Lady Slipper

I wish I had my digital camera a month ago when my lady slipper bloomed. I was very surprised to discover it. It certainly was not obvious last year that one was growing there. It was pink and color.

I used to have that long time ago, yes it is so pretty. I like it.

When I was young we had a woods and there was a big spring that came out of the hiilside and by its banks were many yellow and pink ladyslippers. I often think of those days when I went eaggerly hunting the first lady slippers. Today I went for qa rive in the woods as I cant walk there anymore and sae mayapple seeds setting and solomons seal setting seed and also an arum that probably onlyy O know exists setting its beautiful red pods. i also went to see about the acres of butterfly weed(orange) and the farmer had brushogged almost all of it down. Last week it was big fields as far as you could see of bright orange weed. Very isolated place I guess he was cleaning the old cemetery out in the middle and just decided to cut all around irt also. Whaat a waste-they will come back up from the root.

a year has passed and here is a picture of my lady slipper which became a bigger cluster. I fenced it in so it wouldn't get stepped on. Once the blooms go by it blended into the rest of the wild plants.

How pretty!!!!

Beautiful!

anyone know how to go about transplanting Lady Slipper? My woods were full this yr and I marked several. But my sister said they are VERY finicky about being transplanted. HELP

Tina

They are finicky and to be honest I don't feel it's ethical to take plants from the wild. You may even find they are protected in that area.

The roots need certain soil born (mycorrhizal) fungi to survive and they very often don't take to transplanting well due to the fungus not being present in your garden soil. They also hate division and transplating, personally I'd just enjoy them where they are most happy growing and if I really wanted it, buy a plant from a grower who can prove they have propagated nursery stock and not wild collected.

You can buy them from Mellengers. I agree with Baa. I am very lucky this group of lady slippers appeared where it did on its own. I must have the right soil conditions since I live on the edge of a thick wooded area.

I suppose I could just make my garden larger and include that area in it. Hmmmm...idea in progress;)

Tina

I would not try digging a ladyslipper as they do not transplant well. Also, many, if not most, of the ladyslipper species are protected in the US. You could end up with some steep fines for digging and transporting a protected plant. You're better off enjoying it where it is.

Please tell me how to get in touch with Mellengers. Thanks.

page 28 on the Garden Watchdog advanced search section. Garden Watchdog is located in the right hand margin of this web page.

Or...just go here: http://gardenwatchdog.com/c/140/

I would not worry about fines and prosecution if the plants are on your own property. I moved some yellow lady slippers that were growing on my property without any trouble. I made the planting area ready first, and then lifted and transported the plants with a generous amount of soil attached. None of them died, and several have prospered better than where they were originally growing. I do agree that moving them should be done only when necessary...in my case the power company comes through every few years and destroys everything in the area where mine were located. Maybe you could just move a couple of them.

Lady Slippers need the special bacteria in the soil around them. Therefore, if you transplant ones on your own property, be sure to include a very generous amount of the soil around them. Even then it can be iffy.

I transplanted some and so far they look good, will see come spring if they come back again for me.

I once tried to grow Cypripedium acaule but they never survived. I later found out from another gardener that I would have had to dig out several feet of ground on either side of the plant & down about a foot or so to get enough of the mycorhyzae that the plant needs to survive. It was more trouble than it was worth. Now you could probably harvest a seed pod & try to culture it in agar & see if you could get plants that way. That would be really neat. I did, however, win some Fairy Slipper (or Calypso) orchids from the midwest on an eBay win and I kept them in the little pots they were planted in. They came up & bloomed wonderfully for me last year in the greenhouse and died down immediately. One has come up so far this year. Would love to try to pollenate this tiny beauty & see if I can get a seed pod on it. Then, I would probably have to send it to a lab to have it cultured etc.

Lady Slippers are protected plants in NC, doesn't matter if they are on your property or not, if the state finds out you have removed them from their grow area, you can be fined. Not sure about other states, same with Venus Flytrap. I would find a reputable dealer as Baa suggested and go from there. We must be careful in wildcrafting, with progress such as housing developments, factories, and roads, we have already destroyed a lot of natural habitats, let's not do it for personal gratification. Getting down off of my soapbox now :)
Karen in NC

Hello everyone,

For those who are interesting in growing wild orchids it is important to remember these plants can have specific growth requirements including winter dormancy. Transplanting native orchids from the wild should only be done if the plants are endangered due to land clearing for highways and/or development projects.
Regulations vary from state to state. Permission of the landowner and obtaining collection permits is the proper and legal way to conduct a plant rescue. However, there are times when plants are in imitate danger and obtaining rescue permits may take too long. Here in NC there is such an exception
“In emergency rescue operations a verbal permit may be acquired with a waiver “

This was the case for me a few years ago when a highway widening project endangered a number of wild orchids growing along a roadside. None of these species were on the endangered list yet it was important to save these plants for certain destruction. I’m happy to report the plants are thriving in containers and have bloomed for the past couple years.

There is a nursery that specializes in propagating Cypripediums(lady slippers). All the plants are grown from seed using tissue culture and not collected plants from the wild. There are a number of species for sale including the C. acaule and info on conditions you need to be successful. Since the demand for wild orchids is high, many of the plants have are already sold-out for the spring.

http://www.vtladyslipper.com/vtlscwebpg2.html

I have a orchid photo page on my website featuring some of our native jewels. Wild orchids are very exciting plants to learn about. They are my favorite type for wildflower!

Ray
www.ncgarden.com

There is a wonderful place here in OH that supplies these beauties - if you want to check it out it is called Mellingers
www.mellingers.com
and here is the link to the ladyslipper:
http://www.mellingers.com/results.tpl?command=search&db=catalog.txt&eqakudatarq=41495&cart=10775383052827&slave_to=[slave_to]&bob=41495&akusort=1&akusdir=as&slave_totype=num&akutype=num&bobtype=num
Enjoy :)
Laurrie

I would be very cautious about ordering any wild orchids from Mellingers nursery. Unfortuanely there is a good chance these plants were dug up from the wild and not grown from seed. The prices are too cheap to be quality tissue cultured plants. Lady's slippers can be very difficult to grow and short lived if not growing in exactly the right conditions. Some nurseries dig up plants from the woods for resale thus reducing natural populations causing the plants to become more rare over time.

For more informations about Cypripediums http://www.vtladyslipper.com/vtlscwebpg11.html

Ray

I don't believe we have any wild ones left around here for them to go dig up!!! Who knows, but I am quite satisfied with the ones I got not only from them, but from Canada as well.

They could be rescue plants. Minn. for example licences people to dig them out of road sites. RJ

OhioBreezy,

Thanks for the link. I've always wanted to see if I could get some Lady's Slipper started in our Wood. I've been told that they grow around here, but we have 10 acres of heavy woods, and I've not seen any yet. Of course I may just have missed them.

Does anyone know if they "spread". I'm wondering if I plant 3-6 will they multiply?

C. calceolus became so picked and dug up in this country there was just one flowering specimin left in England. This had to be guarded and the location kept secret so that Kew could propagate more from the seeds this plant produced. Fortunately they were successful ... this time.

Orchids are serious business, please ensure the sources you buy from are absolutely squeaky clean or you may well be contributing to the extinction of these stunning and interesting plants in the wild. Ask to see permits if they are importing or rescuing them. If they can't or won't produce any documentation, do you really want to financially help the traffickers of wildlife just through a desire to grow one?

Well said, Baa!

I agree 100% Baa.

We have can help protect wild native orchids by knowing the source of the plants.

i fondly remember pink lady slippers more than any other plant when growing up in maine. they were protected even way back then! i miss them :>(
I just checked the site, and they're sold out until fall....

This message was edited Mar 11, 2004 10:58 AM

I know they are rare. I have looked on my 55 acre wood lot thinking that if I have this cluster that I must have more but I have failed to find them. I don't know any one else in this area who has any at all. My neighbor keeps looking on his woodlot for them as well.

I have 5 ready to bloom, yes, I peeked, and one looks like it may be a yellow one this year, I am so tickled!! We live in very rural Ohio, and years ago the older folks fondly remember seeing them everywhere!!

All the information you ever wanted to know about these little beauties is in the book (Orchid Fever) by Eric Hansen
Description is "a Horticulture tale of Love, Lust, & Lunacy"
love of the orchids lust for the orchids & the lunacy surrounding them :-) it is fascinating reading, highly reccomended & available at Amazon dot com i think

Tree_Climber - I'm in the UP and have native yellow and showy lady slippers on my property - and they really don't seem to "spread" even though it seems they should... I've had to move a few around because of various projects we've had going; I'd sure like to figure out how to propagate them!

Lady Slippers are a favorite treat for the deer population. So if some of you have had them in the past, but can't seem to figure out where they went, that's a good bet. We usually have Showy Ladyslippers growing on the edge of our swamp, but many years the deer get them. If they are relentless, they may disappear altogether. Luckily, they seems to grow in a few places. I need to figure out a way to keep the deer out! Here's an interesting fact: the showy lady-slipper takes 10 years or more to mature before flower production begins.

I don't know if anyone already said this but...
It can be illegal to move these plants even if they're growing on your own property. I dunno how the state would find out though...

It'd be my guess that they're very hard to move because yes, they need that special bacteria and they need specific requirements. Shade to a certain degree and acidic soil, I don't know the ph. But if it's even slightly off, the plants will die.

If it's on your property, why don't you put a little fence around where you found them so you can go and see them whenever you want without having to worry about losing them?

We are going to be moving to the house next door next month. I will certainly walk up the hill to visit my lady slipper clump and my flower gardens that I am leaving undisterbed. I am certainly glad my husband and I both agree to keep the old house site in the family. Some day one of my daughters will probably live there.

Im sorry CaptMicha. I didn't spend much time on this website last summer. I got re married and also started working a new job. To answer your question: If you look at the first picture back in 2003 you will see a small green fence. Not very big but it does the job of keeping traffic off it and also the fence blends in with the surrounding scenery.