In Florida, this orchid spends much of the year looking like a bunch of tangled green twigs. Then it blooms and I am glad I have reserved a spot for it in my garden.

In 1893, a grower in Singapore hybridized this orchid, naming it after his daughter. The hybridizer gave cuttings to the Singapore Botanical Gardens where it flourished and bloomed most of the year. But the orchid was just another orchid in a garden full of wondrous plants. Then in 1930, Mr. Lester Bryan was on assignment for the Hawaiian Sugar Planters' Association. While touring the Gardens, he was struck by the beauty of the flowers and realized the potential of a new industry for Hawaii. He obtained about 30 cuttings and back in Hilo, propagated these into a field of over ten thousand plants. The plants became a huge commercial success. Mr. Bryan sold stem cuttings to other growers for a dollar a foot and a multimillion dollar industry was launched. The flowers sold for 35 cents each and were first used to make leis to greet visitors to Hawaii. When the longevity of the flowers was realized, they were sold by the pound and shipped to the mainland by the planeload.

Until recently, Miss Joachim was classified as one of the terete Vanda orchids, being a cross between Vanda hookeriana and Vanda teres. (Teres and terete are references to the cylindrical leaves and stems.) The growth habit of these orchids did not fit well into the Vanda genus, so they have been given their own genus Papilionanthe meaning the butterfly flower.