Coelogyne mooreana "Westonbirt" FCC/RHS a long time ago...
Just got back from a couple of weeks in Mallorca, and brought a couple of orchids into the house to adorn the kitchen table and the dining room ditto - until I get time to make a bigger display in the hall - so much to do in the garden and elsewhere after an absence...
Westonbirt was a country estate near where I used to live in the Cotswolds ; now a girls school ( the sort where they live in, and the fees are probably 50k US$ per year... not the kind of school I went to, but then I'm not a girl, either ).
In the days of Sir Gorge Holford, the collection was notable ; Cymbidium Alexanderi 'Westonbirt Variety' FCC was one of the first 4n cym hybrids and is to be found in the parentage of many cyms today. They also bred one of the most significant early "miniature Cyms" - predecessors of todays novelties.
I don't know how much better than the ordinary Coel.mooreana this is - it is a species virtually impossible to find on offer in the UK trade. I also have another fine variety of the species - Brockenhurst var ; or should that be Brockhurst ? Must ask... My impression is that Westonbirt has more flowers, and Brock' has larger flowers.
This needs to be seen multi-growth and multi spiked , but since for me it is not seasonal, the usual effect is one spike now, and another from a different growth later, so I never get multi spikes all at once . So I divide and sell ( I can still get quite a lot of money for this fine but now very old orchid - I have not looked it up, but would not be surprised to find it was awarded more than a hundred years ago.
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