Vertical gardening orchid-style at the Santa Barbara Orchid Estate

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

This picture was taken at the Santa Barbara Orchid Estate over Memorial Day weekend. The estate, which you can read about here, is on five damp, mossy, almost decrepit acres near the ocean. The ground is slippery. The ceilings are dirty. The orchids themselves are not immaculate, but the variety on display is breathtaking. One imagines the place hasn’t changed at all since it was founded in 1947. And so it was a surprise to encounter this arrangement of orchids hanging from a wall inside one of the greenhouses. It felt so unexpectedly modern -- reminiscent of all the vertical gardens I’ve been seeing (and drooling over) in design blogs and in our own pages.

The orchids pictured here vary in price, but most were selling for about $30.

-- Deborah Netburn