Cypripediums 2016

[Maren]

Hi Steve,

I love your plants and your photography.

Here is one of mine, Cyp Hank Small, 15 spikes and 30 flowers. I dug it up from my allotment last Friday to put on our the table show of the Thames Valley Orchid Society that night at one of our monthly meetings. It was touch and go because in my experience, cyps don't like to be transplanted when in flower. However, the weather was cool enough and the plant did not complain (so far). It won a silver rosette and went on to a show at Lea Valley on yesterday, where it won Best Hybrid in Show.

Initially, I wanted to take a plant of Cyp Gisela Pastel which was much more showy, had more and bigger flowers, but the plant wouldn't come out of the ground and I did not want to break my fork. so it was little Hank instead.

[Steve Garvie]

What a superbly grown Cyp. Maren!!!

[Steve Garvie]

Cypripedium fasciolatum



Cypripedium candidum

[Alex]

A few of my Cyps - sichuanense out, tibeticum coming out (both from Holger Perner last year), and the promise of a lichiangense. iPhone photography only, I'm afraid!

Alex

[Steve Garvie]

Cracking Cyps Alex!!!

Do the pots sit permanently in water? Evaporation through the clay pots should keep the roots cool.
Do you use tap-water or de-mineralised water?

How do you go about ordering Cyps from Holger Perner? I would like to get hold of sichuanense and his form of tibeticum.

Sorry for all the questions! 

[Alex]

Hi Steve,

No worries! The pots sit in rain water, about 1cm, whilst in full growth. Around now, as they are emerging or in early growth, the trays are filled less and allowed to dry before more is given.

Ordering from Holger is tricky because he sells out so quickly. The first thing to do is make sure you're on the mailing list - by the time you get the list from nurseries who trade his plants, it'll all be sold out. Even if you order as soon as you get the list, you may or may not be quick enough, so to secure things like farreri and sichuanense, I wrote to Wenqing way ahead of the list even appearing, about a year in advance of sending the plants out, and asked if I could reserve them - she seemed happy to do that.

Alex

[angie]

Maren, what a lovely pot of Cyp, Hank small . Mine were so disappointing it wasn't worth taking a picture. Hopefully next year will be a better growing year.

Angie 

[shelagh]

I have a super pot of C. macranthos (doesn't look right) Eight stems all with buds and then they suddenly aborted. Anyone any idea why?

[johnw]

Cypripedium parviflorum var. pubescens f. planipetalum  this afternoon.

johnw - +12c & overcast

[Anthony Darby]

Cypripedium calceolus v. planipetalum this afternoon.

johnw - +12c & overcast

Shouldn't this be parviflorum, or has Cypripedium parviflorum reverted back to calceolus, the Eurasian species?

[johnw]

Shouldn't this be parviflorum, or has Cypripedium parviflorum reverted back to calceolus, the Eurasian species?

Far worse:  Cypripedium parviflorum var. pubescens f. planipetalum

john

[Steve Garvie]

Cypripedium montanum -A young plant, first time flowering.



Cypripedium Frosch's Mountain King.
This is a specific clonal selection of the hybrid between Cypripedium montanum and Cypripedium parviflorum which is more tolerant than montanum and almost all of the other representatives of the hybrid grex Sebastian. It survived the excessive wet of last winter without cover.

[Mark Griffiths]

I saw some in flower at the local Wyvale garden centre. First time I've ever seen them. They were £20 each and I nearly got one. I assume these are probably best not bought in garden centres?

[Alex]

Nice montanum! Where did you get that, may I ask? I've never seen it for sale.

Alex

[Steve Garvie]

Hi Alex, I bought it from Christian Schreiner but I believe it initially came from the dutch company Anthura B.V. They produce the "Garden Orchids" range - an eclectic mix of easier species and hybrids all given trade names but with no indication of initial provenance.  They also seem to produce (in small number) an esoteric range of species which never get onto the general market but are released through a couple of consumer outlets such as Christian Schreiner. I suspect these plants are a by-product of exploring new growing/hybridising techniques as the majority of such plants have no real "consumer appeal". The Anthura plants are always of good quality. Over the last few years I have bought a number of species including candidum, cordigerum, montanum, rebunense and various scarce chinese Cyps. Unfortunately I managed to kill rebunense through my own stupidity! Apart from Cyps I gather that they have also produced small numbers of other interesting orchids such as Calopogon, Calypso, Pogonia, etc.

Sadly for me all the Anthura Rebunense have sold out. I am looking to purchase the creamy-yellow (rather than white) form of rebunense -you don't know of a source do you?