What's New
Fall 2008
This was another great season for growing Cypripediums. The weather was generally cool and up here in the hills we had a lot of rain, 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.
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This is a Cypripedium reginae we grew from seed blooming for the first time. We have several beds of these seedlings.
Spiranthes cernua is a late fall-blooming Lady's Tresses orchid that here in Connecticute blooms at the end of September, with the flowers lasting to after the first frost in late October. We grew this clone in our garden in Wilton for several years and left the colony when we moved to Litchfield. After completing the landscaping of the pond area last fall, we transplanted two rhizome cuttings in late September. These remained green into late December when they became covered with snow. At the spring thaw we saw them as tiny green plants. Now that summer is here they have begun to grow rapidly. The smaller one in the forground has two fans this season and the larger one behind it has four fans. They are in full sun from dawn until early afternoon - this is not a shade-loving orchid! While this species is usually described as preferring a fairly damp growing site, the wild colonies in the Wilton area, from which this clone originates, grow in an old grass tennis court that is quite dry during the summer and fall. However, in Wilton and here, we dug a bed about six inches deep and lined it with 4 mil plastic into which we made a number of knife slits to retard water drainage a bit. The plants are in a mixture of garden soil and Soil Perfector. This clone makes flower spikes that are 20 - 30 inches in height. Hopefully we will be able to post images this fall of the first Litchfield spikes!
Goodyera pubescens or Rattlesnake Plantain is an interesting orchid of dry pine forests with lots of shade. They have been collected as terrarium plants, a practice to be discouraged. This is a plant that was rescued from the site of a future driveway last fall. The rhizome elongated over the winter to produce all of the leaves in the photo and plant is blooming as this is written in August. Hopefully the plant will survive long-term here in our garden.
This is Bletilla striata growing in a seedling bed, blooming for the first time.
Take a look at our under-construction Hosta Gallery and Daylily Gallery.
