| Growing Masdevallia Orchids |
| Cool to Intermediate Growing Types
10C / 12C - 28C (50 - 82F)
| Masdevallia belong to a group of orchids known as pleurothallids
and are from south American countries like Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia,
Venezuela an others in this region. They are generally small to medium
sized plants and are compact growing so they don't take up too much
valuable space. They have very delicate triangular shaped flowers
usually with long tails coming from the 3 points of the triangle (petal
and sepals) |
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Most of the Masdevallia naturally occur in mountain forests
where they are covered in cloud dew a lot of the time (cloud
forests) where the air is humid, cool and the light is
fairly good but never intense.
This means they are (mostly) cool growing plants
and should be kept at around 10C (50F) at night rising
to no more than about 24C (78F) maximum during the
day
LEFT: Masdevallia 'Charisma' has lovely pink flowers
with darker pink veining
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HERE FOR THE FULL RANGE OF MASDEVALLIA ORCHIDS |
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The flowers of Masdevallia are interesting in that they are triangular
in shape almost like small kites on slender stems, many of them are around
2 - 3 inches long but some like Masdevallia valenciae (below) are
much smaller at around 1cm! Another group from the pleurothallids are
the Dracula orchids which have the same overall triangular shape but are
much larger and carry pendant flowers that hang downwards, these are often
quite bizarre flowers too
Light requirements
Masdevallia like good light but will also tolerate light
shade during the growing season, they SHOULD NOT be kept in
full sun or they will over heat scorch. Keep them in a well
lit position during the winter months out of direct strong
sunlight |
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RIGHT: Masdevallia valenciae is extremely
compact growing with multiple but small flowers |
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| Watering requirements
These orchids like to be kept evenly moist at all times and will
not tolerate being dry at any time. Water once or twice a week depending
on how warm and dry the atmosphere is, the warmer and dryer the
room the more you will need to water them. It is always a good idea
to water the plants in the morning as this will allow any that is
spilt on to the leaves to evaporate during the heat of the day.
You can raise the humidity around the plants be standing them on
a tray with pebbles in the bottom, fill with water to just below
the pebbles and stand the plants on the surface. Light misting is
also beneficial and will help keep the plants cool and in top condition.
Left: Masdevallia 'Confetti' is
a very compact growing plant indeed |
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Feeding requirements
Masdevallia do not have a high requirement for food and should
only be fed once every 4 - 6 weeks during the summer months. A general
mixture is required and this should be diluted to 1/4th of what
the pack recommends. |
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Re-potting schedule
Repotting and dividing should be undertaken in the spring
when the plant is large enough to be split, use a mix containing
perlite, sphagnum moss peat, fine orchid bark and live sphagnum
moss. This will ensure a good moisture content around the
roots which is essential
| LEFT: Masdevallia coccinea is used in producing
many hybrids and imparts its red colour to the offspring |
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Flowering
Most Masdevallia flower in either the spring or summer, they
usually flower as single blooms on elegant stems or sometimes with
several to a stem which open within a few days of each other. There
are some Masdevallia which flower on previous flowering spikes (
e.g. Masdevallia tovarensis) so you need to leave the old spikes
on until they go brown before removing them right to the bottom
Right: Dracula cordobae is best grown in
a basket (like all Dracula orchids) as they have
pendant flowers' |
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HERE FOR THE FULL RANGE OF MASDEVALLIA ORCHIDS |
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Masdevallia