The little Pterostylis sp. that I picked up at the Gothenburg International Orchid Show last weekend is now blooming. The Pterostylis name comes from the Greek words meaning winged column (pteron – a wing, stylis – a column), but the common name is Greenhood after the shape of dorsal sepal. Quite frankly, I think it looks more like an alien than anything else, and it is […]
I bought this plant last November. But what I had originally ordered as Masdevallia decumana, a lovely little epiphyte from Peru and Ecuador, actually turned out to be Masdevallia vexillifera, a quite rare species from Peru. I noticed already before the bud opened up that it was much too light to be a decumana, but I thought it might be the pallida […]
We have spent most of the year, and very intensely the past few weeks, preparing for the largest orchid show in Sweden, GIOS. Myself and a very small but hard working group on the organizing committee are finally getting to enjoy all the fruits of our labor and we have a fantastic show this year. Really!! Today, everything […]
A very nice Masdevallia endemic to Costa Rica where is grows in the cloud forests from 1400 to 2200 meters. It is fairly tolerant of warmer temperatures and I actually bloomed this on the windowsill in my intermediate growing room before moving it into the cool vivarium in April. The flowers measure about 7 cm and each inflorescence usually produce up to three flowers each […]
This is a small to medium sized epiphyte from Asia. It is a pretty fast grower and produces 4-5 new bulbs per growing season for me. But supposedly it really prefers much warmer temperatures and higher humidity than what I offer it in my intermediary growing window. So although it blooms for me every year, it probably would do better cultivated in a […]
This is so exciting… and I just have to give a hug and a huge plug to a very nice orchid grower for this one. I very recently (and suddenly) lost both of my Dendrobium cyanocentrum orchids and it really, really sucks! A heartbreaking experience since I raised both plants from flask to flower and they were absolutely perfect […]
Masdevallia ayabacana was named after the Ayabaca Province in northwestern Peru. Its is a medium to large size epiphyte where it grows in the cloud forests at altitudes of 1200-1800 meters. I grow mine potted in EpiWeb substrate on the bottom of the cool vivarium, but it is quite tolerant to warmer temperatures as well. It boasts a very long inflorescence of about about 35cm and it keeps […]
Dracula chimaera is a small sized cold grower from the cloud forests of Colombia. I have always admired this very large Dracula species and I have anxiously followed the development of the bud all summer. Today the flower has opened up and it is amazing!! It can carriy up to 6 single flowers in succession so I am looking forward to many more […]
So the weather prognosis is predicting a lot cooler temperatures from now on, down below 10 C at night and below 20 C during the day. So I thought is was time to pack up the air conditioning unit for this season and reconfigure the cool vivarium for winter. A fairly easy job actually, I […]
