This term, in the greenhouse, we have been repotting our many Stenoglottis orchids.  We grow two species at Writhlington, Stenoglottis longifolia and Stenoglottis fimbriata.

Stenoglottis is native to South Africa where it grows in leaf litter along riverbanks.  When the area is damp the Stenoglottis grow lovely green leaves and a tall flower spike.  Later on, when the riverbank dries, the leaves start to go brown and drop off but don’t worry new leaves grow again when water returns.  Do not water your Stenoglottis once the leaves have died.  Only resume watering when new shoots begin to appear.

The picture above shows Stenoglottis longifolia with last years dead leaves and old flower spike.  This years new green leaves are starting to grow and it is now time to repot.

Once outside the pot remove all the old, dead roots and compost.  The viable roots are cream coloured, firm and furry.

Once cleaned up the Stenoglottis has become three little plants which will grow, produce more leaves and flower.

We grow our all our Stenoglottis orchids in bark chippings and give them plenty of water in the growing season.

As you can see our students have been very busy during lunchtime orchid club but I rather think they are pleased to have completed the task.

We will have plenty of Stenoglottis to sell on our Etsy shop and at the London show.

Back in 2018 Simon gave me a jar of seedlings.  They were from seeds he had sown but, not having labelled the jar, had forgotten what the orchid seed was.  I looked after them, placing them out of direct sunlight on a shelf  and slowly the little seedlings grew.  I took a photo of them and showed it to Simon.  He thought they might be an Epidendrum but was not certain.

I replated the seedlings every six months and then about eighteen months ago I deflasked them.

Unlike many of the orchids we grow at Writhlington, these seedlings had a good survival rate.  All the little seedlings lived and grew into healthy little plants.  I put them in my greenhouse, watered them and watched them grow bigger.

This week I decided it was about time I repotted these little mystery orchids realising that they were in fact little Dendrobium kingianum and not Epidendrums after all.

The picture above shows one of our school Dendrobium kingianum.  They are quite small Dendrobiums and therefore make good house plants.  They do not mind living on window sills and are easy to grow.

The flowers are small, numerous and have a lovely floral scent.  No need for artificial perfumes when you have a Dendrobium kingianum in flower.

At Writhlington we usually propagate kingianums by their many keikis, which take easily.  As a consequence we have plenty to sell on our Etsy shop and at the London Show.

Hopefully our very large Dendrobium delicatum, shown above, will accompany us for our display.   Below is a closeup of one of the flowers which are many in number and cover the whole orchid when it flowers.

Dendrobium delicatum is a natural hybrid between Dendrobium kingianum and dendrobium speciosum, shown below.

Like Dendrobium kingianum, Dendrobium delicatum, has a lovely scent and we have plenty of baby plants ready for sale.  Our school greenhouse is home to our large delicatum clones which varying in shades between pink  and white. Although native to Australia Kingianum, delicatum and speciosum like cool temperatures.  We grow them in our Temperate and Cool Americas sections where, in winter, the temperature goes down to 6 degrees Celsius.

Here is another orchid that has never featured on Simon’s Orchid of the Day.  Angraecum calceolus originates from Madagascar and the surrounding islands.  It can be found growing at the base of trees and shrubs at sea level to 2,000 meters and thrives in shady conditions.   The orchid never gets very big only growing to a maximum size around 30 cm. It can be grown in a pot or mounted.  Apparently it is susceptible to rot, so best not to get the leaves wet when watering.  It does however like humid conditions.

The green flowers are tiny as illustrated compared to a pencil.  The name Calceolus is Latin for little shoe.

I think the flower spike is very attractive being segmented brown and green.

Angraecum calceolus is fragrant at night so it is probably pollinated by moths.  It is said that Louis Marie Aubert Thouars discovered this orchid.  He was also the first European to discover Angraecum sesquipedale whilst in exile from France during the French revolution.

A very kind lady donated her Phalaenopsis orchids to the Orchid Project.  The lady wanted the orchids to go to a home where they will be well looked after and she chose us for the job.  Ben, Henry and Toby, from year 7, repotted the Phalaenopsis during lunchtime orchid club.

One of the orchids had amazingly long roots. I think they are the longest I have ever seen on a Phalaenopsis.

Our greenhouse is rather too cold for Phalaenopsis, which prefer to be kept really warm, so we have decided to keep the orchids in ST 21 and ST 23 science labs.  I hope Mr Antwis and Mr Garcia will like the new additions to their classrooms.

On the 6th September last year I took photograph of the seed pods growing on one of our Cattleya purpurata.  We have been keeping a good eye on them every day watching for the moment the pods started to split.

Today we discovered that four pods had indeed started to split revealing tiny dust like seeds. The pods have been removed from the mother plant.  Each one of these pods will contain millions of tiny seeds.

The pods will be taken from the greenhouse which is damp and humid.  They will be left to dry and then put in a fridge until we are ready to sow them.  We do not have any technical, expensive, equipment to do this.  The seeds will be removed from the pods, by gently tapping them and collected on a piece of paper. The paper will be folded to make an envelope.  The envelope will be labelled and put into a shoebox  and kept in a warm, dry, place to allow the seed to dry naturally.  Once dry the seeds will be placed in a labelled, airtight, jar and stored in a fridge ready for sowing.