Happy New Year from the Writhlington Schools’ Orchid Project. After starting 365 days of orchids five years ago we embark on a sixth consecutive year of daily orchids (all of which have to be in flower in our collections) with a stunning miniature orchid – and a species we have not yet featured on 365 days.

Barbosella cucullata is the largest of our barbosella species with leaves up to 3cm long and graceful 2cm flowers on thin stems. Our other barbosellas are shown below – the very small Barbosella australis, the tiny Barbosella handroi and the minute Barbosella dusenii

What a fantastic genus of plants. We have been real fans since finding a fallen tree in Brazilian primary forest with its upper branches covered in Barbosella handroi.

Barbosella cucullata, like the other species, is found in mossy, cool wet forests. It is found in Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador Peru and Bolivia in  at elevations of 1400 to 3450 meters. We replicate these conditions in our Cool americas section (min 12c) with good watering every day to provide the constant damp the species enjoys. We grow all of our Barbosella species mounted to allow them to flourish without being out competed by moss, but Barbosella cucullata is large enough to hold its own and so we also grow it in small baskets.

Have a good New Year’s Day. We hope you enjoy good growing through 2022, and hope to see you at shows, events, open days or through the medium of Zoom