Rare Orchid flowers at Aberglasney after rescue mission
Aberglasney Head Gardener Joseph Atkin tells the story of how a rare Orchid has flowered at the Tywi Valley gardens - Three years ago I had a call to say that Liverpool Botanic Gardens were closing some old glasshouses and rationalising their plant collections which included Orchids and Clivia. They kindly offered me the chance to take some of the plants back to Aberglasney as they were bound for homelessness and a rather gruesome end. So at 4.30am the next morning I was on my way to Liverpool in a hire van to collect/save what I could. On arrival, I found all sorts of treasures that would suit our Ninfarium and promptly filled the van to its rafters. This was followed by some really hard decisions about what I could and couldn’t take as there wasn’t enough room in the van. After much deliberation this Orchid Dendrobium speciosum made it onto the van as the last plant. This week I was overjoyed to see it bursting into full flower for the first time. This is some ...