Coelogyne South Carolina

Coelogyne South Carolina is an outstanding hybrid between Coelogyne x burfordiense and Coelogyne pandurata. I got this plant a few years ago as a relatively small division, just a couple of pseudobulbs, but it has grown quite fast and now fills its 27cm basket, despite my taking cuttings every time it climbs over the edge. As you’d expect from a hybrid that is basically 75% Coelogyne pandurata, this plant gets quite large, especially when the other parent, Coelogyne asperata, grows even larger! It does seem to have taken the best from both its parents, with the clear apple green flowers of Coelogyne pandurata and the increased flower count and arching inflorescences characteristic of Coelogyne asperata.

Morphologically, the plant resembles Coelogyne pandurata, with quite large, ovoid flattened pseudobulbs with a few centimetres of internode between them. It produces two flushes of growth per year under my conditions, but only flowers during spring, with the onset of new growth. I keep it in the largest hanging pot I have (27cm) but it should ideally be in one even larger, if only I could find one! It enjoys bright light and sits right under a grow light – be careful you don’t burn it if you choose to do the same! Potting mix is a combination of medium bark chips and Sphagnum moss as Coelogyne South Carolina is a very greedy plant and needs to be always constantly moist. As with all my hanging plants, I give this plant a slow-release fertilizer in granular form twice a year which keeps the pseudobulbs nice and big and the leaves nice and green. I will have divisions of this plant available periodically in the webshop. Beware –