Northeast Gardening: Lady Slippers in bloom!, 0 by kimskreations

kimskreations wrote:
I would not recommend moving them Maureen. I have moved 3 successfully as my neighbor threw all of her trees and brush when she made her horse corral right on the property line and I had 4 lady slippers that were trying to grow through the brush. This was about 2 years ago now. Out of the 4, one always blooms and the others just send up leaves. I'm thinking maybe next year the others will be strong enough to bloom. BUT when you move them, you have to take 18 inches all the way around the plant as there are micro-organisms in the soil they are growing in that they can't survive without. The ones I moved stay MUCH smaller than the ones that grow naturally on my land. This is why I haven't moved the white ones.

To pollinate:

There is a lip up under the flower (much easier to remove the flower) and under that lip are 2 sacs with pollen. I remove those sacs and pollinate the stigma. I try not to pollinate after a heavy rain as the pollen will be wet. I get 100% success with pollinating. Remember, it takes 3 years for them to grow from seed. Out of 1000's of seeds in the pod, MAYBE only 2 or 3 will land somewhere that they will thrive. I just keep pollinating and HOPE to see some success either next year or the year after. This will be my 3rd year "playing bee" :)

Kim