Since I began volunteering in the orchid house at Hillwood Museum & Gardens in Washington DC, I’ve learned that there are many more varieties besides the common moth orchids (Phalaenopsis) that you’ll find in many US grocery stores — Cattleya, Vanda, Dendrobium, Oncidium, just to mention a few. But to expand your horizons, you might want to check out Orchids: Botanical Portraits (Rizzoli USA, 2026) by New Zealand photographer Robbie Honey. The book includes gorgeous
photos of more than 100 orchids from different places across the globe, each photo accompanied by a brief description of the orchid, plus its origin and the institution that collected it. You’ll learn that vanilla comes from Vanilla planifolia. You’ll meet Bartholomew Motes from Motes Orchids in Florida, who describes himself as a “recovering attorney” and whose father hybridized Renanthera Stephen Scott Young, a stunning plant with bright red blooms. You’ll be stunned by Coelogyne cobbiana, with slender racemes holding dozens of small, ivory flowers. And many, many more.
As Honey notes in the introduction, the book is not a scientific catalogue, but rather “a personal record of orchids photographed in national collections, botanical gardens, embassies, private houses, and in the wild.” If you’re partial to orchids, you’ll definitely want a copy of this book.
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