Masdevallia veitchianna in flower
 

My Masdevallia veitchianna only has one flower this time (it had up to 9 at a time in October/November) but it's still looking stunning in my greenhouse.

The plant has been starting to put on good new growth during the spring. It grows far more compactly than when I first bought it and I'm pretty sure it's due to higher light levels. Some of the new growths have struggled to free from their outer sheath which I think is due to lack of water (it got quite neglected over the winter).

Love this one :biggrin:

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7228/7...6ec3689221.jpg http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8014/7...cdfe63d094.jpg

:love: Spectacular! The color is amazing! Good growing!

Stunning! I love this species.

The very one I crave to grow one day, but is a no go where I live… Lucky you RosieC :) It's beautiful

Excellent growing Rosie! lovely flower the plant looks Super healthy! well done!

:drool:

Goooorrrrggeous!!

I love the yummy colors...the form is beautiful. You have a healthy perky leafed specimen with new growths...I wish my Masdies would bloom for me this season...even just one...I have never bloomed them at all...

Thanks everyone, this has got to be one of my favourite orchids.

Bud, how long have you had them, it took a couple of years before mine started flowering but once this one got going it has hardly stopped.

Beautiful Rosie! Is this a cool grower? I would love to have one of these. I don't know if I can provide cool temps all year though. I only have one masdie at the moment but want more! I have Masdevailia discoidea and it is putting out tons of leaves right now too. The leaves are also quite a lot smaller than the leaves I bought it with and I was thinking I was giving it too much light too. I moved it into a spot with a lower light level. The leaves look healthy though. I hope mine blooms soon. Last year it bloomed in July and August so I hope it will this year. Great growing and gorgeous picture! You should inter it for the next calender!

This one is a real cool grower Wynn, I think it's one of the coolest of the Masdies. It likes just 5C in winter and that's what I aim for a minimum for my greenhouse.

Growing in porous clay as I do can help you grow cooler growing orchids. Mine don't get 5C all winter and go up to a max of 30C in the summer. By keeping the clay damp it cools the root zone and they love that. I don't grow them particularly humid either but if the moss/clay is always just damp they seem to do fine (although I kept it a bit dry this winter which I think is why a couple of the new growths have not developed correctly).

Oooo weeee gorgeous colour!

Thanks Gloria,

A few people have commented on my greenhouse thread that they are surprised how large this flower is, you can't get a sense of scale really from the pics I've posted here.

Here's my shot of my greenhouse mounts with the masdi at the side. Gives more of a sense of scale.
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7104/7...e4514dcf19.jpg

You can't miss that beautiful large flower for sure!
Rosie, you're grow area looks so well put together and so clean - looks just great! :bowing

:coverlaugh: well it's clean because I've just give in the 'spring' clean out after the winter... thankfully no pics of it as it was just before that :)

Loooooooooooool!! You make me laugh Rosie, I didn't even think about that one, ha ha. You clean up well :biggrin:

It's gorgeous! I think I must get one!

Thanks Tindo,

I do try to keep humidity up when I can, I think that when I'm forgetting to water I'm also forgetting to do anything about humidity (regular water on the greenhouse floor helps) so for me the two are linked.

I bet it's high just now, didn't look this morning but it's been raining all night and the door was open so probably high humidity in the greenhouse :)

I'm not to worried about the growths as while are couple of struggling to free from the sheaths there are lots that appear to be doing fine. At one time when I first got this they were all doing it, so one or two out of so many growths is not so concerning.