What's New
Spring 2008
We had a great time meeting people this spring at a number of orchid societies and shows. Please contact us with any questions that come up. Our goal is to make sure that people have the best experience possible in growing temperate terrestrial orchids. As this is being written in mid-May many plants are flowering and we are busy planting the seedlings we grew last year. Our formal "last frost date" is May 22. This has been a cool spring with many nights near freezing but the past two weeks have been warmer. This induced me to plant the vegetable garden on May 17. Of course on May 18 we had a frost that killed the tomatoes, squash and related! Now I will have to buy replacements since it is too late to plant more inside.
Check this link often as we will be adding many photos as the plants come into bloom.
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Cypripedium Carolin is a hybrid of the European/Asian species Cyp calceolus and the Asian species Cyp macranthos var speciosum.
Cypripedium Maria is another hybrid with one parent the Asian species Cyp macranthos var speciosum and with the American Cyp parviflorum as the other parent. Parviflorum has several varieties and the specific one used in the cross is not indicated but I assume it is the small-flowered form.
Paul Perakos and I purchased several young Cypripedium franchetti last fall from Werner Frosch. The plants were thought to require another year before blooming but one in Paul's garden bloomed this spring. What a spectacular flower in both shape and color!
This is another plant blooming in Paul Perakos' garden, a Cypripedium ventricosum with the largest flower for this species we have ever seen. The pouch is much larger than a chicken egg.
Last fall Vermont Ladyslipper added Cyp henryi to their list. This is a species that has an flowers of interesting shape and the multifloral aspect is appealing but most of the flowers I have seen have been rather dull. The flowers pictured on their website seemed quite striking so I ordered some plants. They are blooming this spring and are extremely attractive! I am adding this species to my favorites. I will be very interested to see if it clumps well (henryi generally does).
Ingrid has dainty flowers (see Ingrid's Gallery page for a comparison with larger flowers) and tends to have two flowers per stem. The plants I have all have either one flower per stem and have cream-colored pouches or have two flowers per stem and have white pouches.
Favillianum has light yellow flowers upon opening, which usually turn white after a few days. This is a flower from my favorite plant (on the left in the group image next).
This is a nice alba (usually called albolabium for this species) blooming for the first time.
A very nice, cream-colored flower on this specimen. The pattern in the lateral petals make me wonder if this is a natural hybrid?
A bed of Cyp candidum.
These two plants (Cyp candidum on left and Cyp parviflorum makasin on right) were used for a reciprocal cross to make a makasin form of Cyp xandrewsii.
