Another plant that people found interesting on Saturday was Dracula bella.

We have a number of Dracula species in the school collection but this is the plant with the largest and most dramatic flowers. The species is native to dense cloud forests in Colombia and Ecuador at altitudes from 1700-2000m. We have seen other draculas growing in Costa Rica where we found plants restricted to wet mossy positions in low light. In common with most draculas, Dracula bella has strongly pendulous flower spikes and so basket culture is important, both to display plants, and to stop flowers becoming trapped in pots.

When mature the species makes fantastic specimens (below) but needs to be grown cool and wet to avoid heat stress in the summer.

A species that caused some interest at yesterday’s show was this small pleurothallis.

The flowers of Pleurothallis hemirhoda are more than 5cm across and rather dwarf the leaves.

The plant is found in wet forest from 500-2100m and so it is at home in Cool Americas.  The plant seems to flourish in deep shade and in the dark the flower colour is ideal for attracting attention.

We have had a wonderful day at the Devon Show. We would like to thank the organisers from the Devon orchid Society, Sara and the team at Burnham Nurseries, all our orchid friends for making the day enjoyable and, most of all, the wonderful Writhlington/Mendip team made up of students Ed, Kate and Izzy (with their trophy’s above), our fantastic volunteers Agnes, Zoe, and parent helpers Sarah and Stephanie.

Our trophies were for Best Laelineae – Encyclia polardiana (Below)

Best Phalaenopsis – Phalaenopsis cornu-cervi

as well as winning three other ‘Best in Class’ and five awards of merit. Pleurothallis sonderana (below) won best in class for both Pleurothallidinae species and Miniature species or hybrid.

We really enjoyed the day which flew by.  We hope that all the plants purchased are happy in their new homes, please check out our species information page to find out more about your orchids.

Hi, Kate and Izzy here. We are at the Devon Show and this is Writhlington’s display. we have been having a great day and here are some of the amazing flowers we have seen…

This is Phragmipedium Cardinale ‘Sophie’. It won best in show today!

This is Writhlington’s Dendrobium Victoria Reginae and it won the trophy for best Dendrobium.

This is a Stanhopea and it only flowers for a few days but luckily for us it flowered just in time. It smells a bit though!

Finally, this is the sale table. We made lots of money and it’s all going into our trip to Glasgow in April next year.

That’s it for today, we hope you enjoyed it as much as we enjoyed writing it.

Kate & Izzy 🙂

Hi Izzy I’m at the Devon orchid show with the Writhlington School and I think this orchid is the best and so do the judges as this Vanda coerulea won best in show. We are selling plants and Kate has made a lovely display which we will show you soon.