We are back in the UK and want to thank our wonderful hosts in Kuching for making the trip so effective and enjoyable. I would also like to thank my team; Annie, Chloe, Jess and Tallis for their dedication, hard work, energy and determination. I would also like to thank the the team looking after the greenhouse at school – it looked fantastic yesterday when I popped in. Issy and Hannah have done a brilliant job of looking after the plants at a difficult time of year and Jacob has tackled some major repotting challenges.

We also had the Britain in Bloom Judges on Friday – thanks to the student team and Agnes for a very successful day. The feedback I have had is that the judges were completely blown away by the students knowledge, enthusiasm and passion for plants. (The results are announced in September)

 Judges in the lab

 Judges in the greenhouse with Radstock in bloom host Nick (sorry I missed you Nick)

Cattleya rex , is named as the king of cattleyas and is native to Colombia and Peru where it grows in wet montane forest around 1350m.

We find it does well grown with most of our larger cattleyas in Warm Americas (min 15) in good light in a basket.

I have been asked why it is the king of cattleyas especially as the flowers are a little smaller than some of the related species we grow, and I think it was probably a marketing initiative at the time of its description – such things are not a new phenomenon – It is a lovely plant but I suggest that orchids don’t fit easily into a hierarchy and I have seen no evidence that the other orchids in warm americas pay any homage to our Cattleya rex.