A Day Out at the Kew Garden’s Orchid Festival

We both really love to visit the various exhibitions at Kew Gardens. After attending their Chihuly exhibition earlier this year, we couldn’t miss their Orchid Festival! The Orchid Festival aims to be an exploration of Indonesia, where there are over 5,000 different orchids – from small little flowers to vibrant, huge bundles. The exhibition is within the Princess of Wales Conservatory on the grounds. The cafe also has a themed menu around the Orchid Festival, and there are a few different Indonesia food carts that we saw dotted around. This event runs until March 8th.

After a quick walk through the park, we arrived at the Princess of Wales Conservatory. From the outside, it looked like a pretty small building, but that was nothing compared to what was within it! The first section took us through a small, almost desert like area that contained a few out coves to take photos at. This was more of an entry hall, that opened up to a much grander main area.

The main area was full, as far as the eye can see, with plants and flowers. From pillars of different orchids to a small pond in the middle with a volcano. This place could take the entire day to explore, as there is just so much to see. Walking around the main area, we took a look at the sculptures of different animals and the various tiny and big flowers everywhere. You can explore freely, going from whatever area to the next, until closing. There are a few sides rooms to explore as well, with plants that need to be kept at different temperatures. One room had carnivorous plants, while another had little frogs and fish. Archways of Orchids gave way to small decorations that fit the theme. Walking around taking pictures of everything that caught our eyes kept us busy, as we went deeper into the jungle of flowers.

Looking around at the Orchid Festival is a bit overwhelming once you are in this main area – there is just so much to see and so much to explore. This place has plenty of photo opportunities and a giant wall of ferns and orchids to take pictures next too. Some areas, seemingly at random to us, do let out big bursts of water – misting the plants below. All of the building feels very warm, much like a rain forest we would guess, which is a big contradiction from the cold weather that there has been outside.

We spent a few hours at the exhibition and only saw a third of it before it was closing – you really need to go early in the day if you want to get the full experience. The are is very densely packed with so much to see. They are also running workshops to learn more about the plants, as there wasn’t much to read within the exhibition – just a ton to look at.

You can check out our other Days Out to see what else we’ve been up too!