By Rodrigo Brandao

The Orchid Show: Brazilian Modern, an original garden design by Miami-based landscape architect Raymond Jungle, is curently on display at the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx; the show closes on April 12. Mr. Jungle’s design is in large, an homage to the legacy of Roberto Burle Marx (1909 – 1994), Latin America’s most respected landscape architect of the 20th Centuryand Jungle’s mentor.

Burle Marx, a painter and musician by training, was versed a proficient creator of tile mosaics, printmaking, fabric design, stage set design, jewlery design, sculpture, etching, and many other art forms.  Celebrated for having designed the landscapes of Brazil’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the undulating mosaic sidewalks of Rio’s Copacabana Beach and the Flamengo Park in Rio de Janeiro, amnong many other iconic works, Burle Marx was one of the first local landscape architects who dared to infuse traditional European-style gardens with local Brazilian flora.

As a consequence, Burle Marx left a staggering legacy as both an ecologist and designer, proving early on that any architectural understanding of urban or rural spaces demand an engagement with the local vegetation – and its conditions for survival.

Mr. Jungle, who had the privilege to study under Burle Marx, also made The Orchid Show: Brazilian Modern into a unique display of the ways in which plants and the art of design inform (and have informed) each other. Famous for the naturalistic subtropical aesthetic used in residential projects in Florida and the Carribe, Jungles’ projects have been featured in over fifteen books. Profiles of him have appeared on the front cover in the New York Times, Thursday Design section, Garden Design Journal, Traditional Homes magazine and Southern Accents magazine, as well as more than 26 national and international publications.

His design for The Orchid Show: Brazilian Modern features fountains, pools, and colorful mosaics combined with graceful palms, delicate orchids, bromeliads, and other native plants of Brazil. The orchids have been selected by the Manager of the Nolen Greenhouses for Living Collections at the Botanical Garden and Curator of The Orchid Show, Marc Hachadourian and are featured throughout the Haupt Conservatory.

While the purpose of botanical gardens is to display plants and flowers, this show takes a step beyond that goal, as it also frames living beings as art objects, highlighting the importance of gardening and design to the very understanding of ecological preservation.

For more information, go to www.nybg.org.

The NY Botanical Garden can be reached by public transportation:

By Metro-North Railroad: Take the Metro-North Harlem local line to Botanical Garden Station. Walk across Kazimiroff Boulevard to the Garden’s Mosholu Gate entrance.

By Subway: Take the B, D, or 4 train to Bedford Park Blvd Station. From the station exit, take the Bx 26 bus east to the Garden’s Mosholu Gate entrance or walk eight blocks down the hill on Bedford Park Blvd to the end (approximately 20 minutes). Turn left onto Kazimiroff Blvd and walk one block to Mosholu Gate entrance. For schedules and maps, visit the MTA Web site. The Garden is open year-round, from 10 am to 6pm. Tuesday through Sunday and Monday federal holidays.