2024 Winter Carnival Orchid Show

In the Twin Cities, there are two constants in life. Winter will always arrive eventually and none of the professional sports teams, save for the Lynx, will ever win a championship. This year is no different. The Vikings did not make the playoffs (I quietly grin as I’m a diehard Cheesehead) and the middle of January was frigidly cold even without having gotten any substantial snow thus far. As the Winter Carnival approached, the temperatures rose to the mid thirties, something that has happened so rarely in January during my time here that it feels more like March than January. While the ice castles and various other events during the annual St. Paul Winter Carnival were either cancelled or were playing it by ear, one thing went on as scheduled. The Como Zoo and Conservatory went ahead with the orchid show for it did not require warm temps or snow.

I haven’t been to the orchid show since January of 2020, that pre-pandemic time when none of us knew what social distancing was. It was not offered in 2021, and the next two years I was kept away by nasty winter weather. This year, however, there were no snow storms or subzero temps to contend with. And, Como decided to revive their pandemic era ticket scheduling for the event. This meant if you arrived early enough with a ticket, you’d have a smaller crowd to contend with. Needless to say, I showed up at opening, ticket in hand.

I bee-lined for the Sunken Garden for I knew that crowds would congregate there the most. I made it in before most of the masses entered the conservatory so I had a good thirty minutes of time to photograph both orchids and the other flowers there, though the orchids were my main subject matter.

I then made by way past the bromeliads to the North Garden where the lighting isn’t always the greatest on a cloudy day but where I knew I would find some smaller, rarer orchids hidden among the towering tropical fruit trees.

When I exited the North Garden, the line for the Sunken Garden was wrapping around the conservatory. I exhaled a sigh of relief for having already been that way and made for the Fern Room. There is always a large grouping of orchids on display there and nobody would have made their way to it yet, so I had another few minutes of crowd free orchids.

Then the crowds filtered in and I knew my capacity for the swell of people had been hit. I made may way toward the main entrance, but I had to make it past the orchids for sale first. I came perilously close to purchasing a $250 cattleya orchid, but was talked out of it by the honest seller who told me if my home was not well lit, it would not survive. So I went home with 294 new photographs on my nikon and the knowledge that I would not be responsible for the death of a pretty orchid.

You can purchase prints of my orchid and flower photography at my Etsy Store.