News

Bristol Orchid and Rare Plant Fair.

A massive thank you to Dino for organising such a fantastic event this year. It was a real pleasure to meet so many enthusiastic and knowledgable Bristol plant people. Here is our stand for those who misswed it. We were pleased to have so many interesting species in flower for our display.

Bristol Orchid and Rare Plant Fair.

Our next show is tomorrow in Bristol. There are lots of great traders there as well as talks. If it is anything like last years event it will be a wonderful day.

We look forward to seeing friends there both old and new.

RHS Orchid Show - Wisley 2025

There is one left of the RHS Orchid Show. We have had a lovely time and really enjoyed meeting old friends and making new ones. Congratulations to the RHS for organising such a great event

We are delighted with a Silver-Gilt Medal for our display and the wonderful feedback from visitors.

We are looking forward to our final day, on Sunday, at the home of UK Gardening. Do come and say hello.

The photos show our display featuring our lovely orchids and the new information boards that focus on their natural habitats and how these conditions can be replicated in the UK.

We are particularly pleased to have so many red and orange orchids amongst our 50 display species including; Cattleya coccinea, Oncidium noezleanum, Cattleya cinnabarina, Brassia aurantiaca (below) and Renanthera monachica.

Read about making our new Terrarium

We have been inspired by our customers that grow great orchids in terrariums to add a few to our home.

Our first is a terrarium for warm orchids to go in our south facing dining room.

Here is a page about how we made it. If you have any questions, send us an email on isleofportlandorchids@gmail.com

Shows 2025 Update

We will be selling plants at several shows in 2025. Here are the dates confirmed so far

Wessex Orchid Society Show - Saturday 1st March 2025, Portchester Parish Hall, 1 Assheton Court, Castle Street, Portchester PO16 9PS. 12:00 - 4:00pm

RHS Orchid Show - 14th-16th March 10am-4pm. RHS Garden Wisley, Wisley Lane, Surrey, GU23 6QB.

Bristol Plant Show on Saturday 5th April 2025 St. Philip and St. Jacob church, Tower Hill, Bristol, BS2 0JA 10am-5pm

UK INTERNATIONAL ORCHID SHOW at BBC GARDENERS WORLD LIVE June 12th – June 15th, 2025, NEC Birmingham

Gloucestershire Rare Plants & Orchids Fair 2025, 10 am to 4.30 pm, Saturday 5 July, St. Mary de Crypt Church, Southgate Street, Gloucester,GL1 1TP

Why not join in the New Year Plant Hunt

Every year the Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland asks people to take part in a New Year Plant Hunt to generate long term data that helps us to understand how our wild and naturalised flowers are responding to climate change.

The Plant Hunt runs from 29th December to 1st January and you can register to be part of the plant hunt here

We will let you know what we find on our plant hunt on Portland.

Our first Portland Plant Hunt hunt was on the Chesil Beach and Hamm Common where we found 16 species in flower. Ours is just one of 400 surveys already uploaded to the results page here.

Happy Christmas from Isle of Portland Orchids

Annie and Simon wish you all a very merry Christmas.

Here is the sunset from Christmas eve and we hope that you Christmas is just as golden.

Order Christmas cards and messages in your Christmas orchid orders

If you are ordering orchids as a Christmas present from our ETSY shop you can buy a card means that we will include it with your order with your own message choice.

The cards are all purchased from Dorset Wildlife Trust, at the Chesil Wild Centre, where both of us volunteer to do our bit to help and protect our local flora and fauna - keep an eye on our website for details of the summer flower walks we lead on the reserve every summer.

By the way our last ordering date for pre-Christmas delivery is Wednesday 18th December.

Turn on the Christmas light

Most towns are getting set to turn on their Christmas illuminations but here at our nursery it is all about 'turning on' the natural winter light for our orchids.

We have now removed the last of our external shading to the greenhouses so that our plants can make the most of our rather feeble British winter light.

We have also cleaned the inside of the glass to remove any algae.

Indoors we have moved our orchids nearer to the windows to increase their access to light now that the summer sun is a distant memory.

Orchid Workshop on Portland (with Friends of Portland Museum) 12th December

We are running an orchid workshop organised by the Friends of Portland Museum (an absolutely brilliant museum if you haven't visited).

All welcome, details on the poster shown here.

To book email portlandmuseum@gmail.com or call 01305821804

Mounted Orchid Month

We have been asked so many questions about growing mounted orchids that this month is our 'Mounted orchid Month' and we have added a new culture page all about how we grow orchids in the rewarding way. Check out the new page here

There are lots of mounted orchids on our ETSY shop - just search 'mounted' and they all come up.

New talk available

Simon gave a talk to Bournemouth Orchid Society last week entitled 'why has the name of my favourite or chid changed and what does it mean for my collection'. The talk explores the reasons and the science behind the large number of name changes since the 1990s, focusing on some of the most popular orchid families amongst growers, and suggests ways for orchid enthusiasts to navigate the changes and learn from their plants and the scientific community.

If you would like to book Simon to talk to your orchid society please email us on isleofportlandorchids@gmail.com

Six new species available on our ETSY shop

Today we updated our ETSY shop including six new species we haven't had available before.

With around 500 species in our collection it will be a while before we have offered all of them but we are busy propagating all we can.

100 species in our Orchid information pages

Today we updated our orchid information pages and found we have reached a milestone with 100 of our species now with full information.

It is amazing how quickly a web site grows.

With around 400 more species in our collection we will be busy for a while yet but why not check out some of our lovely orchids already featured.

Portland's native orchids in full bloom

We are lucky to live surrounded by native orchids on Portland and tghis week the Pyramidal Orchids are at their best. The group shown here are on the nature reserve by the Wild Chesil Centre where we volunteer for Dorset Wildlife Trust as outdoor engagement volunteers, talking to the public about the flora and fauna on the reserve - hope to see you there someting.

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