Dateline Haiti – April 11-13, 2008

Haitian Orchid Show

Best of Show. Photo by Ron McHatton.

After many years without an orchid society or show, a small group of dedicated orchid growers in Haiti have moved forward and held their first show. Several of us were contacted back in March and invited down to help with the show - ribbon judge the plants and give “how-to” classes - and the plans were off and running. With only a few days to go, the recent violence in Haiti was, to say the least, a bit unnerving but fortunately things had calmed down sufficiently to allow the show to go on! Claude Hamilton of Jamaica arrived the day before the rest of us and had to make his way by public taxi to a hotel through burning barricades but even that had died away by the following day. Perhaps in the final analysis, attendance may not have been what the organizers had hoped for but, under the circumstances, it was nonetheless a great first show involving a very enthusiastic group eager to rebuild their society. My congratulations to Johanne and her crew!

I was frankly surprised at what you can grow in Haiti depending on elevation although I must say that I was equally surprised at the lack of native plants being grown. Hispaniella henekenii (commonly known under it’s synonyms Tolumnia henekenii or Oncidium henekenii) is endemic to the island and they are apparently nowhere to be found in cultivation. This is certainly something that the new society may want to foster. Haiti varies from sea level at Port-Au-Prince to about 7400 ft in the mountains of the southern peninsula. At around 3500 feet where many of the orchid growers around Port-Au-Prince reside, the temperatures allow cultivation of complex hybrid Paphiopedilums and cool-growing Cymbidiums. Two groups of plants I certainly didn’t expect to see in Haiti.

Cymbidiums and Dendrobium in Haiti. Photo by Ron McHatton

The show was staged in the gardens of a resort hotel and included an array of complex vandaceous plants like the one chosen as best of show as well as reed-stemmed Epidendrums, hybrid Cattleyas, Dendrobiums belonging to several different sections of the genus and numerous plants from the Oncidium Alliance.

– Ron McHatton, Director of Education and Regional Operations