New Plants - from Quinta da Boa Vista, Madeira

They're actually from eBay. I was slightly dubious about the seller, purely because there aren't any pictures with the descriptions, other than what the flower looks like. I decided to give them a go after I received a recommendation from an acquaintance on facebook. I also sent an email asking exactly what I was going to get, and found them extremely helpful. I ordered the following plants:

Miltassia Royal Robe
Doritis pulcherrima var. coerulea
Miltonia regnellii
Miltonia clowesii
Miltonia castanea
Miltonia Goodale Moir 'Golden Wonder'
Miltonia 'Queen Ann'

They took what seemed an eternity to arrive, having taken two weeks to get out of Portugal. This was a blessing in disguise as while they were being held up in Portugal, the UK was experiencing a cold snap and there were a couple of very cold nights which would certainly have finished them off!

Quality was everything I'd hoped it would be, and I'm not easily impressed. They were sent bare root (this suits me well as I like to repot all new arrivals anyway), and all are flowering size plants, and all are just starting into new growth, making this an ideal time to repot and replace the growing medium with minimum disturbance to the plants. I have no idea what the growing medium they were growing in actually was, very fine grained stuff, possibly coir? I haven't a clue, but it obviously suited the plants in the environment they came from as the root systems were robust and had survived the journey remarkably well.

Anyone who grows Miltonia (I'm talking about the true Brazilian Miltonia here, not the Colombian Miltoniopsis which are erroneously called Miltonia by a lot of growers) will know that these plants with a very few exceptions have a tendency to climb out of their pots, and have a length of rhizome between their pseudobulbs. This is probably why they aren't more widely grown. They are unruly. I have managed to get all of the above plants into pots, though probably they'll have to be moved on after 12 months.

The front row of plants are new. Miltonia clowesii and regnelii are both species, Miltonia castanea is a natural hybrid. Queen ann and Golden Wonder are more complex Miltonia hybrids, while Miltassia Royal Robe is an intergeneric hybrid with Brassia. The photos show nicely the health of the plants. That slight yellow colour is perfectly right for Miltonia and simply shows that they have been grown in the correct light levels.

Doritis pulcherrima should now be called Phalaenopsis pulcherrima. There are a few colour forms out there, though I haven't seen many Doritis plants for sale at all. I have finally got hold of the coerulea form so when it blooms it should be a nice bluish purple colour. Again, I'm impressed with the plants, has enough good roots to get it established. I have put it in a clear pot with coarse bark chips so I can keep an eye on the roots.

I look forward to these blooming for me, but I will be more interested, short term, in seeing new roots emerging. I will give them a week to ten days to settle properly before I leave eBay feedback. You can't be too careful.