Vote here for your favourite species from the last week.

This is a real miniature amongst Phalaenopsis with scented flowers on short spikes. It is native to lowland forest in the Eastern Himalayas through to South East Asia. It produced extensive flat green roots which are likely to be significant in photosynthesis as the leaves are small and can be semi deciduous. There is a group of Himalayan phalaenopsis that are largely leafless in response to coping with the dry season and this species is kind half way towards leafless. As a result it enjoys being mounted and we grow the plant in Warm Asia in shade throughout the year.

There is great excitement at the Orchid Project this week as Tallis has been awarded a place in the RHS Young Gardener of the Years competition. Here video camera arrived today and she has three weeks to make a five minute film to get across her passion for plants, plant science, conservation and education.

This lovely species from the Eastern Himalayas won orchid of the week last week and you will be able to see it at the Devon Orchid Show tomorrow in Budleigh Salterton where we will be displaying alongside all the orchid societies from the South West. There will also be a chance to see most of this week’s orchids and help you to decide which one to vote for in orchid of the week for week 19.

This is another orchid found in Sikkim. It is present in the same lowland trees as Vanda ampulacea up to about 1000m. It commonly grows in on the trunk or larger branches of trees in good light and can make very large specimens. The photo below shows a plant growing on the trunk of a large tree near the road at about 400m altitude in Arunachal Pradesh.

We grow this species with a very distinct warm summer in Warm Asia and a cool winter in Cool Asia and it produces masses of flowers in April and May.