Scottish Rock Garden Club Forum

Specific Families and Genera => Pleione and Orchidaceae => Topic started by: fredg on June 14, 2011, 08:09:46 PM

Title: Epipactis 2011
Post by: fredg on June 14, 2011, 08:09:46 PM
The first of my Epipactis to flower.
The tub is nicely filled and naturally the side drainholes have a shoot coming out of them  ???
I have a pot in the greenhouse which stands on gravel, of course there are also shoots coming out of that too.
That is also flowering but I can't move it to a shooting location due to an ants nest.
I discovered the ants last night when weeding another pot ( their nest apparently), I wasn't looking properly until one of the little devils bit my wrist. I had about a hundred running over my hands,  :o wonderful.


Epipactis gigantea
Title: Re: Epipactis 2011
Post by: fredg on June 15, 2011, 02:00:34 PM
The second to flower.
This is multiplying steadily but I must get another clone one day.

Epipactis palustris
Title: Re: Epipactis 2011
Post by: Neil on June 15, 2011, 04:33:26 PM
You palustris is way ahead of mine, one of them is just putting it spike up.  I can supply you with a rhizome from mine if you want, but only if I can have a seed pod from your white Dact. fuschii :-*

Title: Re: Epipactis 2011
Post by: fredg on June 17, 2011, 05:37:50 PM
Number three is open  ;D.
Now where have I seen that before  ::)

Epipactis thunbergii

Title: Re: Epipactis 2011
Post by: fredg on June 21, 2011, 09:09:18 AM
Sorry, I'm indulging myself.
Two more photos of Epipactis thunbergii.
Title: Re: Epipactis 2011
Post by: shelagh on June 21, 2011, 09:55:20 AM
Keep on indulging yourself Fred we're enjoying them.
Title: Re: Epipactis 2011
Post by: Tony Willis on June 27, 2011, 05:10:00 AM
Epipactis gigantea in a ditch at the Jededhia Smith Redwoods Park, Northern California today
Title: Re: Epipactis 2011
Post by: fredg on June 27, 2011, 06:32:23 PM
Shhhhhhhhh Tony, don't let John Tullock know. ::)
In his book Growing Hardy Orchids, he describes Epipactis gigantea as :-

Quote
NATIVE HABITAT Europe but established in the Pacific Northwest

He then goes on to say

Quote
As with many established exotics.........

It does annoy me when an author doesn't know his subject.... can you tell?  ;)
Title: Re: Epipactis 2011
Post by: Anthony Darby on June 28, 2011, 08:26:45 AM
I would have thought its common name would have given it away? ::)
Title: Re: Epipactis 2011
Post by: WimB on June 28, 2011, 12:54:58 PM
A couple of them flowering in my garden now:

Epipactis gigantea and Epipactis palustris
Title: Re: Epipactis 2011
Post by: hadacekf on June 28, 2011, 06:31:38 PM
Epipactis palustris is the only Orchidee which grows in my garden

Title: Re: Epipactis 2011
Post by: Maggi Young on June 28, 2011, 06:55:41 PM
Those are magnificent, Franz, what sort of soil and aspect do they enjoy?
Title: Re: Epipactis 2011
Post by: ranunculus on June 28, 2011, 08:56:56 PM
Superb plants Franz.
Title: Re: Epipactis 2011
Post by: fredg on June 28, 2011, 09:20:52 PM
A wonderful drift of orchids  ;D
Title: Re: Epipactis 2011
Post by: WimB on June 28, 2011, 09:49:33 PM
Epipactis palustris is the only Orchidee which grows in my garden



That's very impressive, Franz!
Title: Re: Epipactis 2011
Post by: Maren on June 28, 2011, 10:39:46 PM
Franz,

your Epipactis palustris are a beautiful sight. How do you grow them? what's your soil like? are they in a wet bed?
Title: Re: Epipactis 2011
Post by: SteveC2 on June 29, 2011, 07:28:28 PM
Just returned from north Norfolk where I found marsh helleborines growing in an alkaline mire, so wet after recent storms that you had to be very careful where you trod for fear of losing a welly!  Then nearby in a much drier dune slack.
Title: Re: Epipactis 2011
Post by: hadacekf on June 29, 2011, 07:35:38 PM
I know Marsh Helleborine  is growing in damp places. I meet it very often in the wild.
In my garden it grow in the rock-garden at both sides of a very narrow path. It is the deepest point of the rock-garden. The Orchidee grows in a limy  garden soil without humus. It get no more waters than the other plants. The long creeping rhizome appear everywhere in the rock-garden.
Title: Re: Epipactis 2011
Post by: Darren on June 30, 2011, 03:31:09 PM
A lovely specimen of my favourite of our native orchids Franz. Our own clump has exceeded 100 flowering stems this year, despite having bits chopped off the edges for gifts in March. It started as a single nose bought at the world orchid conference in Glasgow in 1993 (?). It grew happily on wet clay in the old garden, was dug up when we moved and spent two years in a plastic bucket awaiting a planting place before being replanted in its current position in 2005. It is now on much drier, limy soil. It has always thrived despite all this. My experience is the same as yours - it seems to be a very tough and tolerant plant. If it had scent it would be perfect  ;D

Our plant of one of the gigantea/veratrifolia hybrids (I forget which). Is turning out to be invasive even in a dry spot under a conifer, and is making territorial claims on nearby parts of the rock garden.... It does not flower quite so well in these non-optimal conditions but is clearly putting lots of energy into creeping around until it finds a place it likes.

As I've said on here before - E. gigantea itself died out quickly in our dry soil here but was extremely invasive in a wet humus bed over clay in the old garden. Seeing Tony's pic of it in the wild suggests we had accidentally got the habitat exactly right for it!

Title: Re: Epipactis 2011
Post by: Tony Willis on July 20, 2011, 06:58:49 PM
Epipactis palustris a gift from Darren in March,see post above.
Title: Re: Epipactis 2011
Post by: ichristie on July 21, 2011, 08:06:31 PM
Hi all very good to see all the picture so I will add some from the garden Epipactis serpentine night and  an Epipactis which is seeding all around the garden any ideas?, cheers Ian the Christie kind
Title: Re: Epipactis 2011
Post by: daveyp1970 on July 21, 2011, 09:15:04 PM
Hi all very good to see all the picture so I will add some from the garden Epipactis serpentine night and  an Epipactis which is seeding all around the garden any ideas?, cheers Ian the Christie kind
Your mystery plant might be Epipactis helleborine Ian you are very lucky to have it seed around, serpentine night is a gem of a plant.
Title: Re: Epipactis 2011
Post by: ichristie on July 22, 2011, 07:41:34 AM
Hi Davey, thanks for the info, I found the plant growing all over now in little groups it likes areas which are neglected but weed free, I like it very much, cheers Ian the Christie kind
Title: Re: Epipactis 2011
Post by: Darren on August 02, 2011, 08:13:10 AM
Tony - Deighted to see that the E. palustris established for you!
Title: Re: Epipactis 2011
Post by: sjusovare on September 10, 2011, 08:32:16 AM
hello
I have a question, is the hybrid Lowland Legacy tolerating frost?
I have one in pot that I overwinter in the garage since a few years but it never wants to flower (and doesnt seem to like being moved to its outside summer place anyway)
Title: Re: Epipactis 2011
Post by: Peter Maguire on September 10, 2011, 10:59:22 AM
Julien,

I would have thought that you are ok to leave it outside. Some of my Epipactis remain for the winter standing on a sand plunge due lack of indoor space (we're a long way north of you) and they must have been frozen last year, Although they were covered with 60cms+ of snow. I have to admit the plant that flowered best, a large potful of E. royleana was on the greenhouse floor for the winter with the Cypripediums, where the temperature would have gone below freezing, and also the compost is very free draining, being about 80% pumice:20% leafmould, watered sparingly about once every month when the temperature is high enough.
I don't grow 'Lowland Legacy' though....
Title: Re: Epipactis 2011
Post by: Tony Willis on September 10, 2011, 04:24:30 PM
My epipactis are plunged in a frame and get frozen solid each winter with no problem and this would also apply to ones I have seen in the wild. The problem here might arise as I see Lowland Legacy is a hybrid with E.veratrifolia from Cyprus and further east and that might be quite tender.I would still keep it just frost free but maybe it is too dry in the garage over winter.
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