Re: Native or Hardy Orchids

Wowey kazowey, another list :-)  Thanks, Marge, for the info.  I am also 
interested to hear any experiences with hardy orchids. I have an old fish 
pond in partial shade that I turned into a fern grotto and would love to 
learn about a few possible orchid companions.

By coincidence last night I went to a hardy orchids talk by Dick Cavender 
of "Red's Rhododendrons" at the Columbia-Willamette Chapter (Portland, 
Oregon area) of the North American Rock Garden Society.  Getting in touch 
with your local chapter of this large and diverse group of gardeners is 
another way to learn more about hardy orchids that do well in your 
area.  Many rock garden folks are also enthusiasts of woodland and bog 
plants. However some of those that are so much a part of beloved hikes in 
mountain forests such as the showy corallorhiza (Coral Root) and Calypso 
bulbosa are most adamantly to be left in the wild.

Alpine-L, a large discussion list that is independent of the rock garden 
clubs has had several discussions about hardy orchids. If my memory serves 
me correctly there are folks in Ontario growing them.  Search and browse 
these archives at:

http://listserv.surfnet.nl/archives/alpine-l.html

Dick is a lively speaker and is very active in the rhododendron world.  He 
showed incredible row culture of cypripedium in compost and considers some 
of the hardy orchids to be companion plants for rhododendrons here in the 
maritime Northwest. Bletilla striata does well here with excellent 
drainage.  In fact all orchids need flawless drainage.  A gardening friend 
of mine has her long front walk lined with bletilla: quite spectacular!. It 
is a concrete walk and she has taken advantage of the generous footing 
drainage system provided to cope with our wet winters.

Dick's talk presented a colorful and tempting array of hardy orchids. 
Pleiones are very popular here and available from several specialty 
growers, but for me they need protection from winter frost.  They also 
require protection from winter wet. I grow a large clump of P. 
bulbocodioides in a heavy ceramic pot.  To protect them from winter wet and 
hard frost (they will stand light frost only) I keep them on my covered 
patio in the spring and back porch in the winter.  Pleiones grow from a 
"pseudobulb" that when mature flowers and dies.  Each bulb however produces 
several "babies" so they are easy to keep going.  What amazed me during 
Dick's talk was the variety of colors, forms, and species.

For those in colder climates I would think that some of the European and 
North American natives such as the dactylorhiza and various hardy slipper 
orchids (cypripedium) might do better.  Hardy orchids are often found in 
subalpine regions and some are even true rock garden candidates.  Many are 
listed as being endangered and threatened.  To be assured of getting only 
those that have been propagated by ethical means, I suggest getting them 
from local native plant people or from a nursery that has a known reputation.

Beware of imported plants: they may be wild-collected.  I could never want 
any plant so badly as to have it cradle-snatched from the wild! There are 
ethical growers and knowledgeable propagators who obtain stock under permit 
from sites that are doomed by development, logging,  or other impact.  From 
native plant people at a sale sponsored by a botanic garden, I was lucky 
enough to find a lovely little pot of Goodyera oblongifolia.  It requires a 
cool shady rock garden and has beautiful mottled and banded foliage.

Hardy orchids are quite tricky and sensitive to microenvironment.  Some 
such as my dear little yet nicely spreading mat of goodyera actually 
dislike summer humidity. Some have special soil requirements.  To 
emphasize....Your best bet is to seek out local knowledge.  If you have an 
arboretum or botanic garden nearby, try seeking advice from them.  They are 
conscionable and some of them may even have plants for sale.

I have a longtime friend in Portland who has a houseboat retirement haven 
whose decks and balconies are filled with troughs of hardy orchids.  Every 
time I visit Lightfoot we make another trough and we all keep telling him 
that he is going to sink his boat <grin>. I took over his volunteer 
Listserv site administrator's "job", but he always inspects my hands to see 
that "they are nice and grubby indicating more time spent in the garden and 
less on the 'puter". :-) :-) The mitigating influence of the river allows 
him to grow species that would perish in my garden or even on my porch. He 
also grows tropical orchids inside in every room: even the kitchen and 
bath.  Altogether several thousand orchids are packed onto this large 
floating home.

This is wonderful indoor/outdoor gardening for someone who has limited 
mobility, but who has the fantastic puck to display on his front door the 
framed moving violation ticket that he got on his motorized "scootie" 
wheelchair in downtown Portland. "Yes, I paid the @*&% thing", he says with 
a mock-grumble and a grin. He even has a huge group of semi-hardy slipper 
orchids (most are winter-blooming) growing on an unheated porch.  Yesterday 
some of these were still in bloom.  The color range is incredible.  My 
faves are the deep maroon and velvet black ones.  Most of them are growing 
in a mixture of pumice, sand, bark, and a small amount of composted forest 
debris. The outdoor ones get more compost and pumice and less bark since 
the bark tends to dry out too quickly during our summer drought. These and 
the cyps of the temperate mountain forests share common ancestors.

Lightfoot says that regardless of hardiness the biggest challenge is 
keeping track of their seasonal needs and cycles of watering and 
temperature.  Even some of the tropicals need a cooling cycle to bloom 
properly. Over or underwatering will kill any orchid very quickly. He has 
no pests and uses no sprays or chemicals except fertilizer.


Cheers,  Louise
p*@peak.org

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