Orchid Farm, Flowers Both Beautiful and Rare, Cuenca Ecuador

The Orchid Farm

The Orchid Farm (called Ecuagenera) is more than just a place to buy Orchids; it’s a laboratory, gene bank, and education center. They are one of the worlds largest suppliers of Orchids with over 8,000 species of which over 4,200 come from Ecuador. This small farm participates in orchid shows and lectures around the world. Did you know that Orchids make up 16% of all the plants in the world? At the farm, they sell orchids. We were told that orchids can be easy to take care of depending on the variety. They even have very tiny orchids that live in a self-contained glass terrarium of a sort. If you want to learn how to care for orchids, the American Orchid Society has a great reference.

The Tour

The hour and a half long tour was enjoyable. The time and effort that goes into creating hybrid Orchids is amazing. At the farm, you will see where they start the orchids to where they ship them. They do it all here. The grounds were beautiful, and our tour guide (who was an Intern from France) was very knowledgeable. In addition to the Orchids, there are some tropical plants, fruit trees, and parrots. You don’t have to be into Orchids to enjoy this tour, but rather just someone who enjoys nature. The information and orchid variations will be fascinating to all. In fact, something I’ll never forget is the key to identifying if a plant is an Orchid. Think 3-2-1… 3 Sepals (outermost flower), 2 Petals (innermost flower part) and 1 Column (in the middle of the flower).

Enjoy all of the orchid pictures we took during our visit. See if you can find the “monkey face” orchid.

For other things to see and do around Cuenca, check out our Cuenca Living blog articles.

A not to be missed place in Cuenca is the Panama Hat Factory.