Our Dendrobium fairchildiae is a an absolut picture this week with masses of its large pinky-purple flowers in masses along its long leafless pseudobulbs. This is the best show we have had and a lot better than when I last featured the species in July (below) Dendrobium fairchildiae is native to the Philippines and one […]

The last week has been ‘Lab Week’ at the Orchid Project with students (especially the new Year 7s) learning new skills such as replating seedlings in vitro(above) making growing media (below) … and learning more about orchid science and botany. Learning the parts of an orchid flower was especially rewarding. A massive thank you to […]

Looking around the greenhouse I came across the subtly but lovely flowers of Eria Javanica, a species we came across in our last visit to Sarawak. Eria javanica sounds as if it should be endemic to Java but is actually found through the Eastern Himalayas from Sikkim eastwards, South East Asia, Malaysia, Indonesia and the […]

We have another species from the Oncidium family today with Ada brachypus – alphabetically the first orchid in our collection. Ada brachypus is a miniature that comes from the cloud forests of Ecuador where it grows in moss from 1200 to 2400m altitude. We find this plant does best in 3cm pots and baskets amongst […]

Our third Brazilian orchid this week is this rather unusual member of the Oncidium family. Rodreguezia decora grows 3cm pseudobulbs separated by 15cm of vertical rhizome and so rapidly climb up from any basket or support they are given. I am sure this is a useful habit when you grow as an epiphyte in the […]