Click Here To Visit The SRGC Main Site
A quick trawl around the Sarracenia websites may have revealed another source of your confusion. They tend to just list the cultivar name, such as Sarracenia "Adrian Slack", when the full name would be Sarracenia x moorei "Adrian Slack". Not saying anyone is right or wrong, just different ways of doing things. I have noticed this alternative way creeping into orchids, e.g. People selling Pleione Verdi, not Pleione formosana Verdi. It certainly confused me as I assumed that this was a new hybrid, rather than a clone of a species. Then of course we have the use of trade names, e.g Cypripedium Parville, Kentucky.Confusing, you bet!
Here is one of my spotted leaf Chinese Cyps. These have a reputation to be difficult, although this Cypripedium fargesii is regarded as one of the easier species. Well, the German nursery where I got this from is growing it in the same way as all the other species. Raised from seed, these Cyps grow in community pots for the first two to three years and are then transferred in raised beds and grown until flowering size before being sold. The soil is all the same for every species: a mix of potting soil, sand and perlite. They experience all the weather is giving them all through the year. Only a shade cloth is provided and kept dry in the winter. I have seen dozens of plants of these in the beds, all growing well.These Cyps had the reputation of being difficult and advice was given not to water the plant from above in order to avoid any water on the leaves. Leaf rot and the death of the plant would be the result and therefore these should never be grown outside, better left in the greenhouse. Leaves should also never touch the soil or rot will also appear. Considering the way these plants grow in nature, these advices seems rather odd in my opinion. Coming from high elevations in China, these Cyps experience lots and lost of rain in the growing season, so leafs get (very) wet inevitably in nature. What is key is the windy conditions, that make the plants dry up rather fast. So, what these plants were experiencing in greenhouses is moist, stale and not so fresh conditions so less favourable than they do in the wild. And I think this is the reason (next to wild dug plants) why these plants had a difficult time in culture. My plants are outside all the time getting their portion of rain, but also wind. They are very healthy and are growing extra shoots. In the fall they will get a spot in the garden. I have Cypripedium lichiangense here in pots too, but from another nursery, who grows them quite the same way. All seed raised and not more difficult than other Cypripedium species. The advantage of this is that seedlings that grow to flowering sized specimens the way I described adapted to the weather regime of our climate and have all the possibilities to grow in nice specimens as all other species or hybrids we know. You only have to keep in mind what they experience in the wild. Keep the plants dry in the winter.
cypripedium kentuckiense x microsanos
