February 22, 2025 • 12 mins
Even though it's downright frigid outside, the Franklin Park Zoo and Zoo New England are embracing all things tropical at their new "Orchid Adventure" exhibit! Visitors can spend time with some special animals as they admire a lush display of stunning flowers - some real, some "brick". Josh Meyer, the Zoo's Horticulture and Sustainability Curator, joins the show to talk about how he keeps the orchids healthy and everything guests will get to experience when they stop by.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
From WBZ News Radio in Boston. This is New England Weekend,
each and every week. Right here, we come together, we
talk about all the topics important to you and the
place where you live. Great to be back with you
again as always. I'm Nicole Davis. Look, I know it's cold.
It's freezing blow phrasing. Actually, and you might be one
(00:28):
of those people, like I think most who are actually
really excited for spring break. You might already have your
ticket to somewhere warm, full of sun jam packed beaches.
Until then, though, to stay warm, you have got to
get creative. A suggestion perhaps, maybe jump on the bus,
on the train or in the car and head to
Boston and go stop by the Franklin Park Zoo. That's
(00:49):
because there a special tropical escape is waiting at the
Orchid Adventure Exhibit. Let's find out more. Josh Myers, the
Zoo's Horticulture and Sustainability Curator, is here. Josh, tell a
bit more about what you've got in store here.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
Zoo, New England, Franko Park Zoo, Stone Zoo. We have
an incredible conservation program. We have an incredible horticulture program
that really just focuses on conservation work. And that could
be growing plants, doing rehabilitating animals, creating habitat and spaces
throughout New England and across the globe. It's a huge
focus of ours, essentially because if we're a zoo, you know,
(01:25):
we animals are the focus, but what's the platform, what's
the palette for animals? They need a landscape, and so
that's something that takes, you know, just as a strong
a priority because they want to make sure the right
plants are there, the right inner in relationships are happening
between plants and animals, and so it just takes priority.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
Yeah, for sure, and orchids are beautiful, but I have
tried owning a couple of them and they are super finicky,
super finicky. I do not understand why they're so hard
to keep alive, but they're They're totally worth it. They're
really beautiful flowers.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
Orchids are pretty amazing. They're considered the largest and most
diverse family flowering plants in the world, and so pretty
much any animal we encounter at the zoo, they're going
to experience animals in their natural habitat. But yeah, you
are correct, there's there's uh they range in terms of
the care. So there's the easy, you know, fallonopsis, which
you've probably seen the grocery store, which is the most common.
(02:18):
And then there's a scale of difficulty from growing uh
that there ranges, and so we were growing some of
the hardest ones. They are showcasing some of the hardest ones
in this show. So there's things like oncidiums and ultoniums
which have like more typical light requirements. There's bubble phylums
and ingracius and papiopedulums that are can be more difficult
(02:39):
to grow. Some orchids grow on trees or on other plants.
Some orchids grow on rocks, Some are terrestrial growing in
the ground, so they have a lot of different growing
conditions which can be tricky for the average uh, you know,
plant lover. So culture can be really difficult. So it's
(03:00):
that's a great point. So something something we work on
it just trying to do research to figure out what's
in the natural conditions the natural culture, and just working
from there to help reverse engineer to find the right
conditions for growing.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
Well, yeah, you're the gardening expert here, so let's talk
about what it's like to put an event like this together.
Pulling together all these rare orchids and these exotic species.
What is the process like to make an event like this?
Speaker 2 (03:25):
Oh, it's fun and interesting and just really stimulating, partly
because first of all, there's a lot of research that
goes into this. So for this particular exhibit, we are
showcasing orchids native to regions that overlap with our animal collections.
So with that, we really have to understand where orchids
(03:46):
come from and where the orchids that overlap with the
animals that we have. And so we're looking at native habitats,
looking at what the conditions are like there, and we
need to simulate that in our tropical forest, which is
where the show happens. So that's looking at life, looking
at spoil, looking at you know, how do we feed
these plants humidity? So we have to kind of stimulate
those environments. So it's you know, a lot of these spaces.
(04:10):
The way the show works is that we have about
eight or nine vignettes that relate to the animal habitats
and we put the orchids on their native to those
areas in those are in those sites and where you know,
adding humidifiers if we need humidity we're adding extra topical
plants that are also needed to those sites to kind
of give it some beauty where stimulating environments essentially, so
(04:31):
there's we have to be creative. So we're looking at
a lot of found objects like wood and bark, and
there's something called woodwell with excelsior, which is a byproduct
of like shipping, and so we're using that. A lot
of mosses spagnum moss that we're adding to the to
these areas. And then of course we're an education based
organization as well, so teaching is really important. So we're
(04:54):
working with our communications and education team to create signage
and interpretive panels. So there's like component and the communicating
component of this as well. So with all that mixed together,
there's just a lot of moving parts and it's essentially
you know, we're putting on like a nice flower show
if you've been to the Boston flower shows of the past,
or the big ones like you or Philadelphia flower shows.
(05:15):
We're creating like eight or ten mini exhibits. So yeah,
so design, eye for design, eye for perfection, so it
all you know, all the elements of design. Can you know,
tasked with and impaired with just horticulture skills. So it's
it's fun.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
Not only do you have these gorgeous plants, you've also
got some super fun animals, including one of my favorites,
the ringtailed lemur. So what's it like to try to
merge all of this plant activity and like you said,
this beautiful, essentially flower show exhibit with living creatures.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
Yeah, the fun part is the week before we're doing setups,
so we try to set up the whole exhibit in
four or five days. The fun part is as we're
setting up the exhibits, we're putting these plant you know,
exhibits right in front of the animals, right near their exhibits,
and they're just in awe. So, like you mentioned the
ringtail lemur native to Madagascar, we had a blast putting
(06:08):
up that particular site because they're so curious and they
have those really interesting, beautiful eyes and they were just
watching us the whole time. And so we're setting up
so for like Africa and Madagascar, there's some rarer specimens.
Work at specimens we're highlighting and gracios and bubba phylums
and a genus called Phaeus, and so we're putting those
(06:30):
up in this one area. And you know, some of
these plants are growing on trees, and so we're putting
up different types of large branches. We're putting them in
Christians tree stands and then covering them up with moss.
And the lemur was just loving it the whole time.
And so it's it's fun because we need to try
to simulate what's going on in their exhibit, and we
(06:50):
have to be careful about you know, light needs. We
don't want to be blinding them. We want to be
able to put our artificial light on just our plants
and the water needs. And so it's it's is just
fun just watching them enjoy, you know, us putting this
together and then just see their curiosity of the site
as we're like displaying and highlighting these orchids.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
Yeah, let's talk then about what people can expect if
they come to the Orchid Adventure. When somebody shows up
at the zoo, what do they do? Is there a
special tour? Is there something for them to do outside
of just checking out the animals? What can they expect?
Speaker 2 (07:24):
Yeah, great question. So we have our so the Orchid
Show Orchet Adventures located at Franklin Park Zoo. We have
two entrances. There's the draft entrance and the Zebra entrance.
You're welcome to come in through either entrance, but once
you go through those gates, the big thing is going
to the Tropical Forest Pavilion. That's where the show takes place.
So it's an eighty thousand foot square square foot dome
(07:45):
like structure. It's heated between seventy and eighty degrees, so
you know, this is a great time to do that.
It's February, it's you know, below freezing, and it's so
refreshing to go in there. Nice humidity, nice and warm.
It's probably the warmert spot in the city Boston right now,
which is great. And so once you're in there, we
have a variety of activities going on for the next
(08:08):
four weeks. The show runs February eighth to March ninth,
but we're going to be having orchid education stations manned
buyer education staff. We have tours that are going to
be happening from our hosted by Horticulture team, so tours
on the weekends. We have a couple of workshops who
are doing throughout this period, so an orchid mounting workshop,
so how to mount orchids on found objects such as
(08:31):
bark or anything else. And then another workshop on potting
up baby orchids or deflasking orchids, So how do you
how do you grow a baby orchid? So a workshop
on that. We have a plant sale which is also
happening towards the end of the show. And then something
really important to highlight is that we're also partnering partnering
with Lego, so we're going to be displaying Lego from
(08:52):
the Botanical Collection. So we have a couple of orchids
that you can assemble out of Lego, and we're showcasing
about thirty Lego pieces throughout the show as well, with
a nice shout out to the Lego Discovery Center in
Assembly Row.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
I have to say that I have the Lego orchid
at my house. I'm a huge Lego fan. Even though
I'm like pushing forty, I don't care. I have so
many Lego sets and I have the orchid. And even
putting that one together was so dainty, and so I
just was laughing while I was putting it together. I'm like,
this is just the pinnacle of orchids being orchids right now.
I can't but yeah, I really love the lego tie
(09:29):
in because that botanical collection, they have so many different
cool flowers.
Speaker 2 (09:32):
Oh yeah, absolutely, I mean and it's stunning too. We
had a horticulture expert from Botanic Garden from Ohio in
today to see this show, and he couldn't tell the
difference between the lego and the actual orchids at some point.
He didn't know until my halfway through. That's just how
convincing they are and how fun they are. And we
love the ability to kind of bring in new audiences
(09:53):
and get people excited about the zoo and just through
new ways, and so I think this was a great
way to do that. Is you know, science based engineers,
all these aspiring engineers and architects, so you know, if
you know the plants was too much for them, are
not exciting enough, I think this is a great way
to bring them in and just see the zoo in
a new light.
Speaker 1 (10:11):
Even if you just want to get warm for a bit.
I don't know, you're running around Franklin Park and you're
cold and be like, I'm going to go and pop
into the sauna. That's happening with all these pretty flowers.
I'm in one not right, whatever it takes to get
you in there.
Speaker 2 (10:23):
Absolutely, I mean right now, even in the winter time.
We have some wonderful animals that love being outside, such
as our painted African painted dogs and our camels, and
there's so many others in from Australia, so there's just
a lot of animals that are still there. So it's
it's worth going to the zoo anytime. But I think
this is our second annual Orchid Adventure show. I think
we're just excited to be able to offer something in
(10:45):
February this summer.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
So then how can people get tickets? You know, give
us I guess the details, the when, what, where, how,
so on and so forth. How people can get involved?
Speaker 2 (10:56):
Yeah, great question. So Orchet Adventure runs Saturday Day, February eighth,
and it's going all the way through Sunday, March ninth.
The best way to kind of learn more about this
is to go to our website so Francoinparkzoo dot org
to get more information on general admission. Guests can buy
ahead and also save money, so that's a great, great
(11:16):
way to go. If you go to our website, you
can save money by buying ahead, and tickets can also
be bought right at the door as well, But I
would just say go to our website. There's so much information,
more about the education stations, more about the tours, plant sale,
our workshops. We have a special line event happening this
week as well. It's in the topical for us. So
(11:36):
there's just tons of ways to engage and to learn
more and to be part of this this show.
Speaker 1 (11:40):
All right, Joshua, thank you so much for your time,
and have a great time with all the guests and
the animals. And I can't wait to see it looks beautiful.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
Yeah, thank you, Nicole, thanks so much for your time.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
Have a wonderful, warm weekend, stay warming, cozy, and be
sure to join us again next week for another edition
of the show. I'm Nicole Davis from WBZ News Radio
on iHeartRadio.
From WBZ News Radio in Boston. This is New England Weekend,
each and every week. Right here, we come together, we
talk about all the topics important to you and the
place where you live. Great to be back with you
again as always. I'm Nicole Davis. Look, I know it's cold.
It's freezing blow phrasing. Actually, and you might be one
(00:28):
of those people, like I think most who are actually
really excited for spring break. You might already have your
ticket to somewhere warm, full of sun jam packed beaches.
Until then, though, to stay warm, you have got to
get creative. A suggestion perhaps, maybe jump on the bus,
on the train or in the car and head to
Boston and go stop by the Franklin Park Zoo. That's
(00:49):
because there a special tropical escape is waiting at the
Orchid Adventure Exhibit. Let's find out more. Josh Myers, the
Zoo's Horticulture and Sustainability Curator, is here. Josh, tell a
bit more about what you've got in store here.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
Zoo, New England, Franko Park Zoo, Stone Zoo. We have
an incredible conservation program. We have an incredible horticulture program
that really just focuses on conservation work. And that could
be growing plants, doing rehabilitating animals, creating habitat and spaces
throughout New England and across the globe. It's a huge
focus of ours, essentially because if we're a zoo, you know,
(01:25):
we animals are the focus, but what's the platform, what's
the palette for animals? They need a landscape, and so
that's something that takes, you know, just as a strong
a priority because they want to make sure the right
plants are there, the right inner in relationships are happening
between plants and animals, and so it just takes priority.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
Yeah, for sure, and orchids are beautiful, but I have
tried owning a couple of them and they are super finicky,
super finicky. I do not understand why they're so hard
to keep alive, but they're They're totally worth it. They're
really beautiful flowers.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
Orchids are pretty amazing. They're considered the largest and most
diverse family flowering plants in the world, and so pretty
much any animal we encounter at the zoo, they're going
to experience animals in their natural habitat. But yeah, you
are correct, there's there's uh they range in terms of
the care. So there's the easy, you know, fallonopsis, which
you've probably seen the grocery store, which is the most common.
(02:18):
And then there's a scale of difficulty from growing uh
that there ranges, and so we were growing some of
the hardest ones. They are showcasing some of the hardest ones
in this show. So there's things like oncidiums and ultoniums
which have like more typical light requirements. There's bubble phylums
and ingracius and papiopedulums that are can be more difficult
(02:39):
to grow. Some orchids grow on trees or on other plants.
Some orchids grow on rocks, Some are terrestrial growing in
the ground, so they have a lot of different growing
conditions which can be tricky for the average uh, you know,
plant lover. So culture can be really difficult. So it's
(03:00):
that's a great point. So something something we work on
it just trying to do research to figure out what's
in the natural conditions the natural culture, and just working
from there to help reverse engineer to find the right
conditions for growing.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
Well, yeah, you're the gardening expert here, so let's talk
about what it's like to put an event like this together.
Pulling together all these rare orchids and these exotic species.
What is the process like to make an event like this?
Speaker 2 (03:25):
Oh, it's fun and interesting and just really stimulating, partly
because first of all, there's a lot of research that
goes into this. So for this particular exhibit, we are
showcasing orchids native to regions that overlap with our animal collections.
So with that, we really have to understand where orchids
(03:46):
come from and where the orchids that overlap with the
animals that we have. And so we're looking at native habitats,
looking at what the conditions are like there, and we
need to simulate that in our tropical forest, which is
where the show happens. So that's looking at life, looking
at spoil, looking at you know, how do we feed
these plants humidity? So we have to kind of stimulate
those environments. So it's you know, a lot of these spaces.
(04:10):
The way the show works is that we have about
eight or nine vignettes that relate to the animal habitats
and we put the orchids on their native to those
areas in those are in those sites and where you know,
adding humidifiers if we need humidity we're adding extra topical
plants that are also needed to those sites to kind
of give it some beauty where stimulating environments essentially, so
(04:31):
there's we have to be creative. So we're looking at
a lot of found objects like wood and bark, and
there's something called woodwell with excelsior, which is a byproduct
of like shipping, and so we're using that. A lot
of mosses spagnum moss that we're adding to the to
these areas. And then of course we're an education based
organization as well, so teaching is really important. So we're
(04:54):
working with our communications and education team to create signage
and interpretive panels. So there's like component and the communicating
component of this as well. So with all that mixed together,
there's just a lot of moving parts and it's essentially
you know, we're putting on like a nice flower show
if you've been to the Boston flower shows of the past,
or the big ones like you or Philadelphia flower shows.
(05:15):
We're creating like eight or ten mini exhibits. So yeah,
so design, eye for design, eye for perfection, so it
all you know, all the elements of design. Can you know,
tasked with and impaired with just horticulture skills. So it's
it's fun.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
Not only do you have these gorgeous plants, you've also
got some super fun animals, including one of my favorites,
the ringtailed lemur. So what's it like to try to
merge all of this plant activity and like you said,
this beautiful, essentially flower show exhibit with living creatures.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
Yeah, the fun part is the week before we're doing setups,
so we try to set up the whole exhibit in
four or five days. The fun part is as we're
setting up the exhibits, we're putting these plant you know,
exhibits right in front of the animals, right near their exhibits,
and they're just in awe. So, like you mentioned the
ringtail lemur native to Madagascar, we had a blast putting
(06:08):
up that particular site because they're so curious and they
have those really interesting, beautiful eyes and they were just
watching us the whole time. And so we're setting up
so for like Africa and Madagascar, there's some rarer specimens.
Work at specimens we're highlighting and gracios and bubba phylums
and a genus called Phaeus, and so we're putting those
(06:30):
up in this one area. And you know, some of
these plants are growing on trees, and so we're putting
up different types of large branches. We're putting them in
Christians tree stands and then covering them up with moss.
And the lemur was just loving it the whole time.
And so it's it's fun because we need to try
to simulate what's going on in their exhibit, and we
(06:50):
have to be careful about you know, light needs. We
don't want to be blinding them. We want to be
able to put our artificial light on just our plants
and the water needs. And so it's it's is just
fun just watching them enjoy, you know, us putting this
together and then just see their curiosity of the site
as we're like displaying and highlighting these orchids.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
Yeah, let's talk then about what people can expect if
they come to the Orchid Adventure. When somebody shows up
at the zoo, what do they do? Is there a
special tour? Is there something for them to do outside
of just checking out the animals? What can they expect?
Speaker 2 (07:24):
Yeah, great question. So we have our so the Orchid
Show Orchet Adventures located at Franklin Park Zoo. We have
two entrances. There's the draft entrance and the Zebra entrance.
You're welcome to come in through either entrance, but once
you go through those gates, the big thing is going
to the Tropical Forest Pavilion. That's where the show takes place.
So it's an eighty thousand foot square square foot dome
(07:45):
like structure. It's heated between seventy and eighty degrees, so
you know, this is a great time to do that.
It's February, it's you know, below freezing, and it's so
refreshing to go in there. Nice humidity, nice and warm.
It's probably the warmert spot in the city Boston right now,
which is great. And so once you're in there, we
have a variety of activities going on for the next
(08:08):
four weeks. The show runs February eighth to March ninth,
but we're going to be having orchid education stations manned
buyer education staff. We have tours that are going to
be happening from our hosted by Horticulture team, so tours
on the weekends. We have a couple of workshops who
are doing throughout this period, so an orchid mounting workshop,
so how to mount orchids on found objects such as
(08:31):
bark or anything else. And then another workshop on potting
up baby orchids or deflasking orchids, So how do you
how do you grow a baby orchid? So a workshop
on that. We have a plant sale which is also
happening towards the end of the show. And then something
really important to highlight is that we're also partnering partnering
with Lego, so we're going to be displaying Lego from
(08:52):
the Botanical Collection. So we have a couple of orchids
that you can assemble out of Lego, and we're showcasing
about thirty Lego pieces throughout the show as well, with
a nice shout out to the Lego Discovery Center in
Assembly Row.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
I have to say that I have the Lego orchid
at my house. I'm a huge Lego fan. Even though
I'm like pushing forty, I don't care. I have so
many Lego sets and I have the orchid. And even
putting that one together was so dainty, and so I
just was laughing while I was putting it together. I'm like,
this is just the pinnacle of orchids being orchids right now.
I can't but yeah, I really love the lego tie
(09:29):
in because that botanical collection, they have so many different
cool flowers.
Speaker 2 (09:32):
Oh yeah, absolutely, I mean and it's stunning too. We
had a horticulture expert from Botanic Garden from Ohio in
today to see this show, and he couldn't tell the
difference between the lego and the actual orchids at some point.
He didn't know until my halfway through. That's just how
convincing they are and how fun they are. And we
love the ability to kind of bring in new audiences
(09:53):
and get people excited about the zoo and just through
new ways, and so I think this was a great
way to do that. Is you know, science based engineers,
all these aspiring engineers and architects, so you know, if
you know the plants was too much for them, are
not exciting enough, I think this is a great way
to bring them in and just see the zoo in
a new light.
Speaker 1 (10:11):
Even if you just want to get warm for a bit.
I don't know, you're running around Franklin Park and you're
cold and be like, I'm going to go and pop
into the sauna. That's happening with all these pretty flowers.
I'm in one not right, whatever it takes to get
you in there.
Speaker 2 (10:23):
Absolutely, I mean right now, even in the winter time.
We have some wonderful animals that love being outside, such
as our painted African painted dogs and our camels, and
there's so many others in from Australia, so there's just
a lot of animals that are still there. So it's
it's worth going to the zoo anytime. But I think
this is our second annual Orchid Adventure show. I think
we're just excited to be able to offer something in
(10:45):
February this summer.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
So then how can people get tickets? You know, give
us I guess the details, the when, what, where, how,
so on and so forth. How people can get involved?
Speaker 2 (10:56):
Yeah, great question. So Orchet Adventure runs Saturday Day, February eighth,
and it's going all the way through Sunday, March ninth.
The best way to kind of learn more about this
is to go to our website so Francoinparkzoo dot org
to get more information on general admission. Guests can buy
ahead and also save money, so that's a great, great
(11:16):
way to go. If you go to our website, you
can save money by buying ahead, and tickets can also
be bought right at the door as well, But I
would just say go to our website. There's so much information,
more about the education stations, more about the tours, plant sale,
our workshops. We have a special line event happening this
week as well. It's in the topical for us. So
(11:36):
there's just tons of ways to engage and to learn
more and to be part of this this show.
Speaker 1 (11:40):
All right, Joshua, thank you so much for your time,
and have a great time with all the guests and
the animals. And I can't wait to see it looks beautiful.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
Yeah, thank you, Nicole, thanks so much for your time.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
Have a wonderful, warm weekend, stay warming, cozy, and be
sure to join us again next week for another edition
of the show. I'm Nicole Davis from WBZ News Radio
on iHeartRadio.
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