SINGAPORE – “Selected for vigour and the amount of growth it produces,” remarked then British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, as she posed for photos with an orchid named after her in the Singapore Botanic Gardens.

It was 1985, and that was the explanation from Singapore’s then commissioner of parks and recreation on why this orchid hybrid was chosen for the “Iron Lady”.

That antelope dendrobium – with petals resembling antelope horns, the result of breeding from a New Guinea orchid that is “an outstanding species as a stud” – would thereafter be known as the Dendrobrium Margaret Thatcher.

Mrs Thatcher is not alone. From Iran’s former empress Farah Pahlavi to Myanmar’s Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, there are over 280 orchid hybrids named after foreign dignitaries and key events – making Singapore’s orchid diplomacy programme the most extensive of its kind in the world.

This is the Republic’s answer to national soft power initiatives like China’s panda diplomacy, says local writer Koh Buck Song, who authored the 2024 book Singapore’s Orchid Diplomacy.

“The practice is not totally unique, but what is unique is the scale and way it is practised in Singapore,” the branding expert tells The Straits Times.

Indonesia has a similar practice, while the Netherlands and Japan incorporate tulips and cherry blossoms respectively into their foreign affairs.

“Most of the time, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has its hands full with priorities that are centred on hard power, like GDP (gross domestic product) and free trade agreements,” he says.

Mr Koh notes that a country’s branding often revolves around abstract ideas and attributes – in short, soft power. “Orchid diplomacy belongs in that category.”

Still, not every foreign dignitary has an orchid hybrid named in his or her honour. For much of the practice’s history, many of its r...