Epipactis 2011

[Maren]

Franz,

your Epipactis palustris are a beautiful sight. How do you grow them? what's your soil like? are they in a wet bed?

[SteveC2]

Just returned from north Norfolk where I found marsh helleborines growing in an alkaline mire, so wet after recent storms that you had to be very careful where you trod for fear of losing a welly!  Then nearby in a much drier dune slack.

[hadacekf]

I know Marsh Helleborine  is growing in damp places. I meet it very often in the wild.
In my garden it grow in the rock-garden at both sides of a very narrow path. It is the deepest point of the rock-garden. The Orchidee grows in a limy  garden soil without humus. It get no more waters than the other plants. The long creeping rhizome appear everywhere in the rock-garden.

[Darren]

A lovely specimen of my favourite of our native orchids Franz. Our own clump has exceeded 100 flowering stems this year, despite having bits chopped off the edges for gifts in March. It started as a single nose bought at the world orchid conference in Glasgow in 1993 (?). It grew happily on wet clay in the old garden, was dug up when we moved and spent two years in a plastic bucket awaiting a planting place before being replanted in its current position in 2005. It is now on much drier, limy soil. It has always thrived despite all this. My experience is the same as yours - it seems to be a very tough and tolerant plant. If it had scent it would be perfect 

Our plant of one of the gigantea/veratrifolia hybrids (I forget which). Is turning out to be invasive even in a dry spot under a conifer, and is making territorial claims on nearby parts of the rock garden.... It does not flower quite so well in these non-optimal conditions but is clearly putting lots of energy into creeping around until it finds a place it likes.

As I've said on here before - E. gigantea itself died out quickly in our dry soil here but was extremely invasive in a wet humus bed over clay in the old garden. Seeing Tony's pic of it in the wild suggests we had accidentally got the habitat exactly right for it!

[Tony Willis]

Epipactis palustris a gift from Darren in March,see post above.

[ichristie]

Hi all very good to see all the picture so I will add some from the garden Epipactis serpentine night and  an Epipactis which is seeding all around the garden any ideas?, cheers Ian the Christie kind

[daveyp1970]

Hi all very good to see all the picture so I will add some from the garden Epipactis serpentine night and  an Epipactis which is seeding all around the garden any ideas?, cheers Ian the Christie kind

Your mystery plant might be Epipactis helleborine Ian you are very lucky to have it seed around, serpentine night is a gem of a plant.

[ichristie]

Hi Davey, thanks for the info, I found the plant growing all over now in little groups it likes areas which are neglected but weed free, I like it very much, cheers Ian the Christie kind

[Darren]

Tony - Deighted to see that the E. palustris established for you!

[sjusovare]

hello
I have a question, is the hybrid Lowland Legacy tolerating frost?
I have one in pot that I overwinter in the garage since a few years but it never wants to flower (and doesnt seem to like being moved to its outside summer place anyway)

[Peter Maguire]

Julien,

I would have thought that you are ok to leave it outside. Some of my Epipactis remain for the winter standing on a sand plunge due lack of indoor space (we're a long way north of you) and they must have been frozen last year, Although they were covered with 60cms+ of snow. I have to admit the plant that flowered best, a large potful of E. royleana was on the greenhouse floor for the winter with the Cypripediums, where the temperature would have gone below freezing, and also the compost is very free draining, being about 80% pumice:20% leafmould, watered sparingly about once every month when the temperature is high enough.
I don't grow 'Lowland Legacy' though....

[Tony Willis]

My epipactis are plunged in a frame and get frozen solid each winter with no problem and this would also apply to ones I have seen in the wild. The problem here might arise as I see Lowland Legacy is a hybrid with E.veratrifolia from Cyprus and further east and that might be quite tender.I would still keep it just frost free but maybe it is too dry in the garage over winter.