Our school greenhouse is Dendrochilum heaven this week with our monster plant of Dendrochilum cobbianum now in full flower. To give some scale, here is the plant with two of our amazing after school team

This stunning orchid species is native to the Philippines where it grows in damp evergreen forest  above 1200m altitude. We grow the plant in our warm asia section with conditions very similar to the habitat (min 17C) and it is clearly very at home. We grow the plant in a large basket (a free crate from the local market) and we water it daily.

New flowers come from the centre of the new growths every autumn and are long lasting and fragrant. The plant is particularly impressive with its contrast between the cream flowers and dark green leaves. We counted the flowers yesterday lunchtime – 98 flower spikes and 3500 flowers in total.

Nearby our Dendrochilum magnum is still in flower too. The combined scent is fantastic if a little overpowering