What's New
Fall 2008
This was another great season for growing Cypripediums. The weather was generally cool and up here in the Litchfield Hills we had a lot of rain although many parts of the surrounding states had droughts early in the season. But now Fall is upon us with its moving plants and reflasking of protocorms. Here are the Showy Ladyslipper beds on September 25 after two nights with light frost:
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We are constructing a large bed to house examples of all of our growing collection of Cypripedium hybrids. This bed is on the border of the
wooded area behind the barn and shadehouses and is filled with squirrels, voles, mice and other critters that tunnel and dig. Rather than dig
up the entire area and place wire under the bed, we are using aquatic plant net pots filled with our usual Soil Perfector : Turface medium to
protect the plants from predators. These will also allow us to move the plants around as the collection grows. Here is how we do this:
Here is a Cypripedium that has spent the past few years in this 6 inch pot. It bloomed for the first time this year on one stem. We will plant it in a 9 inch x 9 inch net pot.
Here is our plant removed from its pot. It has grown very nicely and has three growth buds for next season. It has roots that are mostly white since it has been grown in artificial media. When plants are grown in soil they will have much darker roots.
We have planted the Cypripedium so that the medium comes to the top of the crown. You can see that once the medium is added to the top of the pot the buds will be just beneath the medium surface.
Now medium is added to the top of the pot, just covering the buds.
The pot has been placed on the bed along with other pots to choose final placement.
The pot has been planted in the bed and a thin layer of Soil Perfector spread on top to further discourage digging by voles and to help keep organic material away from the plant.
As a final touch the bed has been mulched with a thin layer of shredded hardwood.
Here is a Cypripedium that was taken out of the refrigerator about three weeks ago. Cypripediums in Autumn!
Now that it is October our last native orchid, Spiranthes cernua, is in bloom. These are the plants shown in the Summer 2008 update. We have had several frosts and one fairly hard freeze but on they go. This species blooms and sets pods in the midst of frosts and freezes. They are essentially evergreen although the leaves look very bad by winter's end and are shed as the new leaves emerge in May.
Many of our new hybrids are coming along nicely. We plant our seedlings in community flats for their first year outside. In the fall of their first year, we transplant to 4 inch square pots for the next two - three years. Finally, as the seedlings approach blooming size, we transplant them to 6 inch round pots. Here are several seedlings that were flasked in 2005, and grown outside in 2006, 2007, and 2008. These large seedlings are being transplanted on November 2nd into 6 inch round pots. Note that some seedlings have spred root spans of more than one foot (they are tucked in here because they were root-bound in the square pots. These seedlings were all grown in a mixture of Soil Perfector, turface and some with perlite as well.
