First an apology; No, I didn’t post as many photos as possibly I would have liked to. The internet connections while out there were slow and temperamental at the best of times, and it was nice to be able to catch up a little bit. We’ll be chucking loads and loads of photos on for your viewing pleasure, as well as press releases and the lark.

Right, that’s over with.

HELLO! We are well and truly back in the UK. We arrived after a 13 hour flight and about 26 hours travelling in total at midnight last night. The trip was absolutely amazing, and we all want to go back!

Dendrobium aphyllum in Sikkim

Take Dendrobium aphyllum. This stunning orchid is found in hot tropical forest in the deep valleys of the Himalayan range. It grows on semi deciduous trees exposed to the sun in the dry monsoon winters. The plant copes by losing it’s leaves and flowering from bare canes in April and May. This photograph was taken in Southern Sikkim at an altitude of 400m above sea level.

Dendrobium aphyllum is an accomodating plant in cultivation and we find it grows and flowers reliably at Writhlington with a minimum temperature of around 15 degrees C, a wet summer and a dryer winter. The plant photographed below opened its flowers in late April, a sight that instantly transported me to the mountains of its native habitat, a real Himalayan wonder.

Dendrobium aphyllum at Writhlington

Interested in going to Sikkim yourself?  Have a look at our information and get in touch about Sikkim 2011.  If this trip is as much of a success as we think it will be, we’ll be taking more people out to Sikkim in April 2011.

In our lab – we use agar jelly as a replacement for the fungas, meaning we can have every single seed germinate, where as only 10 may germinate in the wild.  More information on our techniques can be found in our media libraries.

While in Cape Town in 2007 we linked with a school in the area, but also with local growers.  Lorna in particular has been brilliant at supplying seed of the leopard orchid Anselia africana.  When she e-mailed me a couple of weeks ago and first told me that she had 9 mature pods I was very excited!  Anselia africana is a very nice plant that is easy to sow and grows well in our lab.

I was also eager to find out just what 9 seed pods worth of seed looked like!  We were all very impressed when the envelope was packed full of seed.  This is such a brilliant example Darwin’s prediction that, if left to their own devices, and if every seed germinated – orchids would take over the world in three generations!

Quite a large pile of orchid seed!

A big, big Thank-You to Lorna, and also to our other partners across the globe! We couldn’t do it without you!

Fambong Lho

New year is a time we think about all the lovely people we work with around the world. So Happy New Year to our friends in Durban both at the Botanic Garden and at West Park School. Happy New Year as well  to the pupils and staff at the Erica Primary School in Cape Town, to Souk and Eddie in Laos, to John, Ian and Judy in Belize, to Ana-Silvia and Federico in Guatemala, to Federico, Vannessa, Franco, Kerry and Bob in Costa Rica, to Izabel, David and Carlhinos in Brazil and all our friends in Sikkim, especially Mohan and Ganden who are second and fifth from the left in this lovely photo from our 2009 expedition to Sikkim. This is the log house at the Fambong Lho reserve in the mountains above Gangtok. Finally a Happy New year to all of you who read our blogs on the RHS. We hope to see you all sometime in 2010

This will include a presentation from the Durban team, who’s blog you have been following on here or on the RHS Blog.  There will also be a presentation from me on the Sikkim expedition last April.  It’s looking like it’s going to be a good evening with some of our Year 8 students promising cake and biscuits!

Remember to come along on Monday 14th December (Yes, that’s next Monday!) to the school.  Bring £1 for entrance and prepare for orchids, education and refreshments!  I’ll see you there!

Our Orchid Celebration Evening is a great oppertunity for you to meet and get information from our growers of all ages.  We will have talks throughout the evening about recent expeditions, along with plant sales and those all important refreshments!

If you’re interested in attending this exciting evening of information (we should call it that!) then simply turn up at the school for 7pm on Monday 14th December.  Entrance costs £1 and all of the funds raised go to our partner schools, both in South Africa and in Sikkim.  We expect the evening to finish by 9:30pm.

Aww, Thank-you Durban Team!