Some of our orchids (like yesterday’s Cymbidium erythraeum) are strongly seasonal while others flower throughout the year. Masdevallia veitchiana can surprise us with its vibrant flowers at any time and looking at previous posts, we have featured it in the Autumn, Winter, Spring and Summer – what an orchid.

The flowers look orange and red but this coplour is actually made from the flowers combination of a yellow ground and tiny raised pink warts – a clever trick.

This species is endemic to Peru where it grows between 2000m and 4000m as a terrestrial amongst grasses and we are indebted to Henry Oakley for these great photographs of the species on Machu Picchu. This habitat explains the long flower spikes which carry the flowers well clear of the leaves and in reach of pollinating humming birds. We replicate these conditions in our Cool Americas section where it is kept damp throughout the year. We try to provide more light that for some of our Masdevallias.

The Incas call the species Wajanki.

We are now well into the flowering season for Autumn Cymbidium species.

Earlier in the month we had Cymbidium elegans (below) and today we have Cymbidium erythraeum, two species that share the same habitat in Sikkim, and we have seen both species on the same large evergreen trees  at around 2000m altitude around Gangtok and in Southern Sikkim near Tinkitam.

Cymbidium erythraeum is a lovely orchid when not in flower due to its long thin dark green leaves. The flower spikes emerge in the autumn and the long lasting flowers are a treat throughout the winter. The spikes are generally arching or pendulous and we have two distinct clones. The species shown is our smaller growing, and early flowering, clone with much shorter and more pendulous spikes. The larger growing clone (below) will be in flower in a couple of weeks.

We grow this species with other cymbidiums in a winter minimum of 6C and vents that open at 12C so it grows really cool. We keep it very wet in summer with plant food in most waterings. In the winter we keep it damp and never let it completely dry out. The evergreen forests we have seen the species in have large amounts of moss and abundant epiphytes indicating a very wet climate.

We have this and several other cymbidium species in flask and will have seedlings for sale soon.

Good compost is at the heart of our orchid culture. After 30 years of experimenting we use just high quality course bark for all our plants. It allows us to keep plants well watered while maintaining perfect drainage, lasts for ages, is sustainable, and is safe to handle. We find that we do need to process the bark we buy by sieving to remove and dust, small particles and wood, that would reduce drainage and break down too quickly.

We have our processed bark available again at the shop thanks to Ed and his compost team.

Another wonderful mini-miniature today.

Some of our orchids are not much bigger than the moss that grows around them and Pleurothallis linearifolia is a true miniature species native to Brazil and Northern Argentina where it grows in cloud forest. Leaves are only 1cm long but flowers are relatively large and bourn in profusion every autumn.

We find plants do well mounted or in pots and baskets but we need to ensure that plants are not smothered by moss as the species really enjoys cool, wet, shaded conditions which really suits moss!

Despite its tiny size the species grows relatively quickly and will cover its cork mount. The flowers are also sweetly scented.

We have three plants available today at the shop.

This tiny orchis – the leaves are just 1cm long  – produces the most extraordinary display every autumn, with flowers from old an new leaves that almost hide the plant.

Barbosella handroi is native to cloud forest in Brazil and we have seen the species clothing the upper branches of tall trees in primary Brazilian cloud forest at Macae de Cima in our trips there in 2000 and 2006. The forest here was damp and shaded and cool at 1200m altitude. Even in the dry season (we visted in October and again in March at the end and the start of the dry season) with little rain, the forest was dripping from mists and dew every morning.

We grow the species cool and well watered but hung up so that it dries out again relatively quickly. We weed out the moss that grows in amongst it quite regularly as moss would out compete the plant given a chance.

We have a few clones of the species that all came from a single flask 20 years ago. The clone here is the browner one with a beautifully marked little lip (see close up)