It was fantastic to meet so many enthusiastic orchid growers at the show yesterday. We hope that those of you who are new to our website will enjoy following our daily orchid in 365 days of orchids. As you will notice we are on day number 1914 which is more that 5 years of an orchid species (in flower in our glasshouses) every day. (all the posts are still on the site if you would like to browse)

An orchid on our Galsgow display that caused a lot of interest yesterday was our Dendrobium victoria-regina with its deep blue flowers from leafless pseudobulbs. We have seedlings from this plant (crossed with a lighter blue form) in our lab and can’t wait to have them available for the people who want them.

Dendrobium victoria-regina is a cool growing epiphyte, native to the Philippines where it grows on moss covered trees in consistent moisture all year round and good air movement.  It is a free flowering species, but the peak of its flowering seems to be in June when it produces the first flush. The flowers are held normally in clusters of 3-4 but we have known our plants to produce up to 7 on its very short spikes. The flowers of this species are famous for being blue but the quality of the blue does vary. The plants grow in the side of a moss covered baskets where they are kept wet all year and hang in Cool Asia (min 10C).