With 400,000 plant species on earth, it’s always so surprising to me how few have made it into cultivation. Most of humanity, for example, relies on only 50 or so plant species to feed itself. In fact, 60% of the calories that fuel humanity come from the seeds of just three grass species: wheat, rice and maize.
The world of houseplants, of course, is no exception. With the mind-boggling range of species from the planet’s warmer zones, only a tiny handful have the ability to handle the unique environmental conditions found in the average living room. The weird combination of low light and high temperatures in winter, central heating that can make the air humidity of your typical home drier than the Sahara, and the need for the kind of durability to enable survival during transit, have led to growers rigorously selecting their offerings so that only those species that have the capability of handling these conditions are marketed.
However, sometimes there are species that inexplicably seem to remain rare in the trade, and are thus overlooked by gardeners, despite being perfectly adapted to indoor culture. The wonderful Brassavola orchid has to be one of the best examples of this.
Native to the warm, coastal forests of tropical Latin America, they revel in the high, year-round temperatures found in most homes. Compare this to the more popular Cymbidium, which needs really cool, bright winter conditions to flower – impossible to provide without a large glasshouse – and it’s surprising how one has become far harder to track down than the other.
It’s not because the Brassavola is lacking in the looks department either – it has spectacularly exotic cream and yellow-green flowers with elegantly elongated, spider-like petals. Pollinated by moths in the wild, these stunning blooms emit a wonderful scent each evening and, being from the tropics, they flower repeatedly all year.
When you get a mature, really healthy specimen, it’s not unusual to see it produce so many flower spikes that they create almost a ball of blooms. It’s spectacular. They even have fleshy, slightly “rolled-up” leaves that allow them to cope with far less water than other orchids – perfect if you’re forgetful like me.
Grow them exactly like the more common Phalaenopsis, in a bright spot at 18-25C with a weekly dunk in a sink of water before letting them dry out, and you’ll experience this wonder of nature. As they are year-round growers, I feed them at every watering, using a very dilute feed – roughly a quarter of package directions. As I say, they are hard to find. I found mine at a specialist garden centre, but thanks to in-vitro propagation, they can now be sourced from some online nurseries. It might involve a little cyber sleuthing, but trust me, they’re worth it!
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