19th June 2026 - Masdevallia pachyantha

Masdevallia pachyantha is a delightful miniature Masdevallia endemic to Colombia where it grows in cool cloud forests from 2900 to 3600m. This is a higher altitude than that of many of the Masdevallias we grow and so we keep Masdevallia pachyantha on lower shelves in the greenhouse to avoid heat stress, although we have not noticed adverse affects in any of the past three summers.

Our cloud forest greenhouse where we keep our Masdevallias has a minimum temperature of 12C and in the summer is shaded with two or three layers of green 40% shade net. We water pots at least every other day and so plants are never allowed to dry out completely.

Flowers last approximately a month and have a rather pleasent fruity smell.

17th June 2026 - Rhynchostele cordata

We have just finished setting up our diplay at Gardener's World Live (at the NEC) and will share photos tomorrow when the show opens.

We have more than 50 different orchid species on our display and one of them is the lovely Rhynchostele cordata.

Rhychostele cordata is named for its beautiful heart shaped lip, a really charismatic feature of this lovely species. The flowers have heavy spotting on the lateral sepals contrasting with the mostly pure coloured sepals (apart from the striping at their base). Plants are compact and produce flower spikes around 60cm long with 10 to 12 long lasting flowers.

Rhychostele cordata is found from Mexico through Central America to Venezuela in cloud forests from 1900 to 3000m and so is happy grown really cool in our Himalayas greenhouse (min 7C) wet in the summer and much dryer in the winter.

This is one of our plants that has chenged its name several times during our orchid growing. I first knew it in the 1970s as Odontoglossum cordatum but happily renamed it in the 1990s to Lemboglossum cordatum before molecular analysis settled as one of the 17 species in its current genus Rhnchostele.

11th June 2026 - Sobralia leucoxantha

We are well known for growing miniature orchids but we do also grow a few monster orchids including this dramatic species from Central America.

Sobralia leucoxantha is a terrestirial species that grows in open woodland from Southern Mexico through Central America. The species is found fup to 1000m altitude and so enjoys warm temperatures and we grow the species indoors in a sunny room near the window but in a little shade.

The flowers are enormous, about 20cm across and are produced terminally on long thin canes up to 2m long (a bit of a challenge for a house plant!

The flowers only last a couple of days but each cane produces three or four flowers over a period of 6 weeks or so.

4th June 2026 - Stelis ornata

We are well known for our miniature orchids and one of the most dramatic (as long as you have good eye sight, a magnifying glass or zoom on your phone) is Stelis ornata.

The species is named for the unusual white threads that decorate the edges of the flower which otherwise has adopted a very fashionable animal print. 

Plants are tiny with 2cm leaves and thin flower spikes up to 5cm long that flower successively with relatively large flowers about 1cm across.

Stelis ornata is native to cool wet mountain forests in Mexico and we find it loves our cloud forest greenhouse (min 12C) either in pots or mounted like this one.

27th May 2026 - Bee Orchid (Ophrys apifera)

We are very excited at the nursery after spotting the first bee orchid to flower in our meadow. 

We are working to restore our field to traditional Portland limestone grassland. When we moved in three and half years ago the field was dense scrub and our management has been to clear the scrub (apart from scrub island we are leaving), sowing Dorset limestone grassland seed and then doing hay cut in August followed by cuts to replicate winter grazing in October and again in December. 

This simple approach has led to the blossuming of extraordinary diversity including four blue butterfly species, glow worms, reptiles and this week our first Bee Orchid.

We weren't expecting bee orchids to appear for at least five years from the start of habitat restoration and so it was wonderful to spot this beyond the glasshouses today in an area only cleared two years ago.

We do have the advantage of low nutrient calcereous soil from past grassland management of the site overlying limestone and lots of wild areas with bee orchids within a few hundred yards of our meadow. 

We will record numbers of flowering plants in the years ahead.

14th May 2026 - Bletilla striata

Bletilla striata is lovely terrestrial native to Southern China, Myanmar, Japan and Korea. It grows in open temperate woodland. This is found high in mountains in the south of its range and at lower elevations in the north of its range. We have explored Himalayan temperate forests in  Arunachal Pradesh where several uk garden plants can be seen growing in natural splendour. Bletilla straita is therefore a hardy orchid and can certainly take a touch of frost (min -5) and we have friens in Dorset who successfully leave their plants in the ground all year or simply lift and store tubers each winter (like Dahlia tubers). We treat plants as very cool greenhouse plants and growing under glass gives the advantage of easy replication of the wet summers and dryer winters plants recieve in their natural habitats.

Given a little care this species is very easy to grow and multiplies quickly. 

We have thousand of seedlings of Bletilla striata in our propagation lab and so are hoping to have seedlings available soon.

11th May 2026 - Phalaenopsis aphrodite

Phalaenopsis aphrodite has been used extensively in the breeding of Phalaenopsis hybrids as house plants. It is a robust and forgiving species with stunning white flowers and a lovely arching flower spike. We are fans of the species which retains really charm.

Phalaenopsis aphrodite was previously described as native to the Philippines and Taiwan but recently the Taiwan form has been separated as Phalaenopsis formosana. The two forms can be identified by the general reduction of red pigment in Phalaenopsis formosana giving apple green leaves and almost no red on the lip.

Looking at our form it fits well with the Philippines form and so we are happy with sticking to Phalaenopsis aphrodite.

Phalaenopsis aphrodite is another lowland forest Phalaenopsis but is found from sea level right up to 1000m suggesting a little cool tolerance. 

We find the species very straight forward to grow indoors and are please to be propagating the species from seed.

11th May 2026 - Phalaenopsis bastianii

We have some lovely Phalaenopsis species in flower this week and most impresive is our specimen plant of Phalaenopsis bastianii.

This species produces long flower spikes that flower for repeatedly for several years and so our large plant has four branched flower spikes in flower. The flowers themselves are 3cm across and brightly coloured.

Phalaenopsis bastianii is native to warm lowland forests in the Philippines from sea level up to 600m and so we grow plants indoors in our IKEA cabinets (min 17C) 

We have pollinated flowers and hope to have seedlings in two years. 

21st April 2026 - Masdevallia persicina

This miniature masdevallia has very attractive rounded flowers that are surprisingly large for the sze of the plant

Masdevallis persicina is endemic to Ecuador where it is reported growing in cloud forests from 1500-1600m and we find that it ejoys a shady spot low down in our Cloud Forests greenhouse (min 12C) 

We grow plants mounted which seems to suit their growing requirements and shows of the flowers on their short stems.

The lip on this species is quite large and the bright red dot at the end of the lip is really lovely. The colour palette is reminiscent of a tequila sunrise (if anyone else 

remembers cocktails of the 1980s)

We are looking forward to seeing this plant as a specimen when we expect the flowers to hide the leaves.