Coelogyne fragrans
Coelogyne fragrans is a gorgeous species, native to Papua New Guinea with large flowers produced over a long time. It is reported in montane forests from 100 to 2000m which suggests it can thrive in a wide range of temperatures but with us it definitely prefers it cool and we find that plants do best in our Himalayan greenhouse (min 7C). The species flowers from early Summer right through to Autumn.
Plants flower profusely from the developing new growths and the flowers are really large at 4cm across.
We have tried growing plants warmer but plants grow smaller thinner bulbs and have less flowers per stem.
Some related species are sequential with their flowering while this species produces 2-4 of its large flowers per spike, with all the flowers opening together and giving a great display. We find that plants enjoy really heavy watering as the growths develop over the summer.