Kew announces artists collaborating on 30th Orchid festival

Kew’s much-loved Orchid Festival returns in 2026 to mark its 30^th anniversary, with a spectacular display inspired by Chinese heritage and biodiversity.

Taking over the Princess of Wales Conservatory from Saturday 7 February to Sunday 8 March 2026, this landmark festival draws inspiration from China’s vast landscapes, rich traditions, and extraordinary plant life, including the country’s many diverse species of orchids.

China is one of the most biodiverse countries on Earth, home to an estimated 10% of the world’s known plant species, and more than 30,000 native plants. RBG Kew’s Living Collections contain more wild-sourced material from south west China than any other region in the world, offering numerous opportunities for research. There are approximately 1710 known species of orchid in China, including Cymbidium and Phalaenopsis – the main variety used for displays in the orchid festival.

Artist collaborations

Zheng Bo, a Hong Kong-based artist with Bai Yunnanese heritage, creates art inspired by material simplicity and ecological vibrancy. Since 2013, he has been studying plants, and as part of Orchids China will present a series of artworks depicting Chinese calligraphy, telling the story of five orchids who long to migrate to the ocean. His works are in the collections of Tate, Hong Kong Museum of Art, Power Station of Art, and Hammer Museum, and in 2024 he presented Bamboo as Method at Somerset House.

Yi Crafts is an East and Southeast Asia handcrafts studio based in London, focusing on the vanishing traditional handcrafts and cuisine of China’s minority ethnicities. Founder Yiran is a member of Bai ethnic minority and has found that the diverse cultures of China’s numerous ethnic minorities are underrepresented in the UK and London, with ‘China’ viewed as a single cultural source. Yiran recognises that hand crafts are the physical embodiment of culture and cultural sharing, providing an opportunity to introduce and share the unique and sometimes surprising customs, traditions and practices of the home province which inspires her. 

Xiaolan Gu​ is a London-based artist from Shanghai, specialising in Chinese brush painting technique.​ Xiaolan has contributed to exhibitions and demonstrations of Chinese Art at the V&A and other venues in the UK and China, and has been painting at Kew Gardens, especially orchids in the Princess of Wales Conservatory, since 2003.​ Digital prints of her paintings will form the backdrop to the Tropical Orchid Case display.

A horticultural spectacular

A majestic Chinese dragon formed from lotus seed heads, Orchid plants and dried leaves will wind across the central pond, surrounded by golden bowls overflowing with yellow and orange orchids, inspired by the ancient currency Sycee — a nod to prosperity and good fortune. Nearby, nine koi carp crafted from Gingko leaves and sustainable plant material will swim through a smaller pond, symbolising luck and success.

The journey continues through themed zones: from a bamboo and orchid sculpture, to enchanting floral tributes to pandas, red pandas, golden snub-nosed monkeys, and Red crowned cranes. The symbolism of Chinese New Year is brought to life, with visitors entering via a snake-inspired archway (2025 is the Year of the Snake), passing under lanterns, arches of good wishes and a moon gate, before exiting via an archway adorned with a horse – a nod to 2026 being the year of the horse.

Solène Dequiret, Glass House Manager of the Princess of Wales Conservatory at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew says: “For Kew's 30^th Orchid Festival, we are inspired by China’s incredible biodiversity and cultural richness. We will celebrate Chinese tradition with plants and people at its heart, from intricate Orchids displays to symbolic animal sculptures and art. It’s a joyful celebration of nature, creativity and connection during the cold winter months— and a reminder of the importance of protecting the world’s biodiversity.”

Steve Odell, Senior Vice President International & Consumer Sales, Regent Seven Seas Cruises says: “We are delighted to support Kew’s 30th Orchid Festival and work alongside such a globally respected and trusted institution. This collaboration beautifully mirrors Regent’s ethos, offering enriching journeys that connect people with the cultures, landscapes and stories that make our world so remarkable.”

After Hours | Fridays and Saturdays between 13 and 28 February 2025 | 6.30pm to 10pm
Winter blues will be banished in this special series of After Hours events celebrating Chinese heritage, music and culture. The spectacularly lit orchid displays will form a colourful backdrop for live music from Yijia and mui zyu, catwalks showcasing traditional Yunnan cultural clothing, and woodblock printing activities both by Yi Crafts. 

The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, is dedicated to harnessing the power of plants and fungi to end the extinction crisis and secure a future for all life on Earth. With Kew’s world-leading research, global partnerships and beloved gardens – home to the world’s most diverse collections of plants and fungi – Kew is using its trusted voice to shape policy and practice worldwide. As a charity Kew relies on the critical support of its visitors, not only to sustain the gardens, but to protect global plant and fungal biodiversity for the benefit of our planet and humanity.

Kew Science and Horticulture

Kew’s mission is to understand and protect plants and fungi for the well-being of people and the future of all life on Earth. But we can’t do it alone. By exchanging knowledge, expertise and resources we can help create a thriving planet for all, powered by plants and fungi.  RBG Kew scientists have long collaborated with partners in China, working with experts in Traditional Chinese Medicine, seed banking and conservation efforts. 

At the heart of Kew’s current relationship with China is our long-term science and seed-banking partnership with the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). This collaboration began in 2004, with a visit from CAS to Kew’s Millennium Seed Bank at Wakehurst. Applying what they learned, the Germplasm Bank of Wild Species (GBOWS) opened in 2009 at the Kunming Institute of Botany (KIB). Today, GBOWS is the largest conservation facility of its kind in Asia, safely storing the seeds of more than 11,000 Chinese plant species[1], representing one third of China’s total flora and featuring specimens from across China’s diverse ecosystems.  

Jie Cai, Deputy Head of GBOWS, says, “For the last 20 years we’ve worked very closely with our partners at Kew’s Millennium Seed Bank to conduct collaborative research and to learn seed conservation skills that we have adopted in China. We now pass those seed conservation practices on to other Chinese seed banks.”

In 2025, RBG Kew entered a new 10 year agreement with CAS, extending the scope of the previous Kew and CAS 20-year partnership to foster research, knowledge exchange and innovation between the two scientific institutions. In May 2025, RBG Kew also signed an MoU with Chengdu Botanical Gardens, focused on capacity building and a training exchange.

As part of the Orchid festival, visitors can discover some of the projects that will help us create a thriving planet for all, powered by plants and fungi. 

Caves

Alex Monro, Research Leader in Identification and Naming at RBG Kew, and colleagues Longfei Fu and Yigang Wei from the Guangxi Institute of Botany, have been exploring the diversity of plants found in China’s caves for almost 20 years. Alex says, “The Yunnan- Guizhou Plateau is a very dramatic landscape that inspired the scenery in the Avatar films. Above ground, the region is home to a very diverse flora , many of whose species are  retricted to this area. Below ground, highly specialised communities of cave flora survive in a twilight world, offering us a glimpse of both the past and the future. Understanding how these plants manage in such an environment may help us understand how plants adapt to a changing climate.’  

Entering these caves feels like stepping into another world, and this will be recreated in the Princess of Wales Conservatory as visitors are invited to wander beneath a specially constructed ‘cave’.

Traditional Chinese Medicine

Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) is a holistic form of healthcare and has been practiced in China for over 3,000 years. One key component of TCM is the use of plants for medicinal purposes, including several orchid species.

Kew has various collaborations with Chinese partners to meet the rising demand for guidance when it comes to the safe practice of TCM while also conserving the wild plants from which these herbal drugs are derived. Knowing which drug to use, or from which plant a drug was derived is complicated by the multiple ways in which plant and drug names are used. “Ginseng”, for example, is associated with herbal substances derived from 20 plants. 

Finding published information about plants is also difficult because of the multiple synonyms in use. Kew’s Medicinal Plant Names Services helps regulators overcome these obstacles, resolving ambiguity and indexing all synonyms.

Kew’s Digitisation project- all orchid records now online
Kew’s Digitisation Project aims to digitise 8 million Herbarium and Fungarium specimens, across a 4-year project. Once complete, researchers, educators, and communities worldwide will be able to freely access Kew’s collections online, removing traditional barriers to physical collections.

In 2024, the team hit an exciting milestone, having imaged the entire orchid collection – containing over 190,000 specimens. This collection is one of the largest and most diverse on the planet, containing some of the rarest blooms hidden in remote jungles to species with the most incredible adaptations found in nature. For the first time ever, these wonders are now just a click away for researchers, orchid enthusiasts, and curious minds around the globe to aid conservation. 

PhD student, Nan Shu (舒楠) says, “Kew’s Orchid Herbarium is the most extensive in the world with specimens dating back hundreds of years collected from across species ranges. The digitised versions now available to view online are a tremendous resource for the world, though being here in person has been a very special experience for me. By being able to dissect real specimens I have already been able to verify a species often misidentified in China.”

Dr Rui Fang, Research Leader at RBG Kew, says: “It’s wonderful to see China’s remarkable biological diversity and long tradition of botanical knowledge celebrated through this year’s Orchid Festival. Many of Kew’s collaborations with partners in China focus on the plants and fungi that have shaped horticulture, agriculture and Traditional Chinese Medicine – from Camellia and Rosa to various forms of fungi. This festival is a reminder of how plants connect cultures, inspire scientific discovery, and hold the key to a more sustainable future.”

ENDS

[1] https://lssf.cas.cn/en/facilities/biology/gbws/202505/t20250528_5070442.html