A big thank you to Ed Jones for today’s photographs from the greenhouse (I am on holiday so haven’t yet had a chance to see this year’s Stanhopea tigrina flowers)

Stanhopea tigrina is a remarkable orchid with enormous flowers (possibly the heaviest of orchid flowers) The plant showed is a eleven year old seedling from our school propagation laboratory and the photo with my hand shows the majesty of these flowers.

Stanhopea tigrina is a warm growing epiphytic species found in Mexico. It is a medium sized plant which produces a single leaf from each pseudobulb and produces a large pendulous flower spike. The flower spike carries 2-3 large pendulous flowers which are heavily scented and only last 2 days. Our plant in flower this week is the nigroviolacea variety, which has flowers which are more heavily marked than the normal variety but are no less fragrant. The species reliably flowers in July and August.

We grow plants in baskets as the spikes grow downwards from the newest bulbs.