Some of our orchids have been growing at Writhlington for nearly 30 years which is no surprise when you see the gigantic size is this Coelogyne fimbriata. The plant is more than 2m wide in all directions and 2.5m tall. It is covered with pretty little flowers but to be honest would’t make the neatest windowsill plant.

We do have much smaller growing neater clones of this very variable species that we have seen growing in Sikkim and Laos where it climbs through the lower branches in open forest at around 1200-1500m.

In Sikkim we found that plants were smaller growing and neater, while the Loas plants were more like this clone with longer bulbs and a long rhizome between the bulbs. The different forms of the species have very similar flowers.

We grow this species cool (min 10C) in our Cool Asia section and water well all year but keep it particularly wet in the summer. We find that the neater clones do make fantastic windowsill plants and there is one flowering in my bathroom as I write.