A mixed collection is always fill of pleasant surprises and this morning it was the first flowering of this gorgeous Bulbophyllum seedling.

Bulbophyllum vaginatum is a Sarawak orchid and so one of the species we are keen to propagate for our project with partners in Kuching. The species produces massed heads of cream and yellow flowers with very long sepals giving a lovely display. The plant produces bulbs spaced along a rhizome that makes it really tricky in a pot but great mounted. Now that we know the size it needs to be to flower we will attch it to a much larger piece of cork bark so that it can scramble at will and make a specimen while we collect seed for the lab.

Bulbophyllum vaginatum is found over a wide range including Thailand, Malaysia, Borneo and Java where it grows in lowland swamp forest and mangrove. We have explored this habitat extensively in Sarawak where the climate is warm, with rainfall throughout the year but plants dry out in between rains, trees are evergreen and most orchids grow on the upper trunk and lower branches in some shade – conditions we provide mounted in our Warm Asia section although our winter minimum of 17C is a little lower than the plant would prefer.

This species is new to 365 days of orchids and it is a pleasure to share more of our 900 amazing orchid species.