Hi All,

Greetings from the Smithsonian Garden Orchid Collection. 

Smithsonian Gardens would like to offer Sunday,  March 29th for a 1 hr. walk-through of this year’s More Than A Flower: The Connective Power of Orchids Exhibition at NMAAHC.  Lead Horticulturist Justin Kondrat ’14 will give a guided tour of this year’s Orchid Exhibition 

REGISTRATION - 2 part registration required

1) Get a timed ticket (free) for admission to the National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC).   The tour starts at 1PM, so make sure your timed entry ticket is earlier.   https://tickets.si.edu/nmaahc/events/4561cfa0-226f-6a98-2228-1b72ec70494f  (Do this ASAP since tickets can “sell out”)

2) Register on this Cornell Club site to join Justin's special tour at 1PM.   Member only priority until 3/11/25.  Open to all after that date.

The tour would meet in the Heritage Hall on the main level and proceed to Level 2

About this year’s exhibition: Smithsonian Gardens and the U.S. Botanic Garden (USBG) will present the 30th annual orchid exhibition this year in collaboration with the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC), exploring the many ways orchids connect individuals, communities, and nature. “More than a Flower: The Connective Power of Orchids,” open Jan. 30–April 26 on the second floor of the museum, will feature hundreds of live orchids from the Smithsonian Gardens and USBG collections, marking 30 years of partnership between the two organizations. For the first time, the orchid exhibition will open at NMAAHC, which is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year.

“More than a Flower” shares the fresh and fragrant beauty of live orchids and connects stories, scholarship and art to these extraordinary plants. Through a daily interactive orchid discovery station and video demonstrations of orchid care, visitors will learn how to easily and properly care for their own orchids. The exhibition will also highlight orchids named for prominent African Americans, including Oprah Winfrey and Aretha Franklin, and introduce lesser-known stories about the impact of orchids and the people behind them.

Duration: 1 hr.