Growing Dactylorhizas in drier climate any advice?

[Joakim B]

Dear all I see nice pictures of Dactylorhizas from Britain grown both in soil and in pots and troughs, but I wonder if it grown in the drier parts of England and maybe in central Europe and closer to the Mediterranean?
I fear that the lack of rain would make it harder to grow these plants in the ground in countries like Portugal due to the lack of rain. Then there is the rain in the winter when You do not want them. So I wonder how people in drier parts are growing) Is it in containers and watering almost daily using a free-draining media? This would not be ideal since I would not be able to water every day.
Could the outlet of condense water from an Air conditioner be used as a constant source of water? It is used when warm and when cold the pot could be moved. In this case a lot of expanded clay and some sand in the bottom of the big pot and the Dactylorhizas in their mix of soil and perlite with more normal garden soil around mixed with some expanded clay and/or Perlite?

Or is it better to add some moister holding material like vermiculite in the mix and not have any constant watering only more sporadic? Does anyone use the "cat sand" for their orchids?

I have already got the plants and they are D. fuchsii, D preatermissa, and D. maculata var ericetorum (D. ericetorum)
I also got a Bletilla striata and wonder if it can take the same conditions as the Dactylorhizas?

Thanks in advance for any comments and advice

Kind regards
Joakim

[Anthony Darby]

I planted a Dactylorhiza foliosa plant in the bog created in half of my mother's pond (the water from the pond does not affect this bed as I built a barrier). This has a liner, which has puncture holes in the base and is full of a mix of peat and multipurpose compost. When I last checked, it had grown to a clump half a metre in diameter. All her neighbours are impressed. B&Q peat-free compost has good results too, but they do need a damp soil. The best D. purpurella plants I have seen in the wild were growing in mud in marshes.

[Christina Fryle]

We have lots of different Dactylorhizas (D. fuchsii, D preatermissa, D. maculata plus some hybrids) in our rather dry garden (southwestern Sweden) and they selfseed a lot. Some are in beds with lots of peat and the best performers are in a couple of "wet beds" (donīt know the actual term for them in english; beds with a watertight tarpauline liner underneath the soil with an outflow 10-20 cm below the surface of the bed). When self seeding they always do it in the dampest beds - so even if they donīt need the damp to grow, they seem to prefer it.

[LarsB]

My southfacing front garden kan get pretty dry in the summer and even though my Dactylorhiza majalis prefer the more shaded and damper spots in the garden, i have a colony growing in one of the driest part. They have been there for close to 20 years and often survived 6 weeks without rain. I think it should be possible to find a spot where you can grow Dactylorhiza, especially if you considere using the watering can from time to time.

Lars

[Joakim B]

Thanks for the answers very nice to hear this.
The risk in Portugal is that it is 35C for 3 month without rain so I would water them but maybe not on a daily base.
The majority here seem to grow the in the ground rather in pots even if there is some modifications of the ground.

Could the idea of using the water outlet from the AC be a solution to them getting water and in this case a more free-draining compost?
The Ground where I would plant them are clay but with a drainage from the neighbour since they are 10m below so there are never water logged and never really wet either. It will be in Portugal just to make it clear. In Sweden I think the rain would help keeping the plants happy if planted well.

Thanks a lot for all the advice so far and hopfully more people will learn how to grow them and with the advice of Guus even sow them.

All the best
Joakim

[Hristo]

Joakim,
Your ac outlet is a good idea, though not as dry as your area Bulgarian summers can deliver 6 weeks without rain and temperatures upto 40c, the native Dactylorhizas grow here on woodland edges. In my garden they grow in the shade of a Hazle tree down stream from the drain pipe from my roof, when there is rain or a thuderstorm they get flooded, seems to be working. I also have hybrids in the woodland garden which surive due to a deep mulch of coarse bark which prevents the ground from drying out, even at the height of summer.

[Joakim B]

Hi again
I went with the model that will need some watering but I think I can manage this with some help.
I planted all in one pot and used grit of 8-12mm in the bottom as drainage with a small amount of gravel on top. The mix was 1 part of the grit, one part coarse sand, one part peat and one part of the reddish soil from Coimbra (Terra Rosa type). The latter was used to get a substrate that is not to acid. The idea was to have a water retentive mix that was free draining.
Filled up the pot and then took the plants from their vases and planted them as they were directly in the pot. They were in soil and perlite mix. To fill in around the plants i Used a mix that had 3 parts of grit instead of 1 to be extra free draining.
The plants have shadow most of the day but get some direct afternoon sun.
When I watered the plants some of the perlite floated around and made it look more homogeneous that it actually is. The medium is well draining.
I hope I did not do to big errors if so please let me know.
There where buds on two of the Dactylorhizas on the Bletilla.
Here are pictures of how it looked when I just added the plants and what it finally looks like.

Kind regards
Joakim

[Paul T]

Joakim,

I have only D. fuchsii to go from, but I have it growing near a Magnolia soulangeana.  This means that it doesn't get overwatered (although hearing about Dacts in a bog garden I am now wondering how much more water mine should be getting?) as the Magnolia roots take extra water, even in winter as they are developing their buds.  They get morning sun and dappled shade for the rest of the day.  I had them elsewhere before and they were going backwards, but now these have started to slowly multiply (I can only dream of big clumps) so they must be fairly happy.  I can't speak for any other species here as I have never been able to find any others here in Australia.