Orchids spring 2008

[Joakim B]

Nice ones Tony
Do You grow them under glass or did I just get distracted of the background? They seem to be in pots the later two seem to be possible to grow in the ground or do You generally prefer to grow in pots.

Anthony photos it is nice to compare different plants.

Kind regards
Joakim

[Anthony Darby]

Will take some pics tonight.

[johanneshoeller]

Some self-seedlings from my friend's garden. I grow only a few of these.

[Joakim B]

Hans great ones
I did not know that dactylorhiza can form a clump? Or is it several plants close together? Anyway a very nice sight
Also nice color variations on foliage and flowers
Thanks for sharing.

Kind regards
Joakim

[johanneshoeller]

Joakim, it always is one plant!

[Rob]

The first flower on Ophrys apifera has just opened in the garden.

[Rob]

I wish my dactylorhiza would self seed and form clumps.

I've had them for 3 or 4 years and usually only get back the same number each year, with them occasionally producing two new plants on each stem.

[Tony Willis]

Joakim

I grow them in pots as I only have one of each.The listera has now self seeded in to my rhododendron bed.

I find the dactylorhiza split into two or three new crowns each year and so build up clumps. They self seed in every pot of hostas we have and this afternoon I visited a friend who also has them self seeding all over his garden.

My neighbour pulled one up  in her garden and passed it over our fence asking if this was a weed as they are coming up everywhere!!

[Lesley Cox]

I agree about the dactylorhizas. They make clumps quite quickly from vegetative increase. I usually get 2 big ones and 2 or 3 babies from a single ps.bulb each year so if you don't lift and separate, a clump builds in no time.

They also seed here, in the grass, into pots, into cracks in the concrete paths, into my largely pinebark pile of potting mix and especially into hosta and clumps of iris or lily where they're impossible to remove except by lifting and carefully dividing the whole thing. But hey, it's wonderful to have orchids naturalizing in the garden.

[Anthony Darby]

I bought a plant of Dactylorhiza 'Bressingham Bonus' and it is now a large clump, not quite in flower. Most of my elata plants also clump up, but Ian gives a good account of how to increase them. They are, however, susceptible to that black fungus.

Here, as promised, Anacamptis pyramidalis and Serapias vomeracea.

[Joakim B]

Thanks for the information about dactylorhiza every one.
Nice plants Anthony. I have not seen anything by Ian BD about making a plant it self bigger only how to make more plants out of one.
Does the increce/clumping every year imply that the strorage organs below ground gets bigger every year?
Sounds like a very attractive weed I must say

Kind regards
Joakim

[Anthony Darby]

Joakim, you will find all you need to know about increasing these plants in the bulb log. Check the index: http://www.srgc.org.uk/bulblog/index.pdf I gave my mother a Dactylorhiza elata which I planted in her bog garden (virtually 100% moss peat) and it is now a clump of over 50 spikes. This one hasn't spread by seed, but the native D. purpurella has and is turning up all over her garden. I have the same "problem", and also with D. fuchsii.

[Joakim B]

Thanks for the link Anthony I had read these and what I see is that it gets more plants with this method and not one plant with many stems.
Or did everyone mean that it is "one plant" but many tubers implying that it sometimes get more than one new tuber per plant? I was thinking more like "one plant per tuber" and thought that was strange to have many stems from one tuber. Since the tubers are identical one can call them "one plant". This is even more so true if it has been done with the plant itself.

I am slow but I got there finally. It was the definition of "one plant" that got me lost . Now I get it (I think)


Kind regards
Joakim

[Tony Willis]

They are, however, susceptible to that black fungus.

Anthony

interesting comment on the black fungus.I got it three years ago ,brought in I think on a plant of elata which was a gift and it has destroyed my whole collection. I had given spares of two of my rarer ones to a friend and one of these saccifera has now come back.

[Lesley Cox]

Adding to Anthony's note, I have to confirm that my D. elata hasn't self sown either, although it does MAKE plenty seed. DD. maculata however and maculata ssp. fuchsii seed about beautifully, and there are even a couple self sown into the grass verge outside my garden. I also get a few seedlings from D. foliosa.

Joakim, the pseudobulbs get bigger to a certain degree as they clump but presumably reach the "full" size and don't get larger but there are little ones coming along to add to the clump. The first year, these babies are like a little white radishes, the long kind, not round, the gradually over a couple of years they get the "fingers" which give them their generic name. I guess while they are growing in an undisturbed clump they could be called one plant but when they are divided and separated they become many plants, each of which will grow into another clump over a few years. When a clump is divided, even the tiniest with just a miniscule ps.bulb of a few millimetres length, will grow on.