Orchid Project
 

A few people in my orchid affiliation has a project in the science centre in our city.https://www.universeum.se/en/

We have been given an area where they want us to build and maintain an orchid habitat in the permanent tropical rainforest exhibition.

https://i.imgur.com/WunmaCx.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/sp1MbEA.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/VQVHNF0.jpg

The area is quite big and there will be room for terrestrial and lots of epiphyte orchids. Lights and technical stuff will be provided by the centre and we have been given funds to buy orchids. We will build and maintain the exhibition.

The room is very hot and humid, 25-27 degrees centigrade(75-80 degrees Fahrenheit) and the humidity is 80-95%.

We must use species and hybrids growing on the American continent. As the area is big we need lots of orchids.

So which orchids should we have in our spot? Give me some suggestions. I will post pictures here of our progression, and maybe your suggestion will be a part of the exhibition. :)

Is that wall all for mounts? If so, I think you should choose some species that make a nice impact mounted. I've personally always loved the way that a Brassavola nodosa looks mounted in a monstrous clump. I don't grow enough species to recommend any others, however. My other species are all tiny and I don't know of any obscure epiphytes that would look great on that wall.

A few of questions:
1. What is the night temperature of the room; is it 75-80F day and night or just during the day?
2. Is there an automated watering system in place, or will the space rely on somebody watering plants (daily) by hand?
3. Is there some sort of "theme" that you want to stick with, ie, something always in bloom, a slice of the Amazon, etc.
4. Will you be placing non-orchids in the display area as well?
Adam

You may want to check light levels to see what plants would grow in that enclosure, and think about others that may need to be swapped out from time to time. The light looks good for a display, but may be too low for growing?

If there is greenhouse space available to you, consider growing some plants mounted on "tree trunks" which can be set into a hole in the floor of the enclosure when you want to display them. You can swap out trunks a one plant fades and another starts blooming. You may be able to do the same with terrestrials or others in carefully concealed pots on the floor or on ledges.

The area we dispose of as we want. We have free hands to do what we like. We can use the wall for mounts. We have discussed three trunks and also a net for the wall. There is automatic watering and mist system. There is this rainforest rain and mist every 15 minutes in the exhibition which they can add sprinklers for our part. They will add extra lightning if needed and also extra watering by hand if we need.

We will just focus on the orchids as the room is packed with other plants. The room is in 3-4 levels and there are birds and lizards, frogs and insects roaming free in the room.

Some orchids will be mounted and we can take them out and place in cooler areas for rest. The room is at the moment not much cooler at night. The lighting goes out at night so a few degrees cooler it will be. However they will probably start to cool the room at night in the future.

The only limits we have except the area is that the orchids needs to be from the American continent. They accept hybrids. The rest is up to us.

If there's a good temperature drop, you could get a lot of orchids to grow in there

That is one of the problems. It is the same temperature the whole time. Maybe the temperature drops a few degrees at night when they turn the light out. There are also animals in the exhibit and they don't want them to be to cold.

Both continents?

Yes, but I think very few orchids from North America will be able to sustain the heath. Maybe I'm wrong? I don't know much about North American orchids.

Some American orchids that should do well there:

Vanilla.

Many of the Amazonian orchids, including Cattleya dowiana - but you will need to vary water with the seasons.

Brazilian orchids from the coastal regions. Many bifoliate Cattleyas. Rodriguezia.

Stanhopea. Other Catasetinae, if you can vary the watering with the seasons.

Caribbean coastal orchids. Tolumnia, Encyclia, Tetramicra, plants formerly known as Schomburgkia. Cattleya maxima.

Brassavola and Rhyncholaelia, especially R. digbyana.

Warm-growing Oncidium and related genera such as Trichocentrum.

Warm-growing Miltonia such as M. flavescens, spectabilis.

That's what comes to mind right now.