Today’s spring sunshine warmed up the greenhouse and filled it with the heady fragrance of Dendrobium delicatum.

Dendrobium delicatum is a natural hybrid between two Australian species, that have already featured in 365 days, Dendrobium speciosum and Dendrobium kingianum . With the variable nature of the parent species it is not a surprise that Dendrobium delicatum is highly variable too.

The plant above is our clone ‘pink blush’ but we have other clones that are white and cream but all are very fragrant. The plants are variable too but generally have long pseudobulbs (up to 40cm long) which are much thinner than those on Dendrobium speciosum.

The plant makes a great specimen as it gets older and the top photo shows ‘pink blush’ over 1m across, but our largest plant is a whiter clone that is more than 2m across (below) just coming into flower.

When fully out the leaves will hardly be visible and it won best specimen at the RHS London Orchid Show in 2019 (see below) but will be even better this year when all its flowers open. The species is also easy to grow and quick to propagate from keikis.

We grow plants in our Cool Asia section (min 10C) and in our Temperate section (min 6C) so this is a cool growing species although plants that have found their way into other sections of the greenhouse also flourish. We keep plant well watered in the summer when in growth but a bit dryer in the winter and spring especially when in flower.