Stelis brunnea is an orchid that produces a mass of small creamy white flowers at this time of year. In total we have twenty five Stelis species at school and lots of them produce a great display to show just how rewarding these small flowered species from South and Central America are.

This species comes from cloud forests in Ecuador and its delicate white flowers open and close with the humidity in the greenhouse – they like it damp and close when the humidity becomes too low. In common with many stelis species, plants produce multiple flower spikes from both old and new growths. A bonus with Stelis brunnea is that the flowers are long lasting. We look forward to share some of our lovely miniature flowered orchids at the Devon Show this weekend in Budleigh Salterton – hopefully see you there.

All our Stelis species live in Cool Americas (min12C) and are kept damp all year and shaded in the summer. We find that the larger growing species like this one do particularly well in a 10cm basket where they can develop into mature specimens.