The Vanda Miss Joaquim was discovered in 1893 by Agnes Joaquim in her garden at Tanjong Pagar. It rapidly became established as a popular garden plant in Singapore, then throughout SouthEast Asia at the turn of the century, and later it flourished in Hawaii, Florida, tropical America and Sri Lanka. It has also been known by various names: Vanda Joaquim, the "Wah-Kim" orchid, Vanda Agnes Joaquim, and the Princess Aloha Orchid. The original Vanda Miss Joaquim was a natural hybrid between Vanda hoolerana and Vanda teres.

The Vanda Miss Joaquim became the national flower of Singapore on the 15^th of April 1981, following an announcement made by the Minister for Culture, S. Dhanabalan. According to the Minister for Culture, the designation of a national flower was "part of an overall effort to foster national pride and identity". After years of deliberation, a national committee comprising representatives from the Ministry of Culture, the Parks and Recreation Department, the Singapore Tourist Promotion Board, the Singapore Institute of Standards and Industrial Research and the Orchid Society of South-East Asia chose Vanda Miss Joaquim from 40 other contenders, including some thirty orchids, because of its resilience and year-round blooming quality.

Singapore has gained unique distinction of being the only nation to have a hybrid for its national flower (Vanda Miss Joaquim). At the same time, the flower has an original distribution confined to Singapore’s own boundary, which, given the size of the island, is indeed remarkable.

Before World War 2, the Vanda Miss Joaquim was the most popular orchid in Singapore. Nearly every garden would have at least a few beds of it. But, it has fallen into neglect during the last twenty years because commercial growers have turned to concentrate on raising scorpion orchids instead.

The Vanda Miss Joaquim is extremely easy to propagate. When it is grown to a man’s height and exposed to full the sun, mass planting of this orchid will provide solid banks of delicate mauve all-year-round.

The choice of choosing the Vanda Miss Joaquim as Singapore’s National flower is most appropriate because orchids have long been identified with Singapore. No orchid is worthier than Agnes Joaquim’s flower. It was the first hybrid Vanda to be registered. Due to its ease of cultivation and productivity, it has no rival. It is so free-flowering that it has served as a yardstick for orchid hybridizers up til today.

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