Our fourth Vanda in a row is Vanda pumila, a small growing species with very long lasting fragrant waxy flowers.

We have seen Vanda pumila in Sikkim, growing on roadside trees at around 300-500m altitude alongside Vanda ampulacea. It grows in exposed positions in good light and survives the dry season (winter) with its thick leaves and abundant fleshy roots. The climate is hot wet summers with dryer, cooler winters and we replicate this by moving the species  around the greenhouse with the seasons. (see our culture page on growing warm asian orchids for more details)

It enjoys warm conditions and we grow it with a minimum of 20C though it can take a little cooler in the winter.

The flowers have just opened and are a green/yellow with red markings, but the flowers will soon fade to a cream colour as shown by last year’s flower (below) on the same plant.

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