This Sunday morning was a bit gloomy but on entering the greenhouse from the cold and damp I was hit by the wonderful aroma of  Cattleya labiata.  To me it has a perfume similar to that of a rose and it is a truly wonderful smell.  I wish someone would invent a smelly phone so […]

Many of our orchids in the Writhlington greenhouse are  unlabelled or are just labelled SP as this Pleurothallis was.  Now it is the proud owner of not just one but two labels, just incase one is lost.  This is thanks to Sean Barton who identified the Pleurothallis SP as Pleurothallis lynniana.  Thank you very much […]

This morning, in Somerset,  it was cold and frosty.  On entering my greenhouse I was relieved to find that it was warmer than inside my own house. My orchids were safe, warm and cosy and my pleurothallis palliolata were silently singing at me.  Simon always said he thought the flowers looked like lizard heads but […]

Sumptuous is the Writhlington word of the week and here is our collection of sumptuous, stripy and dotty orchids in the greenhouse this week.  To start off our display of luxurious orchids is Cymbidium tracyanum, just come into flower, looking like it is sprinkled with cinnamon. The little Restrepia orchids repotted during the summer holidays […]

Now the days are shorter and the skies cloudy the greenhouse was feeling quite gloomy. It was definitely time to remove the ‘grow your own shading’ from our greenhouse windows. The students set to work this lunch time with kitchen scourers and warm soapy water to remove the algae and moss that was growing there. […]