Several of our orchids give a second flowering away from their main flowering season and Dendrobium thyrsiflorum is one of them. This is our largest plant of the species and it flowered well in April but has thrown eight summer spikes for us to enjoy in the last week of school.

This majestic species is native to Eastern Himalayas and South East Asia. We have seen it on school expeditions to Laos growing in the tops of tall trees in evergreen and semi deciduous forest at around 1000m where it experiences warm wet summers and a dryer cooler winter.

To reflect the natural habitat we grow the species in Warm Asia during the summer but move it to cool Americas for the winter which encourages perfect flowering in the spring as well as this summer bonus.