It seems that Autumn has arrived early this year with our first plant of Stenoglottis longifolia flowering in our cool section. This South African species has the delightful habit of flowering from small plants (like the one open today above) but groqwing into great specimens in a few years with very long spikes like the one below (flowering last Autumn)

Stenoglottis longifolia is a terrestrial species from South Africa. It is found on mossy banks in the Drakensberg Mountains and so is a cool growing orchid. We have grown the species in a frost free greenhouse successfully but we find that the species grows very well with a minimum of 10C in our Cool Asia section We keep plants wet all summer but let them dry out from the end of December when the leaves turn brown and fall off. We start watering again around mid February but sparingly until growth is underway in March.

The species differs from the closely related Stenoglottis fimbriata in the larger rounder flowers, leaves without spots and generally more robust and larger growth habit. This is the first time it has flowered in August and the main flowering is from October until the end of December.

We have plants for sale at our shop with spikes just starting to show (below)