Buy Pleione 'Tongario'

Has vibrant purple pink round flowers in March-April. We find best to keep in pots and dry during winter. In spring, increase watering as new foliage and flowers appear. Keep moist all summer and slowly dry in fall (not parched).

This has consistently been a head-turner here when it is in flower. A hybrid by Butterfield and registered in 1981, this fine selection is finally becoming available. Rich pink flowers of good size and a large fringed lip or slipper pouch which is decked out in orange-pink spots with the interior all orange ruffles and flourishes. A good increaser and best suited for pot culture where it can be brought in and left to go dormant in a cool spot over winter. Unless of course you garden in a very mild setting and then this is great outdoors where it can be tucked into a partially shaded rotting log or mossy rock outcrop. Pleione orchids require excellent drainage and we've seen them in China and Arunachal Pradesh growing on mossy cliffs or tree trunks.