Starting a Masdevallia collection
 

Hey everyone,

I've been able to visit a few cloud forests in Panama and Honduras over the past few years through my conservation career. Though these trips have been focused on amphibians, I've always been interested in plants and have kept living vivaria at home for the better part of 20 years.

Recreating biotopes with specific plant and animal species got me into orchids and mimicking the habitats they thrive in. When I returned from my trips and saw orchids online, it immediately took me back to those times in Central America. Enough so to where I wanted to just keep a few orchids, without frogs this time! Masdevallia had always caught my eye, so I've started with a few at the beginning of this year and have grown to a few other genera.

Here's a M. erinacea that should be blooming soon as well as a M. nidifica for starters.

Have always enjoyed this group and envy those who manage to provide the needed environment for success. The 2 I have are mounted and coping but Retrepias also humor me and show me who's boss. Anxious to see pix!

Very nice! One of our Orchid Society members was really into these for a few years and it was always a pleasure when he brought them to the meetings. Good luck!

One so far!

Great to see that bloom! I discovered masdevallias this year and find them captivating. I have a few now, but nothing blooming yet. It will be fun to see these as they develop and flower.

Up to 3 blooms on the erinacea with another shooting out. I think it's time for a larger pot, but I've not looked up the best time to make the jump.

Also my Maxillaria uncata that seems to be enjoying the slip pot since I got it a few months back.

I seem to really enjoy anything Pleurothallid, so I have a variety of new pick ups. I was able to visit a grower in Kansas and see her greenhouse when I was visiting my family. I couldn't resist! The discolored leaves are my fault, I hadn't planned on getting any, so keeping them a few days before getting home was a task!

Pleurothallis rubella
Masdevallia glandulosa
Stelis mystax
Platystele umbellata

While gone for a few days, my M. erinacea seems to be loving life. I've gotten 3 blooms, pictured in a past post, but I now have 11 new spikes!

very cool- so many tinys, so little time

This Masdevallia erinacea is letting loose, 20 blooms so far! Also have some new blooms forming on the Stelis mystax, Platystele umbellata, and Dracula lotax.

Another Pleurothallid is in the mail!

Coincidentally I also got into orchids via dart frogs. I had vivaria in my teens, (but orchids were unknown to me at that time) and got out of the hobby, due to time constraints.

I was initially going to setup a viv and try a few orchids, but was afraid that would enable getting back into dart frogs, chams, or leaf tail geckos again, and plant space would be limited. So, I'm in a tent.

Are you growing your Masdevallia in a wine/beverage cooler?