Barkeria is a genus of orchids from Central America that produce cane like pseudobulbs and a tall terminal spike with many flowers. Barkeria melanocaulon comes from Mexico and has smaller flowers (about 2cm across) but lots of them on branched spikes. The flowers are long lasting and spikes produce secondary sprays as the first flowers die. Like all the Barkerias we grow Barkeria melanocaulon produces lots of thick roots which love to hang in the air and we grow the plant on a large piece of cork bark. It is a wonderful orchid but does have the inconvenient habit of rooting onto other nearby mounts and walls making it impossible to take out for shows.

We had a bright flowered orchid yesterday and we have another today in Pleurothallis truncata with its chains of little orange flowers. The plant shown here is our biggest specimen and with flowers on almost all the leaves it is a real picture and one of our favourites.  We grow it mounted on cork bark where its pendulous habit is shown off well. We water it every day (twice in the summer) and keep it shaded and cool in Cool Americas.

It seems likely that its pollinator is a small insect but if anyone has any theories on the pollinator relationship here it would be good to hear. We have now added a closeup thanks to Joe and his camera skills.

Hi, I’m Ben. Today’s orchid is the Coelogyne multiflora from the island of Sulawesi just east of Borneo.

We counted the flowers and came to 365 which is a real coincidence and certainly goes with the name ‘Multiflora’.  We grow the plant in Warm Asia with a minimum of 17C which will be similar to the natural habitat in lower montain forests at around 1200m altitude. It is reported as growing on fallen tree trunks. we grow it in a large pot and keep it damp all year.

The results are in and with just over 37% of the popular vote our first Orchid Of the Week is Masdevallia sperbiens. There will be another vote next weekend so look out for the orchid species from day 8 to day 14.

Thanks for participating.

We are real fans of the genus Masdevallia. These plants are mostly found in the cloud forests of south and central America and so we grow them cool (minimum 12C) in Cool Americas with plenty of water throughout the year. Most Masdevallias produce one flower per spem but some like Mas. superbiens produce many flowers on each spike. The remarkable flowers of this species with purple spots on a white ground and orange/yellow tails on each sepal make it rather special and so aptly named. It is native to Ecuador and Bolivia.

365 days has now reached day 7 and so it is time for the first public vote for orchid of the week. Enter your vote here for results tomorrow – Vote