Taking from the wild?

April is correct there is one species of Hellborine that is native. Epipactis gigantea, the Chatterbox orchid. It looks very much like the E. hellborine but the flower is 2-3 times larger. My plant came from Arrowhead alpines. It is native to Western North America, and very popular as a garden plant in Europe. It's harder than heck to find a source on this side of the pond!

Here's a pic of E. gigantea I took in one of my bog gardens in May of 2004. Unfortunately shortly after flowering a weevil of some sort devoured the seed capsules before I realized what was going on and so no seed to flask, maybe in 2005.

I keep trying to coax the deer into dressing themselves and filling my freezer but they refuse :) and I'm way too much of a softy to hunt them (I only shoot at targets), not to mention it's not legal this close to the city.

Hey RUK, there are photos here at DG of my bogs. I have no idea where they are but they're here somewhere. They illustrate how I hid the edge of the kiddie pool with the cultured stone. And, I found one of the photos I took and was able to get a positive ID, my plants were Epipactis helleborine so out they go next year. They certainly are pretty though but I don't want to have to deal with keeping track of them.

Neat links to cultural requirements on a multitude of cyps-
http://www.hortic.com/hort/keywords/orchids/1

As far as the C. acaule cultural requirements, I like this guy-
http://www.cypripedium.de/forum/messages/177.html

I found these when I was looking for what Sheviak had written-
http://retirees.uwaterloo.ca/~jerry/orchids/culture/cypripedium.html
http://vchilder.home.netcom.com/bob/orchidlist.html
http://www.1st-on-orchids.com/index.php?m=200412

Now if only I had enough time to read what I found!

Seems one of the reasons why cultural requirements seem to differ from the books may be due to the existence of micro climates. There just doesn't seem to exist any rhyme or reason sometimes. Basically, I am finding that tips and techniques on growing Cymbidium Orchids vary significantly from gardener to gardener based on their personal experiences.

Bogman,
your bog garden looks lush and healthy, nice flowers.
All of you - very informative, thanks for the excellent links Equilibrium. I will print out a bunch of those to take along on our trip tomorrow for some reading on the plane. We are going to the World Orchid Conference in Dijon and visiting family in Germany. Fun!!!

Hey RUK, The "World Orchid Conference in Dijon", you lucky person you! Bring back many many many photos for all of us!

will do!!

E

I see no reason to get rid of the Epipactis, While they are non-native, they are certainly no threat to other species and won't prervent other species from growing. In fact once the area they are growing changes in any way they'll disappear. If you still feel the need please send them my way?

Hey BogMan, whatever comes up here is yours! Have a field day. They should start popping up in a few months and I know the general area where they were growing. I've got another neighbor over here who says the same plant went from a handful to about 50 in one year on her property. She says they are "runaways" here. This might be why the USDA claims they are naturalized in our state and a few others. Guess we people in this area have conditions that are a tad bit too hospitable for this species. Your native version is prettier in my humble opinion.

Here's a photo of the plant I had that my neighbor just identified as the Epipactis helleborine.

E-
Thanks for the link to Sheviak's article on Cyps... wow, what a wealth of info from someone who's obviously a passionate expert. I'm trying not to flinch over you digging up terrestrial orchids, native or not... it's the same feeling I got when my sister-in-law in California was complaining that her meconopsis were taking up too much space.
Don

Yes, Sheviak is good isn't he. I was specifically looking for his work for RUK although I strongly suspect RUK is quite passionate about orchids also.

Try not to flinch too hard... my neighbor who is exclusively into indigenous plants ripped about 50 out of her ground and she burned them. I know her well enough to know that she most assuredly did burn them. At least mine will go to a good responsible home.

I have non natives here (mostly gifts from my MIL) but I keep them inside my home or planted up in tight around the house so I can keep an eye on them. Those European orchids were back in a high grade upland. I want my Cohosh to have a chance back there as well as a few others I planted.

I loved your Paph. Next to native Cyps, those are my favorite. Here's an interesting naturalized paph for you that's not indigenous-

My picture actually is a native cyp. (parviflora...though I still call it calceolus). Now WHERE is your paph naturalized... surely not Illinois ?
Don

I don't have that native Cyp that you photographed, wish I did. Is the Cyp I photographed a Paph? The Cyp I photographed a few weeks ago definitely naturalized in Hawaii. There were literally hundreds of them in several different locations. Does Hawaii have anything native at elevations lower than 3,000?

Say Don, what other goodies do you have?

E-
Your photo is a paph; I'm no expert on orchids, but used to grow some tropicals when I lived in California, and as I recall paphs and cyps are genera in the same subfamily of orchids, and some people still lump them. I also recall from being in Hawaii 30 years ago that there are only 4 or 5 native orchids there, and they are quite rare, but lots of cultivated orchids (probably including your paph) have naturalized. I grow about half a dozen different cyps, Tipularia, Aplectrum, Spiranthes, Goodyera, Orchys, and have two native orchids (the showy orchis pictured in my last post, and Loessel's twayblade) that have seeded into my flower beds to some extent. I have a garden blog and published a bit on some of the orchids recently.
http://iowagarden.blogspot.com/

I have been to orchid shows, and have heard paphs referred to as "lady's slipper orchids." april

zonedenial, your orchid looks like showy orchis. http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/2718/index.html

Micha,
You're right on; the second picture is showy orchis; I just threw that in... the first picture is a cyp; sorry if that was confusing.
April,
Yah, some call paphs lady slippers, some limit the term lady slipper to temperate climate cyps... lumpers and splitters.

Don