Tropical Rainforest of Utopia Park (Utopia Orchid Park)

Utopia Park is a private venture. According to the report published by the news site ynet on the eve of its opening, it was developed by Arieh and Gil Danieli, owners of a nursery at Nitzanei Oz that specialises in houseplants and in importing finished plants from the Netherlands. Billed at the time as a 35-dunam ecological garden, the project cost 12 million shekels, and the park was due to open to the public on Friday 31 March 2006.

The concept was an enclosed garden under a transparent roof, its climate controlled so that orchids and other tropical plants could be grown. The park has since grown: Hebrew Wikipedia gives it about 40 dunams and the Russian article some 40,000 m². The official website now describes a dozen themed "worlds", from the rainforest to butterflies, parrots, cacti and roses. Russian Wikipedia adds that the outdoor plantings change with the seasons and that the park also hosts weddings and receptions, while an adjoining garden centre sells orchids, cacti and carnivorous plants.

None of the sources consulted names an architect or builder, and the building's dimensions are not published. The 2006 ynet article describes an enclosed greenhouse with a transparent roof, kept between 18 and 28 °C. The Israel in Photos guide presents it as an air-conditioned, two-level building, comparable in size to a basketball arena, which visitors explore first at ground level and then along a network of linked wooden walkways.

Water shapes the interior: channels wind between the plants, a large pool is fringed with vegetation, small waterfalls spill over the rockwork and suspended bridges span the whole space. A walk-in aviary housing birds of the pheasant family is set inside the building, and its far end is given over to carnivorous plants. The official website notes that the park stays open in all weathers.

Orchids are the reason the place exists. At the opening, ynet counted 500 kinds from around the world, with 8,000 plants in flower. Hebrew Wikipedia lists among the genera on show Phalaenopsis, Cattleya, Oncidium, Zygopetalum, Paphiopedilum, Dendrobium and Cymbidium, together with anthuriums and bromeliads.

The rainforest also holds rare bananas, with blue, red or apple-flavoured fruit according to ynet, as well as ferns, water plants such as water hyacinth, and koi carp in the pools. The carnivorous-plant corner shows Nepenthes and Drosera among others; the Israel in Photos guide explains how they catch their prey. Birds in the indoor aviary, butterflies in free flight and parrots scattered around the park complete this living collection.

The park lies at the entrance to Kibbutz Bahan in the Hefer Valley, not far from Hadera, in the heart of the Sharon plain. Around the rainforest lie the open-air areas: a hill planted with plants native to Israel, a rose garden, a cactus garden and a herb garden, two hedge mazes (one of them on two levels), a parrot enclosure and a small farm-animal corner. A musical fountain puts on a show of ten to fifteen minutes every half hour. The park's garden centre offers a way to round off the visit with an orchid or a carnivorous plant to take home.