Whilst watering today I noticed a Pleurothallis costaricensis needed splitting and had become detached from its cork mount. No tools were needed just a slight pull and the orchid split into plenty of small pieces.  Just make sure there are a few roots in each little clump. Each piece of the orchid needed to be […]

We started our visit to Kew Gardens with The Princess of Wales Conservatory which was opened in 1987 and is the home to Kew’s Orchid House, carnivorous plants and cacti. The air was perfumed by Prosthechea radiata and Stanhopea nigroviolacea.               Swathy Vanilla planifolia wound its way to the […]

  The word Keiki means baby in Hawaiian .  Growing a keiki is the way a plant reproduces itself asexually.  A Keiki is an exact genetic replica of the mother plant. The picture below shows one of our Pleurothallis palliolata orchids bearing mature keikis. Many Keikis have evolved to fall easily from the mother plant […]

Bulbophyllum stenobulbon comes from South East Asia as far west as Assam.  It grows in warm forests but its not really fussy about temperature and will grow well from 10 degrees celsius to 18 degrees celsius, but needs to be kept shaded and well watered. Although Bulbophyllum stenobulbon has small flowers there are lots of […]

Barkeria skinneri is a native orchid of deciduous oak forests in Mexico.  Unlike many of our other orchids Barkeria skinneri does not grow well in pots.  This is because the roots rot if they cannot dry out quickly after watering.  For this reason we grow them mounted on bark.  We use virgin cork bark from […]