Here I am sowing orchid seeds in the lab at Kew. Botanical Horticulturist and Curator of Living Orchid Collections, Arnau Ribera Tort, took this picture of me at work. 

This summer, I had the honor to work and learn at the Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew in London, England alongside some of the foremost orchid experts in the world. As the Greenhouse Horticulturist and Orchid Specialist at Newfields it is my responsibility to maintain and care for the impressive orchid collection in the Madeline F. Elder Greenhouse and research opportunities like this one help me and (my colleagues across many departments) develop best practices in our areas of study.   

Kew is among the most biodiverse places on Earth and employs over 470 scientists working to understand and protect plants and fungi for the well-being of people and the future of all life on Earth. More specifically, Kew is considered the pinnacle of tropical horticulture. It is home to massive conservatories of living plants, including over 6,000 orchids, an herbarium that contains about seven million preserved plant specimens, laboratories, seed collections, and many of the rarest orchids in the world. Needless to say, for an orchid geek, Kew is the place to be.  

Botanical Horticulturist and Curator of Living Orchid Collections, Arnau Ribera Tort, manages and oversees a portion of Kew’s living orchid collection, and for one week this June, was also responsible for managing me. Arnau spends time with almost every student who visits Kew, he makes sure to maximize their experience. My day-to-day work in the tropical nursery was fairly simple; water or mist, work with Arnau to scout for issues or possible display plants, then a series of tea breaks, talking, lunch, more watering, more tea, then usually some repotting. 

Arnau Ribera Tort working at Kew. 

The horticulturists I worked with took immense pride in their skill and spent as much time as they could learning about the plants and using each other as sounding boards for new ideas. This collaborative environment has allowed Kew to grow some of the rarest plants on the planet and bring a few back from extinction. I repotted orchids that only Kew has ever collected, I spent time in their lab, sowing orchid seeds, and studying the interaction of fungi that live within orchid roots. I spent a few hours talking with Carlos Magdalena, a highly regarded and skilled water plant expert, about his experiences finding unique, rare, and unidentified aquatic plants. 

I took away a LOT from my experience at Kew, but one observation that jumped out to me is how little institutions know about other institutions’ collections. As private orchid collections disappear, the importance of institutional collections like ours in the Madeline F. Elder Greenhouse increases. Impressive, yet small collections play an important role in conservation. In my field, it is common to hear, “Oh I’m sure Kew has one…”, but it isn’t always the case. It is our collective responsibility to maintain diverse collections where we can.  

Inspiration was around every turn at Kew. I was taken by their ability to blend horticulturally important and excellent plants with jaw-dropping displays of color, texture, and fascination, with beautiful results in The Princess of Wales Conservatory, and I hope to be able to incorporate some of this inspiration into the displays on our greenhouse in the coming seasons.  

After an enlightening and exhausting week at Kew, I left feeling empowered to make immediate changes and have some inspiration in my back pocket. I am also thrilled to report that Newfields is a small but mighty ecosystem in the horticulture world, and we are keeping up, if not in front of trends in public gardening. I was truly proud of the work we are doing from seasonal festivals to our orchid displays throughout the Indianapolis Museum of Art Galleries. Not to mention special events like Art in Bloom, Horticulture Forums, and greenhouse classes that are introducing horticulture to more guests than ever and providing new and enriching experiences with art and nature right here in Indianapolis.