Orchids of Mexico

Explosions of orchids frame vivid pink, purple, and orange adobe arches, creating an aisle that leads to the entrance of the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory at the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx. This colorful transformation marks the garden’s 22nd annual orchid show. More than just a floral display, “Mexican Modernism” brings scenes of the country’s botanical history and vibrant architectural structures to the sprawling garden, with native cacti and succulents jutting from the gravel below. 

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Beneath the conservatory’s central 60-foot glass dome stands a rectangular, orange fountain laden with orchids in coral, rose, and baby pink. Spiky palms tower overhead, and potted flora sit in the fountain’s basin. Calming cumbia music plays throughout the space, softly complimenting the thousands of species of orchids that adorn the architectural display.

This year’s orchid show celebrates the late Mexican architect Luis Barragán with three structures throughout the conservatory that reference his minimal, raw combinations of colorful adobe, stone, timber, and stucco, all in harmony with nature. Throughout his six-decade-long career, the Pritzker-Prize-winning architect explored how light interacts with bodies of water, material forms, and expansive windows. Today, 37 years after Barragán’s passing, a jacaranda tree at the center of the orchid display exemplifies his love for organic elements, its colors reflected in the pink and violet adobe walls. Designed after Barragán's Mexico City homes Casa Gilardi and Casa Pedregal, the botanical garden’s temporary transformation is a natural fit for an architect whose appreciation for the natural world ran deep.

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Nearby, at the botanical garden’s Arthur and Janet Ross Gallery, is an exhibition of the Mexican-American photographer Martirene Alcántara’s still lifes of Barragán's buildings, titled “Homage to Luis Barragán: An Act of Poetry.” Alcántara’s thoughtful images underscore the architect’s geometric and colorful compositions. Her photograph Speculum (From the series Homage to Luis Barragán, 2017, shows a corner from Barragán’s Casa Gilardi as a stripe of sunlight shines on a bright blue stucco wall and reflects on the polished concrete floor.

The orchid show is as much a celebration of the present as it is the past: At night, the conservatory will come alive with Orchid Nights, a series of music and dance performances led by New York-based Mexican creatives. Professional dancer Mark Saldana, who teaches cumbia lessons in Queens, will lead cumbia sonidera dance parties with a mix of traditional and modern beats by DJ hellotones. Every February, New Yorkers flock to the Bronx to appreciate the conservatory’s ornate orchid displays framed by art and design—and this year, Mexico’s vibrant history is front and center.

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‍“Mexican Modernism” is on view until April 27, 2025 at the New York Botanical Garden at 2900 Southern Blvd, Bronx, NY.