Although McKee Botanical Garden may be better known for its lush landscape and vast collection of waterlilies, exotic and native orchids are also a vital part of its history. To celebrate that heritage, McKee and the Vero Beach Orchid Society hosted an inaugural Rare & Exotic Orchid Exhibition and Sale last weekend, where a remarkable variety of orchids were on full display.
The historic Hall of Giants showcased an outstanding exhibition of orchids carefully grown by Orchid Society members, while acclaimed orchid growers and craft artisans, located outside the education building and along Royal Palm Grove, offered a spectacular array of orchid varieties, colors, sizes and shapes.
There were several lectures that included global “plantsman” Robbie Honey (by a video recording on Saturday due to flight issues and in person Sunday), who spoke about his recent book, “The Accidental Botanist.”
Visitors also learned about Vanda orchids from Martin R. Motes, Ph.D., a research associate at Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden and author of “Florida Orchid Growing: Month by Month and The Natural Genus,” who has been growing orchids since childhood.
McKee board member Marion de Vogel said that the event was a way to celebrate the orchid legacy of Arthur McKee, co-founder of the garden with Waldo Sexton, and her great-grandfather.
“One of his greatest passions were orchids, and he traveled around the world and sent plant explorers around the world to collect orchids. And at one time, he had the largest private collection of orchids in the United States,” said de Vogel. She said his collection had been in Cleveland before he moved them to Vero.
“He and Waldo Sexton built the Royal Park Development, which is now Vero Beach Country Club area,” she said.
She explained that they also owned 80 acres around and including where McKee is situated and, to landscape the homes, opened what they called the Royal Park Exotic Nursery on the perimeter of what became McKee Jungle Gardens.
“Those same plant explorers who he sent out looking for orchids, were also bringing back exotic plants for the exotic nursery. And ultimately, William Lyman Phillips used those exotic plants to incorporate into what became the design for McKee Jungle Gardens. So there’s a long history of orchids and exotic plants and waterlilies here in McKee,” said de Vogel.
As McKee was also an engineer, she said he designed and built the first mechanically cooled greenhouse which enabled them to bring his cool-growing, high-altitude orchids to Florida’s subtropic heat.
“He hired David Fairburn from the Missouri Botanical Garden, and McKee Jungle Gardens became a destination for orchid lovers because it had such an extraordinary collection,” said de Vogel.
After the Jungle Gardens closed in 1976 and the land was sold, all but 18 acres were developed. In 2001 that acreage reopened as McKee Botanical Garden, thanks to the fortitude and determination of local residents.
By the time McKee reopened, many of the historic orchids had found homes elsewhere so the decision was made to highlight their incredible waterlily collection.
“It’s one of the largest collections in Florida and it’s one of only seven gardens in the world that has a collection that’s certified by the International Waterlily and Water Gardening Society. So it’s a very important collection that we have here,” said de Vogel.
She said their wonderful waterlily team recently competed in the Waterlily Weigh-Off, along with 48 gardens from nine countries, a friendly rivalry to see whose waterlily leaves could hold the most weight.
“Our aquatics expert, Nikki, decided to do a kind of Carmen Miranda fruit bowl. So we got 44 pounds of fruit on our Victoria waterlily. The winning garden actually is a sister garden, Bok Tower Gardens, and they had 183 pounds on their water lily. They get to be enormous,” she said.
While some of the historic orchids were bequeathed back to the garden, it has taken a while to rebuild the collection.
“We’re participating with the Million Orchid Project, which is out of Fairchild Tropical Botanic Gardens in Miami, and that is an effort to reestablish native orchids throughout Florida. We’re just about the northernmost point for these native Florida orchids because of the climate,” said de Vogel.
“We worked with the Vero Beach Orchid Society, who has done a beautiful job with orchid shows at Riverside Park, but I think we both felt that this is where it belongs. This is how orchids live in Florida, and what better place to showcase them than here,” she said.
They are already planning to have a second annual orchid event.
“We just learned this morning that it will be a judged show by the American Orchid Society next year, which elevates the prestige of the show back to where we were.”
For more information, visit McKeeGarden.org.
Photos by Joshua Kodis
