Orchid mania swept across Europe and North America in the early nineteenth century, driving a vast plant trade that catered to wealthy private patrons as well as to the fast-growing middle classes eager to display exotic flowers at home. In her new book, The Lost Orchid, Dr. Sarah Bilston shares the story of Cattleya labiata, the rare and striking purple-and-crimson bloom that quickly became one of the most coveted flowers on both continents. As tales of the flower’s beauty spread through scientific journals and the popular press, orchid dealers and enthusiasts initiated a massive search to recover it in its natural habitat. The American Horticultural Society will present on online talk with the author on October 9 at 7 pm Eastern. $15 for AHS members, $20 for nonmembers. Register at https://ahsgardening.org/ahs-live-the-lost-orchid/

Sarah Bilston is Professor and Chair of the Department of English Literature at Trinity College, Hartford (CT). She is the author of The Awkward Age in Women’s Popular Fiction, 1850–1900: Girls and the Transition to Womanhood (Oxford University Press, 2004); The Promise of the Suburbs: A Victorian History in Literature and Culture (Yale University Press, 2019 – a Choice Outstanding Academic Title); The Lost Orchid: A Story of Victorian Plunder and Obsession (Harvard University Press, 2025 – Kirkus Starred Review) and two novels with HarperCollins, Bed Rest and Sleepless Nights.