Desperate or just plain silly?

[fredg]

I know plants have a determination to grow but this is just being plain silly.
An Epipactis gigantea with a shoot coming out of a small drainage hole in the side of it's tub.
There's plenty room at the top 

[angie]

It obviously took a short cut  .

Angie

[LarsB]

That's gigantea allright. The ground elder of hte orchid world and the only orchid i've ever regetted planting in my garden.

[fredg]

That's gigantea allright. The ground elder of hte orchid world and the only orchid i've ever regetted planting in my garden.

That's why I have it in a tub 

[Maggi Young]

Bother! This talk of the rampant tendencies of Epipactis  drives me crazy!
We have tried several times to introduce this to our garden , only to have it dwindle rapidly and disappear.........something about us it doesn't like, for sure.

So interesting - if more than a little frustrating - to have these failures with plants others find so robust. 

[LarsB]

I grow it in ordinary garde nsoil wiht a fiarly high content of clay. I'd tried to plant it in good, loose compost with the Rhodos and it didn't like it. It's though and need to be treated as such. It's a little late in the season, but I think i can still dig up some for you and send to you, if you want?

[Maggi Young]

That is very kind of you to offer, Lars, but I think our soil is just too good for it!

[Darren]

If it makes you feel any better Maggi, E. gigantea used to be really rampant on the wet clay soil in our old garden but died out very quickly in the dry silty soil in the new one. I think it really does like a lot of moisture and/or clay. The hybrids do OK with us - in fact these are showing the invasive tendencies inherited from gigantea! These are in our normal soil on the rock garden.

Ironically Epipactis palustris is quite rampant too, but it is in a specially prepared moister area - looks like around 100 flower shoots this year.

[Maggi Young]

Well, your first paragraph did cheer me up  ,Darren.... it went downhill from there, though! 

[LarsB]

Well, if you decide to try again, just let me know.

[fredg]

It may run rampant in some gardens but the flower is still quite nice.
Try it in a mini bog (tub). 

Epipactis gigantea

[skybluelemon]

Fred, I love the look of that Epipactis Gigantea. You say it grows alongside your other carnivorous Bog plants ie: does that mean its happy in Moss peat Perlite mix? Doesn't it need lots of nutrients then? If so think i will try it too. Where can you get them from?

[Maggi Young]

Hi Skybluelemon !
Good to have you join the Forum.

The RHS plantfinder lists a lot of stcokists if you are in the UK:
http://apps.rhs.org.uk/rhsplantfinder/plantfinder2.asp?crit=Epipactis+and+gigantea.&Genus=Epipactis

[fredg]

Rachel,
It's a weed for LarsB, have a word with him for the autumn. 

[LarsB]

Rachel, just send me a PM.