After a short break in flowering our specimen Phalaenopsis cornu-cervi is again erupting in flowers from its six active flower spikes.

Phalaenopsis cornu-cervi is almost always in flower with its successive flowers produces from branched flattened flower stems, and the flower stems can flower for several years. This is great for interest in the greenhouse but you need a specimen like our plant here with several spikes to get a lot of flowers at once.

The species is found in Malaysia and the Philippines and lives in deep shade in lowland hot forests. We grow the species in our warm Asia section with a minimum of 17C though it would appreciate a little more heat in the winter when our plants tend to take a little rest from growing.

Phalaenoipsis cornu-cervi is a very variable species and the clone flowering in the greenhouse is at the redder end of the range and has wider than average petals. A more common form is the striped yellow and red flowers of the plant we found in Sarawak during our 2019 visit (below)

All of the clones are beautiful, and with plants being compact growers too, this is a wonderful species to grow.

The warm Easter weekend is bringing out the fragrance in our orchids and the sweet fragrance of Tricholglottis rosea is filling our Warm Asia Section.

Trichoglottis rosea is the largest of our Trichoglottis species with alternate leaves along a thick stem, it has long lasting fragrant flowers, unusual in that they are produced in profusion and much smaller than other trichoglottis.

Trichoglottis rosea is native to the Phillipines and Taiwan where it grows in lowland forest. This habitat is much cooler than the Borneo home of Trichoglottis smithii and so we grow Trichoglottis rosea in our Cool Americas section (min 12C).

The plant seems to prefer to grow pendulously and so we grow it both mounted and in baskets.

We have had lots of lovely Cymbidium species flowering since the autumn and Cymbidium lowianum is always the last of our spring flowering species to bloom.

Cymbidium lowianum is native to Burma, Thailand, Vietnam and China where it grows as an epiphyte in cool montane forest. Cymbidium lowianum grows into a very large plant and has lovely large pseudobulbs, long thick leaves and very long arching flower spikes that naturally grow out to the side of the plant. We are keen to show off the natural grace of these flower spikes and so do not stake them – though that does have issues for space. Our challenge this week will be to find a way to get it and its arching spike to Glasgow for the Botanic Garden Orchid Fair in a weeks time.

Lowianum has been used extensively in Cymbidium breeding and the red V on the lip is a dominant feature that can be seen in many hybrids.

We grow Cymbidium lowianum with our other Cymbidiums in our Cool Asia section (minimum 10C)

This spectacular miniature species has large red/pink flowers on thin stems. We have a suspicion that it enjoys travel as the last time it was flowering for a show was the European Orchid Show in Paris 2018 where it won 2nd best Pleurothallidinae species (below), and now it is flowering just in time to travel to Glasgow next week for the Glasgow Orchid Fair.

Porroglossum meridionale is a free flowering miniature native to Ecuador and Peru where it is found from 1400-1800m. With us the plant is slow growing but flowers are very long lasting and they repeat flower from the same flower stems so the species is invariably in flower.

The has stiff glaucous leaves which suggest a natural habitat with good light and not the constant damp needed for some South American miniatures but we find that the plant resents drying out for any length of time (see moss naturally growing on the mount).