandra
Trichocentrum undulatum
Various species of vanilla

More information

Videos and articles – Broward County projects

Videos and articles – Fairchild and Pine Jog