This morning we had a visit from Emma Fry and Linda Sands from the BBC to plan filming with Countryfile next Wednesday. The visit started with Orchid Project students giving a tour of the greenhouse and the labs before checking out the native orchids flowering at Ammerdown with head gardener Richard Kitley. With lots […]

  Possibly our most impressive specimen plant is this 2.5m tall, gorgeously fragrant, ancient plant of Aerides oderata(we have been growing it from a small plant purchased from Burnham Nurseries in 1995) . It won a cultural certificate from the RHS in June 2014 but has increased a lot in size since then. The species […]

This large flowered Maxillaria is native to southe America and found from Venezuela to Ecuador as an epiphyte in forest from 800-1800m. We find that it enjoys the conditions of cool damp and shade in Cool Americas although we move it onto a shelf when in flower so that the flowers stay in pristine condition […]

this is the most delicate of Encyclias. It comes from Central America and we have seen it in Belize a few miles inland from Belize city. Encyclias are Laelineae and so related to Cattleyas and Laelias and tend to have roundish pseudobulbs and thick stiff leaves. Encyclia bractescens is something of an exception with thin […]

  This Brazillian pluerothallis produces a dramatic display when its long spike of spidery flower pretty much hide the leaves of the plant in early summer. We have seen the species flowering in Brazil where we found it growing abundantly of mountain ridges at around 1200m in cloud forest. This photograph of the species near […]