This lovely little orchid is flowering again although we are about to cut all the flowers off, and divide the plant as it has outgrown its basket. We find that Masdevallias grow very actively during February, March and April and so now is the perfect time to divide plants. The active growth over the next few months will ensure that plants establish quickly, get new roots into fresh compost, and not suffer a setback.

Today we have already split Masdevallia coccinea ‘Writhlington’ (below) into 12 plants and these should be for sale and flowering at the Malvern Show in July, for all of those who have been asking every year if we have any divisions for sale 🙂

Back to Masdevallia pandurilabia, it is a small growing species native to Peru. Masdevallia pandurilabia grows in cloud forest above 2600m altitude and loves it cool and moist with good air movement. Some species from similar habitats are a challenge to grow well in a greenhouse, but this species seems to be a vigorous grower and as you can see from the photo on the left produces lovely glossy leaves too. We grow this species in baskets of bark and moss and give it a minimum of 10C.

The flowers are produced in some abundance on long flower spikes and have dramatic spotting and crossed legs (tails). Despite the unusual spots and crossed legs the species gets its name from its lute shaped lip (its actually rather small so a teeny weeny lute). Plants of this will also be for sale at Malvern.