Lady Slippers in bloom!

Saturday, 5-31, I took a mineral collecting trip to an abandoned beryl mine in Royalston, MA. These were the only gems I found! They are growing out of the side of the rock wall of the mine. Nobody on the trip noticed them but me...

... when I saw these, I went a little nuts and I shouted to the 15 or so members of our party, but no one seemed to care! I'm glad I'm interested in something besides rock collecting!

I share your passion for lady slippers :)
For the past 2 years I have been pollinating my lady slippers as they often don't get pollinated due to bees not going into the woods. Once a bee gets stuck in a lady slipper, they know to not go in one again so often they don't produce seed. So I go out there and play bee.
It takes 3 years for seed to sprout and grow. This will be year #3 so I'm hoping in the next couple of years that I will see the results of my endeavors *lol*

Here is a picture of some pods I made from last year:

This is a group of my light pink:

Here are some raspberry colored ones. I pollinate these ones alot (the pods above are from these)

I have been blessed with 1 stand of all white. Normally there are 5 - 7 flowers in this stand, however, I think a fox of deer or something stepped on them this year and only 1 survived. The all white are rare but not one of a kind so I feel very blessed to have them :)

For some reason my pictures were shrunk quite a bit (maybe because I copy and pasted them from a different thread?). If you'd like to check out the full size pictures, I posted them here originally on 5/29:

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/854765/

Kim

Great job Kim! I love LS but rarely see them anymore.

Jax~ I would of went nuts with you.....I am also a rockhound.

I am CRAZY about lady Slippers, but only have a couple of hybrids. How do you pollinate? Do you keep them in the woods or move them to your garden? Yes your pictures are small because you cut and pasted. I'm going to your thread right now.

Aso for rocks vs. lipper orchids - NO comparison! What is wrong with those people? There will always be rocks. Slipper orchids are indangered! : )

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

Beautiful!

Thank you Victor, that means alot to me coming from you :) I've seen your pictures and YOU are the one that can grow *lol*

Kim

Lady's Slippers growing wild! I check every year to see if maybe I have overlooked some around here, and every year, I am disappointed. I would have been shouting just like you, Jax! I guess maybe it's a good thing no one else cared - they'll be less threatened.

Loved your pictures, Kim. Who knew such variety existed? The ones I have are all hybrids and I keep them potted indoors because I'm afraid of losing them to the wildlife and elements.

Thanks, Kim. I'll have to try slippers. I've always assume they were tough to grow.

In regard to moving them...the roots are stubborn too! They tend to go under stones, tree roots, and otherwise entangle themselves. The roots are a yellow/white color, and can snap pretty easily if you aren't very, very careful when trying to move them. I harvested mine from any area that was being stripped...to make way for a township activity center (baseball, football, and soccer fields.) It also helped that I spoke to a state representative, his son, and the local field agent before doing so. If you collect them illegally from the wild they are endangered and if caught you could get into trouble/fined...not sure where they are endangered, or what the fine/punitive charges are, but I covered my bases before I went to where I did with trowel in hand. I broke the handle on two trowels trying to get them out. They do have a symbiotic relationship with a fungus that occurs naturally (this fungus helps break down leaf litter.) If you plant these in your garden and do not have some sort of natural mulch (leaf litter/leaf mold) I do not think they could live for as long as they can without having it readily available. I add leaves by the mound full ever year to where my 3 colonies are at. The colonies are slow to spread. The largest one I have, which has about 6-7 flowering parts, was original only 2...that was about 4-5 years ago. Hope that helped also!

That's neat! I have one. They are really slow growers though. Seem to do nothing for months then BAM!

If they don't need to be moved, unless they need to be saved, don't move them. You should report them to your local orchid society as they are endangered. there 's a book called Orchid Maddness with a whole chapter on Slipper orchids and a man that's spend his whole life saving them and the trouble he's gotten iin because of it.

I remember hearing about a book called The Orchid Thief from my orchid grower/judge/AOS president friend. He met him a few times.

The only reason I moved them, I also tried/attempted to move club moss also, was the fact that about 90+acres of a wooded area owned by the local borough was clearing all the acreage. I knew that there were great colonies of LSO there, and knew also that club moss was all over the place up there. I will have to go and take pics of the land, it bumps up to a state park...so it's easy to see the cleared area (where I harvested the colonies) and where the woods start...it's actually really sad.

Yes, that's another good book about a guy in Florida who stole orchids from the wild. The one I'm talking about is really about 8-10 stories about a writer finding out about people that grow orchids, cities, etc. it's facinating. And they truely are mad. In a good way : ).

I'm glad you saved some. They are endanged and get bulldozed all the time. I have a papelopedium - a slipper orchid grown indoors. I still like the ones in the wild tho. here's a picture.

That looks like one I have too, Maureen! They bloom like crazy. My favorite is a hybrid with the name Quasimodo. I may have a picture of it and will post if I find it. I'd rather find the ones growing naturally, but I'm happy with my potted specimens in the meantime.

After telling a few local folk about my find, I learned of another stand closer to my house, in a public forest. I wonder if collecting seed from them is illegal? Since they are endangered, it would seem important for someone to pollinate wild stands and disperse the seed... hhhmmm..

They do seem fussy about where they grow! Like I said, these were growing out of a crack in the rocks- I wonder if they need a special mineral-laden soil for them to thrive.

Wow - I can't believe how much I learned from this one thread! I knew nothing of these until now. I'm quite sure I've never seen them here, but now I will keep my eyes and ears open!

Jax, I would guess that if no one is watching, pollinating them would not get you into any trouble!

I'm a fan of rocks, too. I really got turned onto geology this year, so I'd probably be the only one going gaga over a plant on a fossil trip! Hope to make some fossil trips this summer - I need more cool rocks for my pond-to-be!

I have seen white and pink but not recently. I can remember as a kid and it was always in the heavy wooded areas.

Sometimes I can be seen pollinating the ones that grow on my neighbors land too *lol* I don't even think my neighbor knows they are out there.
Luckily for me I have about 30 or so on my land to play around with and I truly cherish the all white ones.
I get SO eaten alive though when I go out there to pollinate but it's SO worth it to me :)
I may just do some pollinating today.
Jax, if you remind me in October/November, I will be happy to send you a pod.
I sent a pod of the all white ones to an orchid grower who flasked them. We have kept in touch (not recently, reminds me I should check on how his progress is) for the past 18 months. It takes a WICKED long time to flask them.
Even if I send you seed this year, you may not see results for 3 years so please keep that in mind :)
BUT if you prepare them a spot where there is alot of leaf mold, you would probably get some good germination if you plant them right away :)

You have to remind me though as I forget. I will probably do my pollinating today as I didn't get to it over the weekend and the weather was too damp but today looks like a good dry day to do it :)

Kim

Kim, that's great! I WILL remind you. Parts of my acerage is all woods- damp, rocky, lots of fungus/ferns/whatever + mosquitoes. Sounds just right for a lady slipper!
I've thrown down some hellebore seeds, too; I hear that they are stubborn to grow and just need a damp, woodsy area and NO FUSSING! Suits me!

That's WONDERFUL, I would love to send you a pod or 2. I have actually sent a pod to Iceland before :)
I wrote to the man who is flasking my white babies and has been for over 18 months. I asked him to send pictures if he could. I will share the pictures with everyone so they can see a "flasked" wild lady slipper :) I can't wait to hear from him.
Be sure to remind me *lol*

Kim

I have one LS in my yard - will it multiply? It does not always bloom.

Kim-You plant enabler you! I went to the area where I collected my 3 colonies. And took a bunch of pictures...the state park where 99% of the LSO are, I took photos of, about 30+ photos, all didn't turn out so well. I did take a pic of the area that was felled, and that is currently being leveled; this is the area I did my collection. I'm not going to post now, I worked 11p-7a last night, was at the garden helpline until noon, and just got in. I will post the huge swaths of LSO later on tonight sometime. There is one pic, I think, if one counted, there might be close to 100 or more!

Sorry for teasting :-)

I learned from someone at the Maine Botanical Garden in Boothbay (where they have a wonderful stand of them), that Lady Slippers don't always come up in the same place every year. I believe it is because they come up from some kind of runner or web system underground. Need to learn more about this. Also, laws are quite strict about digging them up so tampering with them might also be an infraction. Don't know for sure.

Here's mine last year:

It looks alot like mine. How do you take care of yours?

Maureen,
It's a Supersuk "Eureka" AM/AOS x Raisin pie "Hsinying" x Sib (Registered as Hsinying Alien). I grow it inside in a west picture window, bright defused sunlight. I feed every other to every 2 waterings with Miracle grow.

Tom

Wow - what a name, Tommy! Hope you have a nickname for it.

Mine has a similar name, Tommy. I will have to read the tag and report later. keep mine in an east window, but bring into the air conditioning when it grows just too warm for paps in the sun room. I feed mine with Schultz orchid food, and every fourth time use a bloom booster. When I repotted earlier this spring, I divided the plant. Such a great bloomer. I'll give the name later since we have a movie on.

- Lynn

Here is the first, not to blurry pic.

This is going to be a series of them. A few things that I learned from just taking their pictures: 1) They do not grow naturally in low lying areas. All of the pics that I took I had to climp up some steep hills, and they grew (essentially) on the leaf matter that fell from trees that grew on large rock formation. 2) From what I gathered, they need excellent drainage. 3) They do spread by way of an almost stolon like growing system. Some colonies were anywhere from 3' to 10' away from another group...if I shifted the leaf matter/ruff away I could actually connect one colony to the next.

Here is another pic:

more LSO:

With this group...wow is all I can think of saying!