In a further development of the Mendip Studio School link with Chester Zoo we have hosted a visit this week by Viv Brown who is responsible for the Zoo’s collection of 3000 orchids. Viv came to the Orchid Project to learn more about orchid culture and spent two days working on propagation by seed and […]

Workshop Week is going well with lots of visiting scientists and horticulturalist converging on our greenhouse and labs to learn about orchid growing, propagation, conservation and education. On Tuesday we hosted Wendy and Matt form the Bristol Aquarium and Viv from Chester Zoo. Wendy and Matt picked up the Gongora plants for their new display […]

Ruby here with my first post. Vanda falcata is an orchid from Japan with very fragrant flowers. We grow it in cool Asia in baskets. I have done research and found that this species has been grown in Japan for a very long time. Vanda falcata, often called Fūki-ran or ‘orchid of the rich and […]

Hi all, Joe here, today I have a bit of info about the orchid mantis.  This is is my orchid mantis. It’s about one and a half centimetres long and its about one month old.   hymenopus coronatus or the orchid mantis is generally found in rainforests in south-east Asia. They are very bloodthirsty insects […]

This dramatic Central American species is one of our favourites. We found it as a common epiphyte in Costa Rica on the Poas Volcano in the Bosque de Paz reserve. The habitat is wet evergreen forest at 1400m with lush epiphytic growth of ferns, bromeliads and orchids (our photo of the reserve below) The species […]