Cypripedium problem

[Houseslippers]

I got home last night after a brilliant weekend at the RHS London orchid show, out of pocket and with happy additions to my mini-Paph, hardy orchid & (not least) Pleione collections, looking forward to looking over my Cyps after Maren's very good & engaging talk at the end of the slipper symposium (and Maren had the last slot in a long day, a difficult position). This morning, to my dismay, I found one of my Cyps - Sabine Pastel - with its single shoot wilting, with water-soaked leaves and with clear signs of a very sudden rot, which you can just see on the photo below. One or two of my other Cyps are also showing a certain water-soaked look but are much less advanced in growth so it's difficult to tell.  They are all recently potted in the 45/45% Perlite/Seramis with 10% bark, and kept moist; the only thing I can think of which might have done the damage is a watering with full-strength all -purpose Miracle-gro 2 days ago. There was also a very hard frost 2 nights ago.

Any tips for emergency treatment? (Gritting teeth - I will not be beaten....)

[Darren]

I feel the 'water-soaked' look to the leaves is likely frost damage. I have one clone of Gisela and also a fasciolatum which regularly get damaged this way in early spring if I forget to protect them. The rest may be due to frost also. With mine the damaged bits went brown once the leaves expanded - often it kills the flower buds too. Thankfully the plant was fine the next year.

[Maren]

Hello Tony,

thank you for your kind remarks.

Regarding your cypripedium, I have to agree with Darren, this sounds like frost damage. Maybe you kept it a bit too wet before the recent sharp frost, especially if water droplets were still on the emerging shoot. Also, was the pot in shade or in the sun? if in the sun, then the freezing / thawing process would have been accelerated leading to the collapse of cells. Best to keep just moist. If it were my plant, I would re-pot it now into a 50/50 mix without the bark.

Good luck!!

[Houseslippers]

Thanks to you both. I'm a little relieved that it was the frost, to be honest; an act of God as it were rather than muggins here. I also kept this plant in a frost-free greenhouse for 2 weeks before I learned on this forum that that was a bad idea, so Sabine got a little too forward in growth and therefore more subject to frost damage I suspect. The plants do get first morning sun (just), so that would have done the damage. The constraints of cultivation surrounding these plants get more and more particular - I'll now need to quickly set up some sort of shading cloth to protect my considerable investment.

But with these plants, it's all worth it!

[Darren]

Hope they recover for you Tony.

Mine are in part of a frame that does not yet get sun, and won't for another two weeks but some cyps are naturally early risers and do need some protection at this stage. (I stuff a clay pot with fleece and put it upside-down over the plants if I remember and the weather forecast does not tell fibs!) A night forecast at "+1C" last week actually turned out to be -3C so the two I mentioned have been similarly damaged this year.    Last year they were fine as the cold weather was after Christmas and held things back until after the frosts.