There aren’t many days in the year that our plants of Polystachya galeata aren’t in flower but yesterday I was reminded that it is well worth stopping for a close look at their subtle but attractive pink, green and cream flowers. Like most polystachyas this species is African and is found in Cameroon, Congo, Gabon, Ghana, […]

Can I start today by thanking the wonderful students who worked hard yesterday afternoon and evening for our September open evening. It was lovely to see orchid friends (old and new) as well. Our Cattleya maxima ‘coerulea’ clearly wanted to be a part of our open evening and opened its grey blue flowers just in […]

Later today (4pm-7pm) we are delighted to be opening our greenhouses to the public for the first time in 22 months and just in time we have a trio of Dracula species – Darcula bella, Dracula sodiroi and today’s species Dracula amaliae. Aways one of our most popular orchids when students run greenhouse tours on […]

This species is one of our brightly coloured masdevallias – irresistable to its hummingbird pollinators and humans alike. Masdevallia barlaeana is found from Colombia to Peru at high altitude (2200-3100m) as a lithophyte on rocky slopes – a similar habitat as that of Masdevallia veitchiana. The species is smaller growing and smaller flowered than its close […]

This wonderful small growing orchid with gigantic 15cm flowers is the clown orchid. We can’t wait to share it with those of you coming to our open evening on Monday (4-7pm). Rossioglossum grande is a cool growing species from Mexico, Guatemala and Belize where it is found in deciduous forest from 1400 to 2700m where […]