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Re: [SHADEGARDENS] orchids

Hello Kay,
     Good to find you on this List as well.
     Owning a nursery that specializes in native and non-native shade or
woodland plants I get probably 30 to 40 requests each year for Lady
Slippers. I am aware that I can order them wholesale, but they have been
dug from the wild and I know it - so do not carry the orchids. Another good
reason not to carry them is to stay out of the political cross fire. Each
year though I get people wanting me to order some 'just for them this one
time'.
    with this strong a  market I looked into finding someone who did
wholesale them from a tissue culture process or seedlings from flasks. The
last I knew there were seedlings and plants available from the lab, but
they could not be kept alive once transferred to the garden. One company
did offer some kind of solution to spray on the plants and soil to keep
them alive. Very vague here, but that was a while back.
    Do you have some latest up to date information on the lady slipper
orchids and their availability to the trade? Has the feeding problem been
overcome as yet?
Gene Bush     Southern Indiana    Zone 6a     Munchkin Nursery
          around the woods - around the world
genebush@otherside.com     http://www.munchkinnursery.com

----------
> From: Kay Lancaster <kay@FERN.COM>
> To: shadegardens@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU
> Subject: Re: [SHADEGARDENS] orchids
> Date: Friday, March 20, 1998 11:42 PM
>
> 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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