Dactylorhiza for IDing

[mark smyth]

That I understand. While weeding this year I have found many tiny orchids.

The left spike is brilliant

[winwen]

fredfg,

your pretty photos show exactly why I love this species soooooo much. Each individual plant of these is a really unique masterpiece - "in varietate concordia". A really european plant!

[daveyp1970]

Mark if you grow several 'species' then I find it improbable that anybody could be definitive.

Here is a group of self sown plants in my garden last year,too early yet for them this year. They could be anything and I have dozens coming up in pots and cracks all over the garden. I had a collection of several species before the dreaded black death struck and these seedlings have come up over the past several years.There are also wild plants only a few hundred yards away which could also be hybridising with them.

Tony can i ask did you get to the bottom of your black death mystery because my friend FredG had nearly all his Dactylorhiza wiped out one year and we are still scratching our heads over the reason.

[Tony Willis]

I had a collection of about 10 species which I kept in pots and had perhaps 100 of them. They were multiplying at a great rate each year.I was given a plant of Orchis maderensis which I planted in the garden and a few weeks later it started to turn black from the base and died. Next spring half my plants died as the growing points turned hard and black as if covered with hard tar and just failed to develop. The following spring they were all dead. I tried peeling the black scales of with a razor blade back to the green inner but this did not work.Since then hundreds have germinated all over the garden and seem to grow with no problems.

[Maggi Young]

can i ask did you get to the bottom of your black death mystery because my friend FredG had nearly all his Dactylorhiza wiped out one year and we are still scratching our heads over the reason.

 There is a thread here : http://www.srgc.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=566.msg13690#msg13690
 and here is the article referred to in that thread, by Brian and Maureen Wilson, form the Rock Garden  #107 of 2001
click on the link to download it....
 Wilson Dact._diseasearticle.pdf (256.11 kB - downloaded 123 times.)

[Tony Willis]

Maggi thanks for reminding me about that article. The problem with my plants though did not relate to this in that it was the over wintering bud that was diseased and not the leaves. Infected plants ( the whole collection over two winters) died as they tried to start into growth in spring. They did not fade away over a period of time as they weakened and in fact had excellent root systems. The first autumn before they died they looked good and promised and exciting spring. The next year I knew what to look for on the remaining plants and looked forward to an unexciting spring.

[Graham Catlow]

Please, Please, Please, someone tell me this isn't what you are talking about
I bought this from e-bay in the Autumn along with D. sambucina which is just showing a blackened tip as it begins to break the surface.

I have numerous Dactylorhiza in the garden!

Graham

[Tony Willis]

Graham,just do not shoot the messenger-that looks awful. I should try the Wilson's ideas straight away.

[Maggi Young]

eeek!    Graham..... quarantine the plant as soon as possible!

[Graham Catlow]

Graham,just do not shoot the messenger-that looks awful. I should try the Wilson's ideas straight away.

eeek!    Graham..... quarantine the plant as soon as possible!

Thanks to both of you.
Will do!