Thanks again to our wonderful Glasgow team – the display is looking great for our final day and we have not sold out of sale plants yet.

We have won best Oncidineae for our Odontoglossum cristatum

And best pleurothallis species for Platystele schmidtchiana

It was fantastic to meet so many enthusiastic orchid growers at the show yesterday. We hope that those of you who are new to our website will enjoy following our daily orchid in 365 days of orchids. As you will notice we are on day number 1914 which is more that 5 years of an orchid species (in flower in our glasshouses) every day. (all the posts are still on the site if you would like to browse)

An orchid on our Galsgow display that caused a lot of interest yesterday was our Dendrobium victoria-regina with its deep blue flowers from leafless pseudobulbs. We have seedlings from this plant (crossed with a lighter blue form) in our lab and can’t wait to have them available for the people who want them.

Dendrobium victoria-regina is a cool growing epiphyte, native to the Philippines where it grows on moss covered trees in consistent moisture all year round and good air movement.  It is a free flowering species, but the peak of its flowering seems to be in June when it produces the first flush. The flowers are held normally in clusters of 3-4 but we have known our plants to produce up to 7 on its very short spikes. The flowers of this species are famous for being blue but the quality of the blue does vary. The plants grow in the side of a moss covered baskets where they are kept wet all year and hang in Cool Asia (min 10C).

One orchid we are pleased to feature in our display today is Dendrobium chrsotoxum (above)

This wonderful dendrobium has the brightest of golden flowers with a large orange blotch on the lip.

The golden flowers of the species always transport me to the remarkable forests of the Bolaven Plateau in Southern Laos.

Dendrobium chrysotoxum is native to seasonally dry forest monsoon forests in South East Asia and we found it in several locations at around 1000m, on the Bolaven Plateau, around Paksong in Southern Laos. Plants were mostly growing on the trunk and lower branches of large trees in good light as shown on the photo below.

In cultivation we replicate the natural habitat by growing plants warm and wet in the summer in Warm Asia but give a cooler and much dryer winter in the top of Cool Americas. We find that baskets are ideal for this rewarding species that gives an immense amount of flower for the size of the plant.

Congratulations to the our setup team of students and adult volunteers for a hard days work in the heat of the Kibble Palace to set up a stunning display of orchids ready for this weekends orchid fetival.

The organisers have been fantastic and the historic glasshouse is packed with wonderful displays by Orchid Societies from across the UK.

We hope to see lots of our orchid friends tomorrow (old and new)

Our display and sales plants are now safely stored at the Glasgow Botanic Gardens ready for today. – we will post details here.

One plant that has flowered just in time is Coelogyne velutina with its gorgeous pendulous flower spikes.

Coelogyne velutina has a lot in common with other warm growing species with long pendulous flower stems such as Coelogyne tomentosa, Coelogyne pulverula and Coelogyne swaniana but is very distinct in the colour of the flowers that turn from creamy-salmon to a deep salmon pink after opening. The Photograph below shows flowers that have been out for two weeks (pink) and one day (cream)

The flowers are relatively long lasting if kept dry and not bruised, and the species is very free flowering and so a dramiatic display is guaranteed. We grow the plant in Warm Asia (min 17C) although it could grow a little cooler as the species is native to lower montane forests in Thailand and Peninsular Malaysia from 900-1950m. We find that the species enjoys plenty of water throughout the year.