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Re: [SHADEGARDENS] orchids

Most of the Cypripediums for sale, including almost all of the
pink ramshead orchid, C. arietinum, the yellow ladyslipper, C.
pubescens (=C. parviflorum, C. calceolus), and most of the
Cypripedium reginae, the pink and white ladyslipper that is
Minnesota's state flower, are stripped from the wild, not
propagated.

The two sources I know of for legitimately propagated
Cypripediums are

Carson Whitlow's Cyp Haven;
2291 280th St,
Adel, Iowa, 50003,
http://www.orchidmall.com/cyp.haven/index.html

and
Spangle Creek Labs,
2295 County Rd 44S,
Bovey, MN 55709,
http://www.uslink.net/~sci/index.html.

Carson is producing interspecific hybrids, with an eye to developing
plants that are no more trouble than roses to grow.  Spangle Creek
grows flasked seedlings of species.

Please, as someone who has worked with native populations of
Cypripediums and other orchids, I know what the fate of most
dug-and-carried-home orchids are, and it ain't pretty.  It's
heartbreaking to go back to the same native populations year
after year and watch the populations decline from 100 plants to
95 plants and 5 holes, to 88 plants, 10 holes, and two that
appear to have been killed by stepping on, to....

Kay Lancaster  kay@fern.com
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