The Jensen Beach Garden Club was proud to partner with the Martin County Orchid Society (MCOS) to beautify Jensen Beach Boulevard with 95 orchids—including 65 native species and 30 colorful non-native Dendrobium hybrids.

With support from MCOS members and guidance from our own native orchid expert Georgia Fowler, club volunteers helped install the orchids in oak and palm trees along the eastern portion of the boulevard. JBGC also committed to watering the orchids during their two-month acclimation period and will assist with ongoing care to monitor their survival. The addition of non-native orchids was funded by $300 donations from both JBGC and MCOS, providing an eye-catching splash of color as requested by the Chamber of Commerce and Martin County staff.

Please review a summary of the project prepared by MCOS below. Next time you are strolling through downtown Jensen, look up!

Martin County Orchid Society (MCOS)

Native Orchid Restoration Program

Jensen Beach Boulevard Beautification Project

Background on the native orchid project

After five years of participating in others’ native orchid restoration projects dealing with a single species, MCOS formed the Native Orchid Restoration Committee in 2021, with Carly Batts as committee chair.  The committee was charged with proposing, obtaining Board of Directors approval and conducting at least two native orchid restoration projects per year.

Projects approved so far include:

2022 - Bridge Road and Martin Highway capsule harvest and seedling grow-out

2023 - Indian Riverside Park and Twin Rivers Park

2024 - St. Lucie Shores STA and Hawk’s Hammock Park

2025 - Jensen Beach Boulevard Beautification and Possum Long Nature Center

Reason for the urban approach

The greatest threats to native orchids are loss of habitat and poaching. The Million Orchid Project, led by Dr. Jason Downing, showed that both threats could be eliminated by urbanizing native orchids—and as such, Miami Dade County now has hundreds of orchids in its most prominent downtown areas, including the Design District, South Beach, and Brickell. This brilliant conservation strategy was relayed by Dr. Downing to Carly Batts & Nick Nickerson at McKee Botanical’s Million Orchid Presentation in the early Summer of 2024. Jensen Beach’s own downtown has beautiful sprawling Live Oak trees, perfect for orchids to attach and flower in.

Furthermore, Jensen Beach as a community is collectively made up of extremely active citizens who appreciate nature and various forms of neighborhood beautification. An enormous outpouring of well wishes and pride was received by MCOS/JBGC and MC Public Works Department over the installation of these 95 orchids from the community - which has created just as we had hoped - a grassroots watch party for this special group of plants. 

Numbers and types of orchids we planted

95 orchids (65 Florida natives of four species plus 30 Dendrobium hybrids) were installed in 15 oak trees and two cabbage palm trees.  The four native species included the Florida Butterfly Orchid (Encyclia tampensis) in bloom, the Rigid Epidendrum (Epidendrum rigidum), the Night Fragrant Epidendrum (Epidendrum nocturnum) and the Cow Horn Orchid (Cyrtopodium punctatum).  Because of moderate shade in the oak trees, the sun-loving and most endangered Florida native cow horn orchids were attached only to two cabbage palms.   

Number of volunteers that participated and organizations represented
Twenty volunteers of Martin County Orchid Society, Jensen Beach Garden Club, Florida Native Plant Society and Martin County Public Works Department organizations participated in the four hour planting event on June 9, 2025.

Planned care and follow up and any other future projects planned 

 All MCOS Native Orchid Restoration Projects require five years of follow-up monitoring to determine and document survival and, occasionally add supplemental orchids to initial plantings.  In the case of the Jensen Beach Beautification project that is directly in the public eye, the Jensen Beach Garden Club offered to provide supplemental watering during the two month acclimation period as well as periodic checking for secure attachment and survival of the installed orchids.

Approved MCOS future (2025) native orchid restoration projects are described above.  Pending projects include Harbor Island on Jupiter Island, Environmental Studies Center in Jensen Beach and the south Fork of the St. Lucie River in Halpatiokee Park.  We encourage suggestions of other public and protected private lands for our projects.

The MCOS native orchid greenhouse at Big Pine Nursery on Salerno Road was generously provided to the society by the owner since 2016.  Unfortunately, the owner sold the property, and we lost the greenhouse in September 2024.  The native orchid inventory was transported to Odom’s Orchids in Ft. Pierce where we rent bench space from John and Louise Odom on an in kind basis.

Funding for MCOS NOR project was secured from the society’s operating account until 2025.  Thanks to Carly Batts and Nick’s innovative funding search and Martin County Staff assistance, we secured a sizeable donation as part of a charitable requirement of the Three Lakes Golf project Planned Unit Development.  Consequently, our NORP funding is dedicated only to native orchid restoration and is separate and distinct from the society operating account. 

Finally, it may be of interest that the orchids planted at the Jensen Beach Beautification project were purchased from Odom’s Orchids at wholesale pricing.  The non-native Dendrobium hybrids were added to the natives for this project because the Chamber of Commerce and Martin County Staff believed more color was needed.  We cannot use our native orchid funding for non-native orchids.  Such funding must come from another source.  We thank MCOS and JBGC for their $300 donations to purchase the Dendrobiums.  We do not intend to add non-natives to future projects.

We especially would like to thank Georgia Fowler for her membership in MCOS and her requesting our participation in the JBGC Plant Expo several years ago.  Cooperation between nonprofits leads to multiple community successes – our NORP is but one prime example of that.

THANK YOU JBGC!!!