First Lady Jill Biden Accepts Namesake Orchid From Grower Art Chadwick

Places one plant on her desk, another on her husband’s in the Oval Office

WASHINGTON, DC, USA, July 28, 2022 /EINPresswire.com/ -- First Lady, Dr. Jill Biden, accepted a namesake orchid, carrying on a 100-year FLOTUS tradition. At a special White House ceremony, Art Chadwick, a second-generation orchid expert whose family has given orchids to first ladies over the years, presented Dr. Biden with the “Biden Orchid” on July 19th. After the ceremony, she requested that one of the plants sit on her desk and the other on her husband’s desk in the Oval Office.

“We are thrilled to personally present the First Lady with her namesake orchid. The Biden hybrid is unique in both its color and blooming time,” said Art Chadwick, of Chadwick & Son Orchids, from Powhatan, Virginia, a business that has cultivated and nurtured orchids for more than a half century.

The botanical name of the orchid is “Brassolaeliocattleya Jill Biden” and is a cross between a “Goldenzelle” and a “Sea Swirl” orchid. In addition, it is of the corsage type that was popular from the 1930’s to the 1960’s.

Chadwick displayed two examples of the Biden Orchid for Dr. Biden. The plants will bloom every July, with large yellowish green flowers. The hybrid is officially registered with the United Kingdom-based Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), the international registration authority for orchid hybrids.

The event took place in the Vermeil room of the East Wing and was arranged by Virginia Congresswoman Abigail Spanberger. Portraits of former first ladies, Lady Bird Johnson, Jacqueline Kennedy, Pat Nixon, Mamie Eisenhower and Lou Hoover adorned the walls and provided the backdrop for the presentation. Also attending the event was White House Chief Floral Designer, Hedieh Ghaffarian, who uses orchids regularly throughout the executive mansion.

Dr. Biden joins First Ladies Laura Bush, Hillary Clinton, and Michelle Obama who received personalized orchids from the Chadwick family of growers while they were in the White House. The family has also grown and named orchids for Priscilla Presley, former wife of the late Elvis Presley, and the Royal Family in memory of the late Princess Diana.

Dr. Biden is the 19th consecutive U.S. First Lady to have a namesake cattleya orchid, a tradition that dates back to Woodrow Wilson’s wife, Edith. Orchids can live for many decades and the entire orchid collection of the first lady namesake orchids resides at the Smithsonian Gardens in Washington, D.C. in the Smithsonian Gardens Orchid Collection.

Video interview with Art Chadwick available at this link: https://public.latakoo.com/7016b60b29b1be9113557b8594755d56

Photo Credit: Erin Scott, Official White House Photographer

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