Did anyone else see the excellent series 'Lost Land of the Tiger' on the BBC last week? Excellent except for the complete ignoring of the fantastic plants the scientists stumbled past looking for 'What lives here'.....What a fantastic place Bhutan is...and 'what lives there' includes the Rhododendron forests ignored at 3500m and, of course, the orchids on view from the hot tropical valleys right up as to the snow. Having taken school visits to similar habitats in near by Sikkim it makes me quite cross. So to set the record straight the large flowered pink epiphytic orchid shown twice on the Friday episode is Pleione hookeriana. This little orchid flowers in April from the new shoot that appears out of a thick layer of moss covering the trunks and branches of trees at around 3000m altitude. I have seen these in the wild on old trees in rough pasture near the Sikkim village of Lachung. In cultivation this species grows best for us in a mossy compost in pots. It should be grown cool and we provise a winter minimum of around 5 degrees celcius. Does anyone else get fed up with the ignoring of plants in wildlife TV?

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 Eight of course!...from left to right, Zoe, Caroline, Luke, Katie, Zoe, Matthew, Clancy and Tom...and didn't they do it well? The ribbon ended up in ribbons, the crowds flooded in, and the Writhlington Orchid Centre was well and truly open.It was definately a special day. Writhlington's link scientist from RGB Kew, Dr Lauren Gardiner summed it up, saying, "This is the begining of the next phase for the orchid project as the new facilities will allow students to train others in laboratory propagation techniques. This process not only shares useful skills but allows young people to gain valuable experience and confidence through the teaching process. This confidence was very apparent in the younger students who presented public lectures about their work at the festival."

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 Thank you to all the people who came to the Writhlington School orchid festival on Saturday and helped to make it such a wonderful day. I really enjoyed it and I know that the students of the Writhlington Orchid Project did too....so some high points. 1. The opening. Julia Willison from BGCI was brilliant  a really touching speech and then inviting all the students to take a pair of scissors to jointly cut the ribbon was perfect. 2. The students, who were all absolutely fantastic, working their socks off from 7.30 in the morning until 5 in the afternoon giving tours, manning the sales table, giving lectures, cooking the food, and answering question after question. 3. The volunteer adults who's help on the day made it run so smoothly and be such a pleasure for everyone. Special thanks to Anika Roellke who came all the way from Germany, Lauren Gardiner who came nearly as far (from Kew), Annie Pugh-Jones who only came from Frome but has been working for this event for weeks and Haley and Paul Shackleton for running backwards and forwards to the station so that Julia could make it to the show and get back for her husband's birthday celebrations. 4. The students and staff of the Orchid Cafe for the wonderful food and 5. The members of the orchid societies who brought plants for a fabulous show. More pics to come over the next couple of days but for now here is a view of the official opening with Julia (on the right) with all the growers and their celabratory cake outside the new greenhouse and with Sikkim prayer flags in the background.

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Writhlington school's orchid enthusiasts are all set for the big day on Saturday when we open our new orchid centre. The greenhouses are looking amazing, the lab is glistening and set for tomorrows volunteers to demonstrate propagation techniques, the show tables are all ready......and the cake is decorated...woohoo.

If you look closely at the decoration you will see our six sections, five the tropical habitats where we have our conservation link projects and a sixth propagation zone... and of course the whole thing is bursting with orchids, school pupils and unicycles. I hope you like the cake and will like the orchid centre even more, whether you visit it for the opening tomorrow (Sat 25th) or over the coming years

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We have a problem at Writhlington.... how do you launch a new greenhouse (or is it christen a new greenhouse?). We have thought of smashing a bottle of champagne on it but that is bound to lead to complications. Perhaps a ribbon going all the way around...but that's 60m of ribbon!....any ideas welcome.

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 We are delighted to announce that the new Writhlington Greenhouses will be opened by Julia Willison, Director of Education Programmesfor BotanicGardens Conservation International (BGCI).Julia was responsible for inviting Writhlington pupils Zoe Parfitt and Zoe Barnes to the BGCI conference in Durban (featured in our blogs during November 2009) and it is fitting that she will be declaring the new greenhouses open to the public at the Writhlington Orchid Festival on September 25th.

BGCI is an international organisation that exists to ensure the world-wide conservation of threatened plants, the continued existence of which are intrinsically linked to global issues including poverty, human well-being and climate change.

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Tonight's open evening at Writhlington School coincided with the flowering of our darkest orchid. Dracula vampira sounds pretty scary and Caroline, who grows the plant in our cool americas section, made the most of it's frightening appearance. Its name 'Dracula' is derived from dragons mouth refering to the flower shape and 'vampira' meaning vampir like which, to my mind, is stretching things when you look at the beautiful patterniing of the flower. Anyway decide for yourself, scary or sweet? It is a native of Ecuador by the way.

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Students at Writhlington School have started their new term in a blue mood thanks to the wonderful blue himalayan orchid species Vanda coerulea. Vanda is a diverse genus  found from the Himalayas through South East Asia with many dramatic species but Vanda coerulea is rather special. The large brilliantly blue flowers have attracted hybridisers and many of the hybrid Vandas available have this species in their parentage. At Writhlington we grow this species warm with a minimum of 18C and pleanty of light to encourage flowering but it's mountain habitat suggests it could be grown cooler. We have two different plants in flower this month and if you want a closer look and advice on growing this beauty why not come to our orchid festival on the 25th September.

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A new year has just begun for the students and orchids at Writhlington School. It is an exciting year starting with the official opening of the new greenhouses at the Writhlington Orchid Festival on Saturday 25^th September. (click here to see our trailer). The first job of the new term is cleaning the greenhouse floors after the summer. Hygiene is important in a greenhouse and this weeks clean up will include cleaning up algae spilt compost and dead leaves that could harbour pests and diseases. The glass will be cleaned too to make sure that maximum light is transmitted now that the sun is lower in the sky.

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