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Useful Information

  • Event dates

    02 September - 18 September 2025

  • Price

    $35 per person

    Bookings essential

  • Location

    Meet 10 minutes before your booked session time at the Visitor Centre, Royal Botanic Gardens Cranbourne

  • Duration

    1 hr

  • Session Times

    10:45am
    12:00pm

    Tue 2, 9, 16 Sep
    Thu 4, 11, 18 Sep

    9:30am
    10:45am
    12:00pm
    1:30pm
    2:45pm

    Sat 6 Sep

  • Accessibility

    The shadehouses are not wheelchair-accessible. For any specific access questions, please contact the team at: rbg@rbg.vic.gov.au

Orchid Conservation Tour

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See the world’s largest endangered orchid rewilding program with a behind-the-scenes tour of the Orchid Conservation Program shadehouses.

Orchids are among our most beautiful and intriguing native wildflowers, with Victoria home to over 400 species, most of which grow nowhere else in the world. Sadly, however, half of our native orchid species are threatened with extinction in the wild.

The RBGV Orchid Conservation Program grows threatened orchids and plants them back out into the bush to create new wild populations and reduce their risk of extinction. Underpinning this work, the Program undertakes cutting-edge scientific research on all aspects of orchid ecology, including on pollination, symbiotic fungi, propagation methods, and reintroduction science.

We aim to prevent future orchid extinctions by:

  • Storing a genetically diverse collection of seed and symbiotic fungi
  • Growing suitable numbers of our threatened orchids for reintroductions
  • Reintroducing these species to protected public and private land, where the appropriate vegetation, climate and insect pollinators are present.

Back by popular demand, the nurseries of the RBGV Orchid Conservation Program are being opened to the public to showcase endangered orchids up close. Our world-leading team will explain the important work and intricate science behind this exemplary conservation program. You will have the chance to photograph critically endangered species rarely seen in the wild.

Please note that the minimum age of attendees on this tour is 12 years old, and that the shadehouses are not suitable for anyone requiring the use of mobility aids such as wheelchairs and walking frames.

Caladenia rosella
Caladenia rosella in the shadehouses.

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