Tiny orchids that will dazzle all year round

"Most plants are not much larger than a 50p piece, so anyone has the space to house a collection in a few glass jars"

Photo by Mufid Majnun on Unsplash

These marvels of nature really do have it all. For starters, their doll's house size, with most plants not much larger than a 50p piece, means literally anyone has the space to house even a sizeable collection of them in a few glass jars. Secondly, they offer up some of the most diverse colours and forms of any group of plants, looking like something straight out of the sketch book of a Victorian explorer. Add to that the fact that many are straightforward to care for and as free-flowering as much more common favourites, such as African violets, and you can have a near constant supply of these amazing blooms - even in the darkest days of December. Here are my favourite options and how best to grow them.

I love the Taiwan bee orchid Gastrochilus retrocallus, which I grow mounted on a piece of dead tree fern trunk (more on this later) in an old glass jar. A clump of three plants will fit on to a 10cm² surface and will constantly churn out incredible acid-yellow flowers with painted burgundy centres the size of my fingernail. When I have a tough day, I like to take the lid off and inhale their citrus-meets-vanilla scent - and the world suddenly seems to make sense again.

They make really good bedfellows with the similarly sized plants of the tiny cherub orchid Trichoglottis pusilla, from Java, whose star-shaped, ice-white flowers are intricately painted with shocking-pink zebra stripes. But for a really miniature show-stopper, it has to be Aerangis punctata from Madagascar. These plants are some of the smallest of all, sitting nonchalantly in the background with silvery grey leaves until, out of nowhere, white bat-like flowers more than three times the size of the plant itself appear, seeming to float magically in mid-air. You won't find any of these in garden centres, but they can all be readily bought from nurseries online for less than the price of a takeaway pizza.

To create a growing support, I used sturdy scissors to cut slabs of sustainably sourced New Zealand tree fern trunk - which can be bought from exotic pet suppliers - and attached them with a small dab of gel superglue. This trick sounds implausible, but it works. Kept misted once a week in a bright spot away from direct sunlight, the fern trunk will become naturally covered in a carpet of velvety moss, punctuated by tiny orchid flowers. For even better results, place the jar under a desk lamp fitted with a grow-lamp bulb to create a really eye-catching feature of a glowing mini-rainforest small enough to fit on a bedside table.

Source: The Guardian
Photo created by freestockcenter - freepik

Source: The Guardian