Stenoglottis fimbriata
We know that Autumn is here when our Stenoglottis start to flower.
We have two species, Stenoglottis fimbriata that starts to flower in first (at the end of September) and Stenoglottis longifolia that flowers about a month later.
in our Stenoglottis fimbriata the basal rosette of leaves are spotted in purple, unlike our Stenoglottis longifolia that has unspotted leaves. Our plants have flower spikes currently 60cm tall that will eventually extend to about 80cm. The lovely spotted pink flowers open successively up the spike and give a really wonderful display.
The species comes from Eastern South Africa where it is found growing in moss and humus on rocks, banks and fallen trees in shaded forest and bush from the coast up to 1800m. This is a habitat we have explored around Durban where forest remnants have a distinct wet season and dry season with a cool dry winter with temperatures occasionally down to almost freezing.
There is recent research that has clarified the identification of the five accepted species of Stenoglottis and this shows that our distinction based on leaf spots is not a reliable factor for separating Stenoglottis fimbriata and Stenoglottis longifolia. Our two species are better separated by floral details of the lip which as you can see in the middle photo is three lobed, without fibriate side lobes in Stenglottis fimbriata (rather inconveniently the lip side lobes of Stenoglottis longifolia are fimbriate)
We grow the species in our Himalayan Greenhouse (minimum 7C) where it flowers from September to Christmas and then loses its leaves. We then give it a dryish rest until new shoots appear in late February from which time we give steadily increasing water. Plants are also happy grown warmer.
During the summer plants enjoy being really wet and water them daily.
This regime is not as complicated as it sounds and the plants are easy to grow and flower.
I have added a culture page on repotting Stenoglottis as lots of people have asked for help.