The RHS involvement with orchids goes back to the nineteenth century, when such names as Lindley and Veitch featured largely in both the orchid world and the Society. The RHS Orchid Committee, one of the oldest of the Society's specialist committees, meets at all the London Shows and at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show.
Visitors to RHS Garden Wisley can see a rich collection of orchids in the Glasshouse.
Committees
The RHS Orchid Committee is a source of expertise for the RHS for advice on all matters regarding orchids. The committee judges all individual and group exhibits of orchids at London Flower Shows and at other shows as appropriate. At the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, it judges only individual exhibits, the group exhibits being judged by a Council-appointed Panel.
Registration
The RHS is the International Registration Authority for orchids, registering all newly raised orchid grex names, and publishing regular lists of recent registrations.
The International Orchid Register search offers provides a Parentage search - used to identify any grexes from particular seed and pollen parents, and the Grex name search - to find the parentage of particular grexes.
More on orchids
Further Reading
The Orchid Review, founded in 1893, is the orchid jounal of the RHS and the oldest publication in its field. It includes current events, RHS Awards, shows and features about cultivation and cultivars. Also included is a separate list of the latest orchid hybrids with each issue.
Orchid hybrid lists
Links
Orchids - indoor cultivation
The British Orchid Council