Sunday Edition

For your weekend reading, a brief round up of news and plant-related goodies from online media and the blogosphere.

Before the storm: The Fern Room at Garfield Park Conservatory

• Garfield Park Conservatory Update. After a devastating storm on June 30 destroyed 40,000 panes of glass, a monumental effort is underway to clean up the historic conservatory as the staff races to relocate or protect the remaining plants from approaching cold weather. A fundraising program, 'One Pane at a Time' has been launched simultaneously. Video footage at [Chicago Tribune]
• RBG Kew Update. A change in executive leadership at a major botanical garden is big news in the botanical garden world. The Royal Botanic Garden Kew has announced that Director Stephen Hopper will leave his post in 2012. A search begins immediately for his successor. [GardenNews]
• At last, a truly red Phalaenopsis. Go to the 4th image. [BBC News]
• Paola Pedraza, Assistant Curator at the Institute of Systematic Botany, NYBG, is filing more her fascinating dispatches from the Choco region of Colombia. The Choco is one of the most species-rich areas on earth and one of the last great places for orchid discovery. Her field work is exhilarating and exhausting. You can see some of the orchids and tropical blueberries that she writes about in our Tropical High Elevation House. [NYTimes]