Calanthe reflexa

1st October 2006

The hardy Calanthe (there are also a lot of tropical species) are a strange group of orchids. For the most part, they grow reasonably well for me, but I don't get flower spikes as often as I would like, so I am doing something wrong. This is one of the most reliable for me, flowering in late summer or autumn.

Calanthe reflexa

19th September 2007

31st August 2008

20th September 2009

2nd October 2010

Years pass,and I don't seem to be making much progress. The plants carry on flowering sporadically without ever really looking prosperous.
I have a similar problem with Lycoris. I see pictures of them looking fabulous in Japan and in the southern states of the USA, but with me they are rather feeble and don't flower. This year I decided to move the Lycoris into the greenhouse I use for the Hippeastrum. It is unheated so it gets cold in the winter, but it is fairly well sealed, so it reaches hight temperatures through the summer. I am hoping that if they get a long hot humid summer they will make enough growth to cope with a cold winter. All of which is borderline irrelevant here except that it made me wonder if the Calanthe would also prefer a much hotter summer (most of the genus are actually tropical).
Consequently this morning I moved them all into a greenhouse with less ventilation that gets hot if there is even a glimpse of sun in the day. They were moved away from the open door in a well ventilated alpine house. It is a change, and something had to be done.

Calanthe reflexa

2nd March 2020

The long gap since the last picture is perhaps a telling statement of the death of the previous plant. Not deterred I have bought another from Jacques Amand at the AGS show in Theydon Bois. It is a favourite plant of mine and I am having another try at Calanthe.