This gorgeous species is another species we have seen flowering in Brazil where it grows in colonies on tall trees in wet evergreen forests at around 1100m altitude. (Species flowering in habitat below)

This is a division of a plant we raised from a seedling many years ago and it has proved to be a robust species in cultivation flowering reliably every February (we saw it flowering in Brazil in October).

We find the species does best in a basket as it has a fair distance between bulbs on the rhizome and so tends to ‘walk’ out of pots. We keep plants damp all year but wetter in the summer.

Flowers are large and dramatic with their large white lips and we have had spikes with up to ten flowers from strong plants.

For more information on growing this species and other cool growing orchids from the Americas check out our culture article here.

Seeing this plant in flower always reminds me of a very pleasant lunch break under its host trees on a trek with the students on the 2006 expedition to Brazil.

Lunch under Miltonia cuneata.