The Kenya Orchid Society: More Than Seven Decades of Growing, Learning and Conservation

In a country blessed with extraordinary botanical diversity, the story of the Kenya Orchid Society is not simply the story of people who love orchids. It is a story of friendship, education, conservation and a determination to share the fascination of these remarkable plants with an ever-wider community.

Established in 1953, the Kenya Orchid Society (KOS) has grown from a small circle of orchid enthusiasts into a thriving organisation of more than 200 members today. Throughout its history, the Society has remained committed to its core objectives: the conservation and propagation of orchids, the dissemination of knowledge about Kenyan orchid species, and the protection of the natural environments in which they grow.

Today, however, its mission extends beyond conservation alone. The Society is equally passionate about teaching people how to successfully grow orchids and, importantly, breaking down the long-held perception that orchids are difficult, expensive or somehow reserved for an elite group of collectors. Orchids should be plants that everyone can discover, understand and enjoy.

The Early Years

The Kenya Orchid Society began during the final decade of colonial Kenya. Among the important personalities in its early history were Dr Frank Piers and Brian Perkins, who became joint patrons and founder members in 1958. Perkins in particular believed strongly in presenting orchids beautifully and professionally, encouraging members to give as much attention to the presentation of their plants at shows as they did to growing them.

The young Society quickly began establishing an international reputation. In 1959, during a visit to Kenya, the Queen Mother visited Brian Perkins' garden at City Park and showed a particular interest in his Paphiopedilum collection. Perkins later named one of his plants in honour of the visit.

The Society's orchids also travelled beyond Kenya's borders. At the prestigious Chelsea Flower Show, KOS received the Silver Banksian Medal for an exhibit of East African orchids, together with two Awards of Merit. Brian Perkins was subsequently made the Society's first honorary life member in recognition of his contribution to orchid growing both in Kenya and at Chelsea.

By 1962, only nine years after its foundation, the Society had grown from its original eight members to 86 members, a considerable achievement for a specialist horticultural society at the time. The following decades were shaped by members who contributed their knowledge, plants, time and enthusiasm. Eric Firth, who died in 1964, possessed one of Kenya's finest orchid collections and generously left all his movable orchid plants to the Society. Heather Campbell and internationally respected orchid authority Joyce Stewart joined KOS in the same year.

The Society also began establishing traditions that would survive for generations. The Firth Memorial Trophy, first competed for in 1965 and won by Mrs Pat Scott, became part of the annual show. Garden meetings brought growers together not merely to admire plants, but to exchange ideas and learn from one another.

That philosophy of shared knowledge remains one of KOS's strongest traditions today.

Growing an International Reputation

In November 1967, Brian Perkins moved to the coast but remained closely involved with the Society. A particularly significant milestone came in 1972, when KOS welcomed its first overseas judge, Maurice Lecoufle of France. His presence brought tremendous interest to the annual show, with entrance receipts more than doubling from the previous year.

The experience also exposed Kenyan growers to orchids and judging standards from beyond East Africa. Overseas judges, including Anne Rittershausen, would later attend Society shows, while Perkins himself became KOS's first independent overseas exhibitor.

The Society celebrated its Silver Jubilee in 1977 with a commemorative dinner at the Muthaiga Club. Speaking at the opening of that year's show, Kenya's first Attorney General, Charles Njonjo, observed that any society able to record a 50 per cent survival rate after 25 years had every reason to be proud.

KOS had done more than survive. It had created a community.

Hermann and Ria Meyer made an enormous contribution from 1980 onwards, with Hermann serving several terms as chairman. In 1984, the Society acquired its first office at the National Museum of Kenya, providing it with an institutional home and strengthening its connection with Kenya's botanical heritage.

The Society inevitably experienced losses too. Founder Dr Frank Piers died at the beginning of the 1980s, Hermann Meyer died suddenly in 1989, and in 1992 KOS lost another founder, Brian Perkins. Their contribution, however, remained woven into the traditions and character of the Society.

Between 1993 and 2006, the Society was chaired successively by Ingeborg Gonella, Vivien Gibbs and Pindi Naul, continuing a long tradition of members volunteering their time to keep KOS active.

From Orchid Growing to Orchid Conservation

As KOS matured, conservation became increasingly central to its identity.

One of the Society's most important contributions to Kenya's botanical record came in 1996, when it sponsored the publication of the first comprehensive treatise on Kenyan orchid species, Orchids of Kenya, written by the late Joyce Stewart, with photographs by the late Bob Campbell.

It is particularly fitting that, three decades later, the Society is contributing to a new edition of the very book whose original publication it helped make possible.

In 1997–1998, KOS financed the construction of an orchid house at the Nairobi Botanical Gardens. Its conservation interests also extended beyond orchids. In 2001, the Society supported the butterfly project at Arabuko Sokoke Forest, sponsoring the training of local community members to collect butterflies for export. The initiative provided an economic reason to conserve indigenous trees and helped encourage controlled rather than indiscriminate felling.

Education, particularly of younger generations, became another important strand. In 2006, KOS began an art competition for school-going children in Nairobi, including children from informal settlements, using art as a way of introducing them to conservation while also providing materials for their classes.

Putting Orchids Back Where They Belong

Perhaps some of KOS's most meaningful conservation work has involved returning orchids to Kenya's natural environment.

Between 2012 and 2018, working with Friends of Karura, the Society returned more than 200 orchid plants to trees in Karura Forest, as well as approximately 90 plants to Nairobi National Park and 80 to Brackenhurst. In 2019, another 60 orchids were returned to a forest in the Nairobi environs.

These projects reflect an important principle. Conserving orchids cannot be separated from conserving their habitats. An indigenous orchid is part of a much larger ecological web involving its host trees, pollinators, fungi, forests and climate. Protecting orchids therefore means protecting ecosystems.

Over the years, KOS has supported wider environmental and community initiatives too. These have included sponsorship of the Nairobi GreenLine's "Walk in the Park", aimed at protecting Nairobi National Park from encroachment; a substantial contribution to the Hands Off Our Elephants campaign; and support for the Elephants and Bees Project in Tsavo. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Society also donated food worth KES 300,000 to a charity supporting children living in an informal settlement.

This broader outlook demonstrates that KOS has never regarded orchid conservation as something that exists in isolation from people, forests and wildlife.

The Society Today

More than seventy years after eight enthusiasts came together, the Kenya Orchid Society has entered another exciting chapter. From the 86 members recorded in 1962, membership has now grown to more than 200 people, bringing together experienced growers, complete beginners, collectors, conservationists and people who simply want to know more about these extraordinary plants.

Education remains at the heart of the Society. Members learn through meetings, talks, practical demonstrations, garden visits, classes and the invaluable exchange of experience between growers. Earlier records describe monthly garden meetings held in members' homes, where talks, ideas and plant displays were shared. They also record members attending classes in orchid growing and conservation and receiving advice on orchid culture from experienced Society members. That spirit of generosity with knowledge remains fundamental to KOS.

The annual orchid show continues to be one of the Society's most important public events. It provides an opportunity not only to display exceptional plants, but also to introduce thousands of people to the astonishing diversity of the orchid family. Shows, demonstrations and educational activities allow experienced growers and first-time visitors to meet over a shared curiosity about plants.

Perhaps one of the Society's most important roles today is to challenge the mythology surrounding orchids.

For too long, orchids have carried an unfortunate reputation as an elitist plant, expensive to own and impossibly difficult to grow. KOS wants to change that perception. There are orchids suitable for experienced collectors, certainly, but there are also many that ordinary gardeners can grow successfully once they understand their basic requirements.

The Society therefore seeks not merely to create more orchid collectors, but more confident orchid growers.

At the same time, the conservation of Kenya's indigenous orchids is becoming increasingly urgent. Habitat loss, changing land use, climate pressures and the removal of plants from the wild all threaten species that form part of Kenya's natural heritage. Education is consequently inseparable from conservation. When people understand an orchid, learn how it grows and recognise its place within an ecosystem, they are far more likely to value and protect it.

Looking Forward

The history of the Kenya Orchid Society is ultimately a history of people.

It is found in the early collectors who shared plants and knowledge, in the members who staged the first shows, in those who welcomed international judges, in the authors and photographers who documented Kenya's species, in volunteers who returned orchids to forests, and in today's members patiently showing a beginner how to water, feed, repot or rebloom their first orchid.

From eight founding members to more than 200 members today, KOS has changed enormously since 1953. Yet its underlying purpose remains remarkably consistent: to conserve orchids, share knowledge and bring people together through a fascination with these extraordinary plants.

As the Kenya Orchid Society looks towards its next chapter, its ambition is both simple and significant: to ensure that Kenya's indigenous orchids are understood and protected, to pass knowledge from one generation of growers to the next, and to make orchid growing accessible to everyone.

Because orchids should not belong only to specialists, collectors or the privileged few.

They are part of Kenya's botanical heritage, and the joy of discovering, growing and conserving them belongs to us all.

History of the kos