While we enjoy the excitement of Kuching our orchids continue to sparkle back at school and we have a visit by the Britain in bl0om judges on Friday.

This species is found in the wild in Mexico, Guatemala and El  Salvador in dryish oak forest from 1200m to about 2000m. We grow it with a minimum temperature of 15 degrees C mounted on a cork slab in our Warm Americas section.

The natural habitat indicates it could be grown cool (down to about 12 degrees) but our plants seem to appreciate the heat. It flowers in the late spring and has a lot of flower for the size of the plant.

We have tried growing the species in pots but we the roots have always suffered from rots and the plants have struggled as a result. On cork bark mounts the roots are wonderful and last for years, so we will always grow plants mounted.

We have a large plant that we will be splitting next month and so in a year from now we should have lots of flowering plants available.