Cypripedium paloosa!

[nepenthes gracilis]

I love Cypripedium! I just hope this next batch of C. acaule I am getting wil do good in my mix of peat/perlite/sand and a heavy layer of pine needles (partially decaying) I did a pH test for the mix and its about 5.0 pH. Anyways, enjoy the pictures of native Cyps I took today! Any info/expierence people have had with C. acaule or any Cyps is appreaciated! Please POST INFO if you have some.

C. acaule (just out of peak bloom) One clump of many plants.

C. reginae (next 4 photos) in peak bloom. 8 ft from Route 3 heading into township of Fine, NY.

 

[PlantAKiss]

Boy! Aren't you lucky to live where you can see that! I love cyps too...would love to have one some day, but they are so expensive.

Those are beautiful photos...what a feast for the eyes!

Thanks Dustin!

 

[nepenthes gracilis]

Hi Suzzane. Not a problem to get photos of anything interesting I may see in my travels. To bad I was about a week late for the C. acaule. I'm trying that species again as I stated in my first post....perhaps I'll have more luck with it in the new sandy/peat/pine needle mix (I've seen that in nature) and the watering with the acidified rain water.

 

[lavenderdawn]

Great pics, Dustin!  I guess we've missed the one in our bog, then.  I just found C. reginae for sale in Wayside Gardens for $99.95!  It says CITES certified, nursery grown from seed.  
Good luck with your plants.  

 

[PlantAKiss]

There are cyps here in VA and in fact my love for slipper orchids comes from finding one in the woods behind my house when I was a child.  I was captivated and never lost my fascination with them.  Its a little harder now to go traipsing off into the woods when most is private property.  In the wild it can take 10-17 years for a cyp to flower.  Even in cultivation, they usually take 5-7 at least.  Unfortunately, they don't put that on the package of cyp rhisomes they sell at Lowes sometimes.  I'm sure people buy them thinking they will have a lady slipper orchid that season.  I always thought that was unfair.  

Yes they are acid lovers.  They also don't like to be wet...so planting in well drained soil in raised beds or planting in hummocks is recommended so water doesn't pool around them.

I've seen these soil mixes recommended: top two inches of soil in a mixed forest, mostly white pine, rubbed through a 1/4 inch wire screen (for light, fluffy soil which does not compact, even when wet). Add fine peat moss and medium perlite for aeration; and oyster shell and pelletized lime to buffer the mix to a pH of 7.2-7.4.

Or...three parts perlite, one part sand, one part clay, and one part conifer forest floor duff (consisting of the decaying upper 1 inch of rotting wood, old needles, humus, etc).

So it sounds like you've got the right mix there. Slugs are an enemy of cyps.  So keep some beer out.  

 

[nepenthes gracilis]

Well they came! Here are some photos of the bed I have them in. Thanks!

 

[eplants02]

Lovely plants, Dustin.

 

[PlantAKiss]

Nice Dustin! That will be beautiful when they've grown out and all flowering.

 

[nepenthes gracilis]

I just hope they make it. I think the soil should be good...peat for acidity silica sand and perlite for aeration and drainage and pine needles for acidity and topdressing. And watering with 2 tsp. apple cider vineger per gallon of RO/distilled/rain water. What more could a cyp. ask for?

 

[herenorthere]

And err on the side of under-watering. Unless there's a drought or the plant is sheltered from rain, you probably shouldn't water a Cyp. acaule in the northeast.

 

[nepenthes gracilis]

Or if you mix was too open and not water retentive like my earlier mix which dried to dust and killed my last C. acaule. You have any expierence with Cyps Bruce?

Thanks!

EDIT: here are some macros of the soil I have them in. One didn't come out in focus too well, my bad.

Primary mix, sandy peaty loamish type soil.

Topdressing of various longleaf and shortleaf pine trees. They are situated under a longleafed one.

 

[herenorthere]

I've had them a few years, growing in a shallow 18" diameter pot with lots of holes drilled in the bottom.  My main plant started as a sickly, single growth plant in a trade from someone in southern Florida who thought it might grow there.  It bloomed for the first time last year and, when I refreshed the potting mix last year, it had at least five growth points.  The smaller plant had at least three.  But then came trouble.

I've been growing them in an ~50/50 mix of rotting wood mulch and perlite.  But I ran out of perlite and, when I took half of the mix to start a second pot of woodland plants, I added an ~40/40/20 blend of the mulch, vermiculite, and lava rock (the large, irregular perlite).

The Cyps were slow to come out of dormancy this spring and none bloomed.  Both plants grew from only one of all those healthy growth points and their roots are a mess.

I think the new vermiculite rich mixture retains too much water.  It drains freely, but remains very moist.  It could have turned into a suffocating mass of ice during the winter.  I've seen them grow in wet places, but experts often recommend growing them in fairly xeric conditions.  Given the seasonal cyle of these plants, I'm just letting them go, hoping they'll make it to the end of summer.  Then I'll repot them with the mulch-perlite mix in time for their Fall root growth.

 

[nepenthes gracilis]

Thanks for the info! I chatted with Jerry Fischer (Owner of Orchids Ltd.) and he said that the real key is sphagnum peat moss in the mix to acidify and retain moisture. A moderate layer of pine needles on the top is benefical for acidification factors and a small release of nutrient over time.

 

[herenorthere]

Yes, I keep the pine needles on top too. But mine did best when the mix didn't retain so much moisture. I just don't know whether the trouble I'm having now resulted from moisture now or during the winter.

 

[nepenthes gracilis]

Well I don't think it would be in the growing season....mine died from being too wet....wild plants were pretty darn moist too.

 

[Tamlin Dawnstar]

This plant is a bog native in my backyard. It grows under ericaceous shrubs in highly acidic conditions. The bog is perpetually moist, but this species likes the hummocks beneath the shrubs where it grows in very long fibered sphagnum. There isn't a teeming population by any means. I think the trick will to keep the PH low and maintain good aeration. Good luck with your plants Dustin!

 

[nepenthes gracilis]

C. acaule gorws in the bog too William or just the reginae? BTW, is yours in bloom yet?

 

[Glenn]

I've been trying for a couple of years now to grow this plant. I prepared a bed under a pine tree in my back yard. I mixed pine duff, sand and LFS. I planted a potted plant which died and I purchased two tubers/bulbs or whatever they are and one came up this spring and seems to be doing well. Time will tell. I've decided not to baby the plant and let mother nature do what she does.

I happened upon a grove of 40 or so plants near a stream in Northern Michigan two weekends ago. They were growing near a wet area under white cedar in sandy soil. What an amazing site!

 

[herenorthere]

They tolerate a wider range of habitats in the wild than they tolerate in cultivation.  One theory is that they have little immunity against infection by soil pathogens.  Maintaining dry, acidic conditions inhibits those pathogens and the plants can thrive.  Maybe the beneficial fungal associations they establish when growing from seed in the wild offer enough protection to allow them to survive in a wider range of habitats.