It is a Pigeon Orchid day here in the greenhouse. Lovely white flowers with a yellow blotch on the lip – but only for one day.

Dendrubium crumenatum (or the pidgeon orchid) is a well known and interesting orchid from South East Asia and a very common city tree in Kuching, Sarawak.

Our plant is now mature with pseudobulbs/flower spikes reaching out over a metre from the basket. It is well documented that plants flower a while after a period of heavy rain, and the flowers that open together just last a day. As a result it is always a lovely surprise when we find our plant covered in flowers, and we make the most of it while we can. The plant makes up for its short lived flowers by flowering several times every year.

We grow the plant high in our warm asia section so that it gets as warm an environment as we can manage. Remember not to cut of flower spikes as they re-flower for several years. We get a flowering every few months.