Cypripedium-2015

[hud357]

While I have nothing to offer flowerwise, this photo is for any 'beginners' reading this thread.

I took advice (see earlier posts on the thread) and jumped feet first into the wacky world of 'inorganics'. Cypripedium calceolous and some Dactylorhiza (anonymous until they flower) growing in 100% Cat litter*. They don't seem to care and are doing really well. There are a great many 'recipes' out there for growing media.

This one is so simple that even I could follow it...

(1) Get a bag of inorganic media (perlite/cat litter)
(2) Put your plant in it.
(3) Put the plant in an area it will like (shade/sun/cold/warm)
(4) Feed said plant (perlite and cat litter don't have much in the way of nutrients)

I couldn't be more pleased by my current results. I have killed so many 'hardy Orchids' over the years that I could kick myself to death for not asking the advice of experts* earlier.

 

* eg. Sophisticat Lightweight Pink Clay Non Clumping Cat Litter (UK - pets at home). It must be a 'Seramis' type of litter.
*Experts being 'monocotman' and the two steves.


The pots are a lot lager than they appear in the photo - 26cm or 10 inches in old money.

[Stephen Vella]

Hud.. Just a note on your true results on how your cyps perform with your media will show up the next growing season!! As to what's growing now is from previous season growth of what's stored in the rhizome, roots and buds. So having a healthy plant to start with your on a great start. I've nursed sick cyps with rot from organics and changing the mix to inorganics with success and excel others of the same cv or species. If all other conditions are right like feeding, light levels, temperatures and moisture then you can't go wrong. In saying that some cultivars just love organics purely because moisture levels are higher compared to perlite that can dry out quicker. It's all about how you manage the conditions or how your climate manages your cyps..
We are always learning.
Cheers

[Stephen Vella]

Hello Maggi.. Thanks for correcting my spelling, I'll blame it on the cut and pasting and being lazy.
Goofy thanks for the link .I did see the cv john but wasn't sure if the subsp was any different. If you have not seen the frosch's info  website with detailed parentage cross and cv name with a photo then have a look. It's a brilliant website.
http://www.w-frosch.de/Cypris/menu_d.htm
Cheers

[SteveC2]

Cypripedium John is C. parviflorum parviflorum x yunnanense.  I understood that you were looking for parviflorum var. makasin x yunnanense.  Given that Annegret and GPH Little Charlie both have makasin as a specified parent then I do not think John is the answer to your question.

[Steve Garvie]

Cypripedium flavum Two different forms. The first stands about 80cm tall whilst the second is a short plant. Both photographed at high ISO in very poor light. The weather here is appalling.

[Stephen Vella]

Steve c2 thanks for pointing that out..I suppose it must be a very new cross if there's picks out there ?
Steve Garvie..I'm envious of anyone that can grow flavum. Do you keep this one dry in winter? Is it out doors in winter, in a pot or the ground? I've managed to get myself a juvenile plant after killing a batch of seedlings 10 years ago and not really knowing what I was doing .
Cheers

[goofy]

hi Stephen . I just found an information about the ventricosum X tibeticum cross
from Holger Perner on a website.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/mallee_phallies/6980650711/in/photostream/

so just ask  "Hengduan Mountains Biotechnology"
maybe Holger can provide you with a picture,
he is a serious person,
I know him very well for about 20 years now

just GOOGLE, and you find lot of informations about his "lab  & nursery" in China

cheers

[Steve Garvie]

Steve c2 thanks for pointing that out..I suppose it must be a very new cross if there's picks out there ?
Steve Garvie..I'm envious of anyone that can grow flavum. Do you keep this one dry in winter? Is it out doors in winter, in a pot or the ground? I've managed to get myself a juvenile plant after killing a batch of seedlings 10 years ago and not really knowing what I was doing .
Cheers

Hi Stephen,

The large flavum is outdoors. It is near the top of a small sloping raised bed which is sandwiched between a solid boundary fence and the southern wall of my house. The site is shaded by 50% shade netting which is suspended between the house and the fence, this offers no rain protection and the plant has coped with very wet winters as well as the 2nd coldest winter in my lifetime.

This Cyp. was bought from a Danish mail order nursery (Larsen Plante-importes) and I suspect that it originally came from Chen Yi. I bought and planted it in 1999. It did well for some years but then went into decline -mainly because I lost interest in the garden through lack of time. Four years ago I discovered that the poor thing was still alive despite being surrounded by Ground Elder and other weeds. At this stage it had only one weak growth. I cleared the site around the plant and top-dressed with a mix of pumice, silica sand and powdered dolomite. I also started feeding the plant and was rewarded by a flowering growth in the following season. Last year it produced two growths, one of which flowered. This year it has two strong flowering growths.

Unfortunately the Ground Elder and other weeds also responded to feeding and crept back. So a few weeks ago I carefully cleared the site around the plant. It would appear that the original mix that I used back in 1999 was a cocktail of coarse sand/perlite/pumice/seramis. This has resulted in some amazing root growth. Some of the roots are as long as the plant is tall (80cm). The roots fan out radially and seem to remain within the top 15cm of substrate. Strangely some of the old roots appear to have new young white branches leading off them. I have never seen this before in a Cypripedium and initially I thought that these were Ground Elder roots -however I followed a few of these roots back to the main rhizome.

Hopefully this plant will start to produce more shoots as it certainly now has a significant root mass.

[ichristie]

Hello all superb pictures, I do not grow any of these exciting rare Cypripediums but do have several growing in the garden ordinary soil mix with grit and some compost I also have a large group growing in a pot outside, cheers Ian

    Cyp guttatum_
    Cyp reginae 2
    Cyp reginae x
    Cyp twin
    Cyp_0002

[ichristie]

A few more, Ian

[Steve Garvie]

A cracking collection of Cyps Ian.
Most of mine are tortured in pots.

Well done with Cyp. guttatum.
When I grew Cyps in the past I was never successful with guttatum.
Next time it's straight into the "cauld cauld groon".   

[ichristie]

Hello thanks Steve it gets very little special treatment a few more pictures from today we have a Cyp macranthos in flower which is late other plants flowered earlier and one plant has only frosted flowers  a bit strange as all are the same clone divide over the years also a Cyp sebastian which is growing in the big pot 2 small plants both with 3 flowers, cheers Ian the Christie kind

[ichristie]

Hello again, just thought that I should post another picture of Cypflavum after looking again at Steve's pictures for me my plant is much greener than I thought it should be flowering about 25 cm maybe get taller yet has 4 other non flowering shoots, cheers Ian the Christie kind.

[Maren]

It looks very cool and fresh - just the sort of thing to cheer one up in these sultry tropics (Buckinghamshire).

[Steve Garvie]

Superb plants Ian!!!
Your flavum is more vigorous than mine but also more compact. My plant is in part shade which is probably why it is taller.