It is a treat to see this dramatic masdevallias flowering again. Masdevallia lappifera of one of our most robust and reliable Masdevallias. The large flowers are produced on short stems and are remarkable for the purple ‘hairs’ on the lip which give the species its name meaning the burred Masdevallia. The flowers are very long […]

Coelogyne fragrans is a gorgeous species, native to Papua New Guinea with large flowers produced over a long time. It is reported in montane forests from 100 to 2000m which suggests it can thrive in a wide range of temperatures but with us it definitely prefers it cool and we find that plants do best […]

This is an orchid we fell in love with on our first expedition to Brazil in 2000 when we found it growing abundantly on mountain ridges at around 1200-1400m in cloud forest. Pleurothallis sclerophyla is a wonderful Brazilian species that produces masses of 2cm wide creamy yellow flowers. If you look closely at the flowers […]

There is a new star orchid in the greenhouse this morning – Maxillaria triloris. This is another of the orchids featuring in the BBC’s Green Planet and is the largest flowering of our Maxillarias. The buds are dramnatic as well as the flowers so it should be fantastic in time lapse. Maxillaria triloris is a […]

Another charming orchid species to go alongsode yesterday’s Pleurothallis amporoana is Gomesa crispa. A species we found growing abundantly as a pioneer epiphyte in Brazilian re-growth forest. I first came across this species in the forests around Macae de Cima in our school expeditions in 2000 and 2005. Gomesa crispa is a pioneer species, meaning […]