Calanthe is a genus of 235 species of terrestrial orchids. For us, the foliage remains evergreen through the winter, unless the winter temperatures are severe. We are still testing to find how many species are winter hardy here in Zone 7b. We have so enjoyed their amazing show over the last few weeks. Here are
Craving Calanthes Read More »
While many of us grow hardy orchids, there aren’t many that grow so well you can share plants with your garden friends. Bletillas aren’t just one of the easiest orchids to grow, they’re also one of the most vigorous. Below are our field production beds now, before plants are dug and potted. Many sites still
Bletilla – The Friendship Orchid Read More »
We’ve passed the two year mark for our plant of the terrestrial orchid, Pleione ‘Alishan’. Our clump produced 2 flowers last year, but has expanded to 7 flowering stems since last spring. Last year, we planted several others varieties, so are still awaiting their emergence….fingers, toes, and eyes crossed.
It’s back! Pleione returns Read More »
We’ve been adding quite a few new cultivars of the winter hardy, Cymbidium goeringii over the last few years, and so far, all have thrived in the garden. This week marks our first flowering of Cymbidium ‘Sanxingdie’…we are duly impressed. We’ll continue to post new selections as they open.
Cymbidium – the journey continues Read More »
Here is one of our bog gardens showing off the lovely native Spiranthes bightensis ‘Chadd’s Ford’, wrapping up its flowering in early November. This easy-to-grow native orchid is right at home with sarracenias (pitcher plants) in very moist soils. Despite its popularity in gardens, Spiranthes bightensis has a global rarity rank of G1, meaning it
Tressing Up for the Fall Dance Read More »
Recently finished flowering in the garden is the fascinating Asian native orchid, Cremastra appendiculata. This widespread woodland species has a huge native range from the Assam region of India through China, to the Sakhalin Islands. In the garden, Cremastra is reasonably easy to grow, and quite similar although distantly related to two US native terrestrial
Cremastra in your coffee? Read More »
We’ve been playing around with growing bletilla orchids from seed. After growing several thousands from seed, we’ve settled on a few selections for production trials. Below are a few of those that we feel are unique enough from the selections already on the market.
What’s in a Bletilla Read More »
This winter is the first time in many years that we were successful at overwintering Pleione orchids in the ground. Up till now, we’ve killed our 9 other attempts. This time, our success was with the cultivar, Pleione ‘Alishan’, a hybrid of Pleione formosana and Pleione limprichtiii. We’ve done a deep dive to see how
Below is our 16 year old clump of the ladyslipper, Cypripedium ‘Rascal’, this week. This amazing Carson Whitlow hybrid is a cross of two North American species, Cypripedium parviflorum var. parviflorum x Cypripedium kentuckiense. As you can see, it thrives despite our summer heat and humidity.
Looking absolutely marvelous in the garden now is the amazing Calanthe ‘Takane’. This Japanese seed strain is a group of hybrids between Calanthe sieboldii and Calanthe discolor. Below is a clonal strain we named Calanthe ‘Golden Treasure’. These thrive in the woodland garden with average soil moisture. The photo below is our 18 year old
Takane worthy of Tik Tok Read More »
