Orchid Collection

Our Orchid collection began in 1931. Mr. Ernest Thorp started the collection while he was a student. It consisted of two dozen orchids imported from India.

Much later the then Curator, Mr. Frank Thorns and his orchid students bought 24 Cattleya mendellii and 25 Cattleya gaskelliana orchids from the Port Elizabeth Parks Department. This increased the collection to 74 orchids.

Ernest Thorp was approached by Douglas Mackeurtan, who wanted to learn the art of orchid culture, and between them they built up the collection to some 300 plants. In 1945 this collection was bequeathed to Ernest Thorp.

During the 1950's and 60's there was an orchid explosion in the USA due to the advent of tissue culture.

A few local orchid collectors got together and each purchased a particular orchid hybrid for mutual exchange amongst themselves.

Thus by 1960 the Durban Botanic Gardens collection was substantial and in 1962 the Ernest Thorp Orchid House was opened.

The best flowering times for orchids are spring and autumn..... Bromeliads are used to augment the absence of orchids during the non-flowering times.

There is a separate Species Orchid House for species orchids, which have smaller blooms but have the perfume that the other hybridized orchids lack.