We have a bench filled with small plants of this wonderful orchid thanks to dividing our prize winning (Cultural Commendation from the RHS) specimen below.

Coelogyne ovalis is a cool growing Coelogyne from South East Asia and the Eastern Himalayas. We have seen plants growing on the Bolevan plateau in Southern Laos at around 1200m where they form large clumps in evergreen trees especially along rivers and near waterfalls. We replicate this habitat by growing plants very wet but in free draining bark. The flowers develop in late summer and are sequential from the top of the bulbs. This gives us flowers from September through to Christmas.

It is a very variable species in growth habit but in our collection is distinguished from the very closely related species Coelogyne fimbriata by having larger flowers with relatively smaller side lobes to the lip.

The flowers seem to be very attractive to autumn wasps that presumably enjoy the warmth of the greenhouse too.