This small growing but large flowered masdevallia species is endemic to Peru where it grows as a terrestrial or lithophyte in open patches amongst cloud forest from 2600 to 4000m. As a result it is one of our cooler growing masdevallias and we find a little tricky since it resents warm summer temperatures. We find […]

Octomeria densiflora is another autumn regular and lights up our Cool Americas section with its masses of pale flowers. This beautiful species is native to the Mata Atlantica cool cloud forests of Brazil and a species we found near Macae de Cima on our expeditions in 2001 and 2006 at around 1300m altitude. The lemon […]

This is one of our most spectacular Coelogyne species with multi-flowered spikes up to 1m long and large flowers. The flowers are really spectacular and the species is very well named as the bearded Coelogyne. Our clone is a particularly large growing one – a really special orchid. The dark brown ‘beard’ on the lip […]

Every October the greenhouse is graced by masses of flowers from this giant Brazilian orchid. The flower spikes carry 15 to 20 flowers well clear of the pseudobulbs reaching a total height of over 150cm. This year our plant has three flowering pseudobulbs. Cattleya guttata is native to Brazil and can be found in Sao […]

Exploring the forests of Costa Rica on our school expeditions we have been fascinated by the diversity of epidendrum species we have come across. This small growing species is a classic butterfly pollinated species that both provides a nectar filled tube at the base of the lip, and a grabbing platform at the end of […]