April 18th 2025 - Happy Easter - trio of Masdevallias

taking the opportuntiy to wish everyone Happy Easter we have three small growing masdevallias in flower that live next to each other, so a a special treat we are featuring all three.

The Masdevallias, from left to right, are Masdevallia triangularis, Masdevallia decumana and Masdevallia nivea.

Masdevallia traingularis is a neat little plant with small plant (10cm leaves) with relatively large flowers 14cm from tip to tip) that are kind of triangular. Of course most masdevallias have flowers that are kind of triangular so I am not sure what encouraged English botanist John Lindley to single out this species in 1846!. The flowers have lovely red/orange spots and long, dark red tails. Masdevallia triangularis is a widespread South American species found from Venuzela to Peru and with such a wide distribution it is not surprising that the species is quite variable with colours from yellow through to dark orange.

Masdevallia decumana is Annies favourite orchid. It is a tiny 5cm plant with very large flowers. We find that the species prefers to be mounted, though can also be grown in a small pot. Masdevallia decumana is native to cloud forests in Ecuador and Peru from 1000-2500m. 

Masdevallia nivea is intermediate in size between M. triangularis and M. decumanaand again makes a lovely neat little plant with giant flowers.

Masdevallia nivea is endemic to Colombia and found in cloud forests at around 2800m altitude. 

We find that all of these Masdevallias enjoy our cloud forest greenhouse (Min 12C) where they are kept well watered all year (sprayed once or twice a day depending on the weather) and grown low down in the greenhouse in shade and cool.

April 14th 2025 - Dendrobium aphyllum

The top of our greenhouse is Dendrobium aphyllum world this week. The wonderful pink and cream flowers look great against the blue of the sky and remind me of trips to Sikkim where the lowland forests are often full of this beautiful species. (photo 2 in morning sunshine in Sikkim)

Dendrobium aphyllum is a warm growing species and we have seen it in the Himalayas growing on trees from 200m to about 900m altitude. It also grows as a lithophyte on large boulders and cliffs. Here the forest is semi-deciduous (see photo 3) below so the plants get lots of light in the cooler winter months.

The species is very pendulous with long thin canes that grow with lush light green leaves during the very wet summer from May to September. Plants then drop all of the leaves and remain leafless until flowering. We grow the species in our cloudforest greenhouse  growing high above our cool growing Masdevallias, keeping it really wet all summer and then bone dry from December to February when it loses its leaves. We hang it really high in the greenhouse where it is as warm and bright as possible.

The species flowers well as a small plant but over time can form a large clump as shown by this magnificent specimen. We have small plants flourishing that will be ready for sale in about a months time.

April 10th 2025 - Coelogyne chinensis

Today's orchid is delightfully sweet and very fragrant.

Coelogyne chinensis is native to Southern China and Vietnam and across South East Asia as far as Arunachal Pradesh, where it experience a wet summer monsoon and a cooler dryer winter when it flowers.

We have grown it both cool in our Cloud Forest Greenhouse (min 12C) and warm indoors. It grows well in both environments flowering in February when grown warm and in April when grown cool. We find that although the species grows and flowers in heavy shade it flowers much more profusely when grown in good light. 

The species is semi deciduous and when grown cool and bright drops it leaves before flowering. Interestingly, in common with many deciduous species, Coelogyne chinensis has a spike on top of its pseudobulbs left when the leaves fall, presumably to deter herbivores. 

The flower spikes emerge from the centre of emerging new growths and so we are now increasing watering for the growing season through to the end of September.

April 7th 2025 - Early Spider Orchid - Ophrys sphagodes

The second week in April is the always our time to make a pilgrimage to the Purbeck Coast in Dorset to find the Early spider Orchid

This wonderful species (that last week I likened to Gastrochilus retrocallus) is one of the UK's less common orchids but in its Dorset stronghold can easily bee found amongst the short turf near the coast path.

The plants are not large but when you get your eye in they are not hard to spot. For anyone wanting to find them for the first time the a walk along the coat path from Dancing Ledge (easily reached from the National Trust car park in Langton Matravers) towards Durlaston Head will guarantee lots of plants and they should be flowering for the next week or two.

April 3rd 2025 - Gastrochilus retrocallus

This wonderful miniature orchid is a species we would never be without. 

Gastrochilus retrocallus is endemic to Taiwan and is a vigorous little member of the Vanda family with relatively large flowers bourne on and off throughout the year in ones and twos on short pendulous spikes.

The natural habitat of the species is reported as open deciduous forest between 1000 and 2000m altitude which explains the extensive root system to cope with dry periods.

We grow the species mounted on cork bark in our Ikea growing cabinets (see photo below) with a minimum of 17C although it would grow cooler) 

I am intrigues by the flower's resemblance to our native Early Spider Orchids which are now flowering on the Dorset coast (photo 4) and wonder if they have a similar pollination strategy.

The species has previously been called Haraella retrocala and Haraella odorata, the last of which references the lovely scent of the flowers.

March 28th 2025 - Dendrobium x suffusum

Our fifth Australian Orchid is another natural hybrid.

Dendrobium suffusum is a natural hybrid and one of the prettiest and most floriferous of our cool growing dendrobiums, with the bonus of having a lovely sweet scent.

The parents are Dendrobium kingianum and Dendrobium gracilicaule (see photos 4 and 5 below) and it is a medium sized plant that grows into a specimen quite quickly. Pseudobulbs up to 40cm high carry spays of many 1cm flowers with a lovely fragrance. 

Dendrobium kingianum is pink and a small growing species. It gives the pink flower to Dendrobium suffusum.

Dendrobium gracilicaule is a taller growing species with crowded spikes of creamy yellow flowers. It gives Dendrobium suffusum its floriferous habit and the attractive dark spots to the outside of the flowers.

We grow Dendrobium suffusum in our Himalayas Greenhouse (min.7C) with good light with lots of water in the summer, but with less water in the winter. the flowers are long lasting especially if not sprayed with water and so we hope that this plant which was a star at the RHS Orchid Show in Wisley will still be in its prime for our other shows this spring.

March 26th 2025 - Dendrobium pugioniforme

For day four of Australian Orchid week we have one of our most remarkable orchids, Dendrobium pugioniforme - the Dagger Orchid

Dendrobium pugioniforme has fleshy pointed leaves along a pendulous rhizome, and the whole thing is covered in very attractive flowers with light green petal and sepals, and a white and pink lip. As you can see from the second photo our stock plant has now grown to nearly 2m long with flowers all the way, and hangs from near the top of our Cloud Forest Greenhouse to near the floor.

In Australia the species it is known as the 'Dagger Orchid' due to its stiff pointy leaves. It grows as an epiphyte on trees or as a lithophyte on rocks in cool shaded wet forest.

The flowers begin to appear on our largest plant in early March and the last ones go over at the end of April. As can be seen from the photos the flowers are non-resupinate (upside down with the lip at the top) and produced in profusion from all along the pendulous stems.

We grow our plant mounted on a largish piece of cork bark and we spray plants daily. We find that the plant grows well in both shaded or brighter spots.

We have divisions of the stock plant on our ETSY shop rooted to cork mounts.

March 25th 2025 - Dendrobium x speciokingianum

For day three of Australian Orchid week we have Dendrobium speciokingianum. 

Dendrobium speciokingianum is a natural hybrid between the two Australian species,Dendrobium speciosum var. hillii and Dendrobium kingianum and is found right across their common range down the East side of Austrailia.

We have known this natural hybrid as Dendrobium x delicatum for the past 50 years but have recently renamed plants inline with current boanical research.

If you are interested in plant names this is an interesting one described here by the RHS registrar:

The earliest available name for the hybrid Dendrobium kingianum x D. speciosum is Dendrobium x speciokingianum T.Lawr., Garden (London 1871–1927) 49: 201 (1896), published as specio-kingianum. Unfortunately, this name appears to have been overlooked by Clements in Catalogue of Australian Orchidaceae, Australian Orchid Research 1: 1-160 (1989), and subsequent floristic literature. The hybrid involving Dendrobium speciosum var. hillii (Den. tarberi) is called Dendrobium x delicatum only if the parent in the Den. speciosum complex is accepted at species rank as Dendrobium tarberi. If it is regarded as Den. speciosum var. hillii, as currently in the Kew World Checklist and the RHS Register, then the correct name becomes Dendrobium x speciokingianum nothovar. delicatum. Consequently, a new combination is required: Dendrobium x speciokingianum nothovar. delicatum (F.M.Bailey) R.Govaerts & J.M.H. Shaw comb. nov. Basionym: Dendrobium speciosum var. delicatum F.M.Bailey, Proc. Roy. S

Ignoring the name complications, this orchid is most remarkable for its wonderful fragrance that completely fill our Himalayas Greenhouse on this sunny spring morning.

Plants make majestic specimens over time with pseudobulbs 60cm tall toped with three to five dark green leaves. Flower spikes emerge from between the leaves starting from the top in the first year and progressively lower over the nex few years. Plants can get really big and in the past (at Writhlington) we have grown plants more than 6ft across (see photos 3 and 4)

We grow plants in our Himalayan section (min 7C) so this is a cool growing species although plants that have found their way into the house also flourish. We keep plant well watered in the summer when in growth but a bit dryer in the winter and spring especially when in flower. We have friends who put their plants outside in the summer where they do well as long as watered sufficiently.

March 24th 2025 - Dendrobium gracilicaule

Continuing our Australian Orchid week we have Dendrobium gracilicaule. 

Dendrobium gracilicaule produces slender pseudobulbs up to 70cm long and massed multiple spikes of slightly nodding flowers. The flowers are unusual for being plain yellow inside but beautifully spotted with deep red on the outside and as you can see, plants are really floriferous.

Dendrobium gracilicaule is a reported as native to Queensland and New South Wales Australia as well as New Caledonia where it grows as an epiphtye on trees or lithophyte on rocks from sea level up to 600m altitude.

Like many of the Australian dendrobiums this species flowers from new and older pseudobulbs simultaneously and so when mature produces a fantastic show of flowers.

We grow our plant in our himalayas greenhouise min 7C, although its native range indicates it would be happier a little warmer. We grow plants in open bark and water well in the summer but keep them much dryer in the winter.

March 18th 2025 - Coelogyne cristata

A real favourite amongst our orchids is this iconic Coelogyne from the Himalayas.

The flowering of Coelogyne cristata means springtime in the greenhouse and takes us back to our travels in the Sikkim Himalaya.

The plant shown here is labelled Coelogyne cristata 'limoniana' for the lemon yellow blotch on the lip rather than the usual colour which is more like egg yolk yellow. (photo below) Observing wild populations it soon became clear that flowers are rather variable in the colour of the lip right from orange yellow through a range of paler yellows to pure white, so giving varietal names is a bit spurious.

In Sikkim we found plants growing at around 2000m either on mossy trees or at the top of cliffs in drippy mossy areas (photo 2). These microhabitats give a clue to the secret of growing and flowering plants well in cultivation - lots and lots of water.

We water plants every day during the summer growing season and keep them damp through the winter (watering about once or twice a week) so that the bulbs do not shrivel. Once the flowers develop we work very hard to keep water off the flowers and they can stay priting for up to a month.

We grow our plants cool in our Himalayas greenhouse with a winter minimum of 7C but have also succeeded with them much warmer on a windowsil indoors. When growing plants warmer the heavy watering is even more important for flower production as desiccated plants rarely flower.

March 11th 2025 - Isabellia violacea

We have another of our gorgeous miniature orchids today.

Sophronitella violacea is native to Organ Mountains in Brazil where it grows in forests around 1000m and its flowers are 2.5cm across which is really rather large for this tiny species with 2cm pseudobulbs each topped by a single leaf. The species is pollinated by hummingbirds.

For those who have not read about our expeditions to the Brazil – The Organ Mountains (Serra dos Órgãos) are a precipitous ancient granite mountain range near the coast in the state of Rio de Janeiro and the spot we visited during our expeditions to Brazil in 2000 and 2005.

In cultivation we find it likes to grow cool and bright and wet but enjoy really free draining conditions. We grow all our plants mounted and hanging them high in our Cloud Forest greenhouse where we spray plants daily, except in warm summer weather when we spray them twice a day.

Flowers only last a week which is a shame, but are so utterly charming that we would never be without this species in our collection.

March 5th 2025 - Coelogyne saccolabium (Dendrochilum saccolabium)

We are fortunate to have many members of the Coelogyne genus in our collection including those that used to be called Dendrochilum's. The genus Dendrochilum has recently been included in Coelogyne as a result of molecular studies (DNA)

Coelogyne saccolaboium is typical of plants that were called dendrochilums with its dense flower spikes with about 50 charming little red flowers.

If you look closely you can see that each flower peeps out from under a pink bract and so it is work taking time to look directly into the flowers, and appreciate their really bright red colour.

The species is native to the Philippines where it is reported as growing in cool evergreen forests above 1200m altitude. This habitat closely mirrors conditions in our cloud forest greenhouse where we maintain a minimum temperature of 12C, water well throughout the year and shade heavily in the summer.

As well as amazing flowers, the species has attractive stiff, flattened, narrow leaves and looks lovely even when not in flower.

February 27th 2025 - Cattleya coccinea

We have seen this wonderful miniature orchid growing in the Organ Mountains of Brazil where we found it on exposed windy ridges above 1000m altitude (see photo of plant in Brazil below)

During our visits temperatures were around 12C at night and 22C during the day. It was very noticeable that the forest was dripping every morning from the mists and dew.

New growths have a single leaf that becomes purple in bright sunlight and the flowers are produced from immature growths. The flowers are pollinated by humming birds and are variable in size, shape and colour. Some flowers are rounder, some more angular, and some have considerable yellow on the lip and petals. Our seed raised plant here is a classic and wonderful scarlet red.

This does not seem to be the easiest plant to grow but the challenge is to replicate the plants natural conditions – Cool, wet, bright and windy. It is definitely worth the trouble and the plant flowering today in the greenhouse is growing mounted high in our Cloud Forest Greenhouse (second photo) but in a spot that is easy to water so that we can soak it most days. Grown well they quickly make lovely specimens. 

We have some lovely seedlings developing in the lab using this plant as the pod parent and these should be available from spring 2026.

February 12th 2025 - Stelis aprica

We have another Brazilian orchid today.

Stelis aprica is native to the coastal cloud forests of Brazil that we have explored on our expeditions to the Mata Atlantica. It grows in wet forest but has relatively stiff leaves compared to many stelis to cope with the more seasonal climate experiences in the Barazilian cloud forests than many of those in from Peru up the Andes to Costa Rica in Central America.

The flowers are tiny as with many stelis species but are produced in abundance from old and new leaves giving a lovely display.

February 10th 2025 - Bulbophyllum ambrosia

Bulbophyllum species are very diverse in growth habit, flower appearence and cultural needs.  One of most trouble free and accommodating species is the small growing Bulbophyllum ambrosia. This species is notable for its powerful sweet scent and its charming little flowers.

Bilbophyllum ambrosia is species that produces single flowers, scented of honey, on very thin stems so that they appear to float around the plant. The species is native to Southern China and Vietnam where it grows in forest ranging from warm lowland semi-deciduous forest at 300m altitude to cooler evergreen forests at 1300m.  We have visited the habitat in Laos where there is a distinct winter cool, dry season and in cultivation we find that plants do all their growing between April and November (warm wet season) and flower in early spring (the dry season). 

Thanks to the large range of the species, we find that plants do well either grown warm in our indoor orchid cases (min 17C), or in our Cloud Forest Greenhouse (min 12C).

February 6th 2025 - Renanthera monachica

Today we have one of our warm growing species. 

Renanthera monachica is a dwarf member of the genus but still a robust and dramatic orchid.

The genus Renanthera is closely related to Vanda but plants are easily distinguished by their bright flowers and different lip shape evolved for their bird pollinators.

Many Renathera species are giant plants growing to several metres tall with an upright habit that allows them to scramble up through trees and reach the bright light that they enjoy. Renathera monachica is on a much smaller scale but as you can see our plant is already 60cm tall with a flower spike adding another 60cm, so not a miniature orchid.

In a healthy plant the flower spike branches and gives a wonderful display of exuberantly spotted orange flowers. The flowers are long lasting.

As I said, Renanthera monachica is warm growing and endemic to lowland forest on the island of Luzon, in the Philippines. 

We have explored similar forests in Sarawak where the temperature is always in the 20s or 30s and although their is rainfall all year, the forest dries out soon after rains.

We have grown the species successfully in baskets but really love the way the plant grows and displays itself on a large cork mount.

The plant hangs in our growing cases in our living room (min 17C) with grow lights to supplement the light from a north facing window. You will notice from the photos that we have modified the IKEA dosplay cases by removing the glass shelves and adding weld mesh that allows us to hang mounted plants.

We water our plants most days with a spray of rain water and feed to 400-500 micro-seimens conductivity.