Orchid Fever

& the waterlily weigh-off challenge

Every spring, a solitary person camps out in a tent for a few weeks at a top-secret location. Their mission is to guard a single plant - the last wild lady’s slipper in the U.K. Although this species, Cypripedium calceolus, grows in various regions around the world, its wild population in England has clearly been decimated.

The Victorian era featured ma…