05/29/2025

First Ladies and Their Orchids: A Century of Namesake Cattleyas

Virtual Program - June 4th at 7:00 pm ET

Please join us on June 4th at 7:00 pm ET for our FLARE virtual program on the fascinating topic of first ladies and orchids. The program will feature a conversation with moderator Valerie Palmer-Mehta, Professor of Communication at Oakland University and an avid gardener, and Arthur Chadwick, the author along with his father A. A. Chadwick, of First Ladies and Their Orchids: A Century of Namesake Cattleyas. Art's book explores the 100+ year history of United States First Ladies and the cattleya hybrids that bear their names. We look forward to "seeing you" for this interesting program. 

No registration is required; please use this link to join: First Ladies Association for Research & Education - YouTube.

Presenter Biographies:

Art Chadwick holds a BS in Electrical Engineering from North Carolina State and an MBA from James Madison University. He founded Chadwick & Son Orchids Inc. in 1989 with his father who had been growing orchids since 1943. The Chadwick’s first book, The Classic Cattleyas, from 2006 sold out and an updated second edition was released last year. Martha Stewart favorably reviewed the book and had both Chadwicks on her tv show. A second book, First Ladies and their Cattleyas: A Century of Namesake Orchids, was published in 2024. The Chadwick’s have the distinction of naming Cattleya hybrids after the wives of the six most recent U.S. Presidents and personally presenting the flowers to most of the honored recipients. Art is a regular on orchid society speaker circuits and has spoken at two World Orchid Conferences - France 2005 and Ecuador 2017. For twenty years, he wrote a monthly orchid advice column that was carried by newspapers around the country. The Chadwicks operate 11 greenhouses in rural Powhatan County, two retail stores in Richmond, and boards over 13,000 orchids for local clients. The company was recently featured in Southern Living magazine, The New York Times, Bloomberg News, Smithsonian magazine, Better Homes and Gardens, The Washington Post, The CBS Evening News, and Oprah magazine. Art just returned from the Chelsea Flower Show where he won a Silver-Gilt Medal and showed Her Majesty Queen Camilla the hybrid that they named after her.

Valerie Palmer-Mehta is a Professor of Communication with a specialization in rhetorical studies at Oakland University. Her research examines women’s political rhetoric, and explores diverse figures such as Aung San Suu Kyi of Burma, Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders, and second-wave feminist Andrea Dworkin. She also has published research on First Ladies Sarah Polk and Edith Wilson. Her work appears in journals such as Quarterly Journal of Speech, Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies, International Journal of Communication, Communication, Culture & Critique, Text and Performance Quarterly, and Women's Studies in Communication. Her research also is featured in edited collections such as The Routledge Handbook on Rhetoric and Power (2024), Mothering Outside the Lines (2023), Southern First Ladies: Culture and Place in White House History (2021) and the forthcoming collection Monstrous Mother (2025). She is an avid gardener and orchid enthusiast. With a firm belief that first ladies warrant our reflection and examination, she is proud to be a lifetime inaugural member of FLARE.