This species has a real wow factor and for anyone who only knows the hybrid Cymbidiums available at garden centres a real surprise with its elegant pendulous dense spikes. I commend the botanist who gave it such an appropriate name. The species is native to the Himalayas where we have seen it growing abundantly in […]

A level science students are carrying out independent research projects based on techniques they learnt about at Kew when we visited Jonathan Kendon at the Jodrell Laboratories. Each student is working with seed from a different orchid species. They have investigated TZ testing for seed viability and are now assessing the amount of surface sterilisation […]

Melanoporphyreum means black and purple which is a pretty good name for this epidendrum from Peru with unusually coloured flowers. Epidendrum melanoporphyreum is a close relative of Epidendrum paniculatum which we featured last week and grows in similar cool wet forests at around 1500m altitude so is well suited to our Cool Asia section. The flowers […]

For all the people who have been asking when we are next open, a reminder that the festive season wouldn’t be complete without ‘Orchid Christmas’, our annual celebration of the previous year at the Writhlington Orchid Project. Orchid Christmas is a public evening event on Wednesday 12th December running from 6pm until 9pm. There will […]

   Many orchid species are quite variable in flower colour as todays orchid shows. We have this species in a light pink and dark pink form but both of them smell strongly of chocolate and so this is a very popular at school (if you came to the British Orchid Show you couldn’t miss the […]