cyps in pots 2012

[Stephen Vella]

nice picture of the red russion...so is that 3 yrs after purchase as a seedling(could be 5 or 6yrs old) or straight out of flask seedling(usually 2 or 3yrs in flask)?

mine are 8 yrs of growing straight out of flask.

my C reginae haven't flowed yet and these are the same age, Ive planted these in the garden and 2 yrs now and going strong.

C parviflorum did for the first time...I was surprised as they were small.

C tibeticum should and these are suppose to be the "red leaf form" and are meant to be a hard strain to grow. I nursed one going backwards that had nothing but a growing point and a 2m of a rotten root in straight perlite and sand. It did come good and may flower in 2 yrs. Takes alot of patients to grow these beauties.
cheers

[monocotman]

Stephen, this is 3 years after purchase seedlings. They were both quite small in the first year but last year the growths were much bigger.
I haven't yet bought any plants fresh out of flask.
The buds are extending and there will definitely be three flowers.
Interesting that all the macranthos clones, including these, sailed through the winter of 2010/11 without a hitch.
Good luck with tibeticum red leaf. Such a great clone.
I have one very small seedling that went backwards in the same winter.
It is just hanging on but it'll be years before it flowers.
This is the first cyp to flower - it should open in the next couple of days.
Tibeticum 'light' from Koolplants.
Very tall (a foot high) and early for a tibeticum - other clones are yet to appear.
It seems to be quite vigorous.
Next photo is the setup for the plants on the north side of the greenhouse.
Wind and sun protection for them from three sides and there is a fence about
3 metres away on the north side.
I use the greenhouse benching to save my back at this time of year,
Regards,
David

[angie]

David you would need to watch your back with all those nice big pots of Cyps. Great set up.

Angie 

[Stephen Vella]

David thats a nice lot of cyps you have there.

3 years after purchase is not bad. I can only take a guess it would be 6 or 7 years in total to flower.

Nice C tibeticum, love to see it open up a bit more.

Looking at your shade cloth it make me wonder as our light levels here are so more intense! Mine would fry in the sun with that level of sun block. And with the sun comes the heat.

Do you keep these out on the bench through summer? Mine would have to stay under evergreens to keep them cool and moist.

cheers 

[monocotman]

Stephen,
it's a temporary arrangement so I can enjoy the flowers without bending my back.
The plants will spend most of the summer under a red leaved sycamore
where they only receive a couple of hours early morning sun.
At the moment we are having very cool showery weather and the plants are fine.
Incidentally I've moved a mature 12 growth plant of x andrewsii into a spot where it can receive about 4 hours sun each day.
Every year the plant flops over whilst flowering and I was thinking of getting rid of it.
I recently read on Ron Burch's web site that they like some sun so we'll see whether this extra light helps to keep the stems shorter and more erect.
I've been very pleased with the number and size of some of the newer one to two year old (with me) plants this year.
There are some very thick buds and stems developing.
'Annette' and 'Michael alba' have both gone from one to four stems in their 2nd year, though not all will flower.
A larger 'Aki' has gone from seven to twelve stems and most of these will flower.
'Sabine alba' has increased from four to seven stems and all will flower.
This grex has to be about my favourite of the recent new crosses and I'm really looking forward to seeing it flower.
It's clear that a huge factor in the rate of increase of these plants is the weather in the preceding summer.
Ours was a long and cool with very few days over 25c, ideal for cyp growth. I saw the same thing with the pleiones.
It should be possible to grow them better in the west and north of the UK than here in relatively sunny and warm East Anglia
Regards,
David

[angie]

I moved all my cypripediums yesterday. They were in a nice shaded place but with all the rain and grey weather we have been having lately I felt that they were struggling a bit. I have been feeding them but I think the rain is just washing the feed away, not sure maybe there is another reason. Last month they were taking off but now they seem they just don't want to grow. I can't blame them with this weather. Hopefully the new place is brighter and as we are forecasted more rain this week I think they might do better there. Could somebody send some sun up here

Five ducks were happily swimming in my pond this morning, so somebody is enjoying all this rain.

Angie 

[Stephen Vella]

Angie your Scottish sun is so soft that Cyps can handle all the morning sun until mid day you can give them and in the wild they grow under deciduous trees and in early spring the Cyps race away to take advantage of this broken light for most of the day, as these trees leaf out the Cyps will be in full bloom and that's the time you can move them in more shade to keep them cool. If you have a deciduous tree like a maple or oak you wont have to move them. Mine get broken light all morning and then I place a heavy shade cloth over them in summer.

Our last summer was so wet we were lucky to get 2 weeks of sunshine. My tomatoes were late and no chillies but it was good for the cyps..I hope you don't receive another wet spring summer.

cheers

[fredg]

A couple of potted Cypripedium in flower at the moment.

1 & 2 Cypripedium plectrochilum





3 & 4 Cypripedium fasciolatum

[angie]

Angie your Scottish sun is so soft that Cyps can handle all the morning sun until mid day you can give them and in the wild they grow under deciduous trees and in early spring the Cyps race away to take advantage of this broken light for most of the day, as these trees leaf out the Cyps will be in full bloom and that's the time you can move them in more shade to keep them cool. If you have a deciduous tree like a maple or oak you wont have to move them. Mine get broken light all morning and then I place a heavy shade cloth over them in summer.

Our last summer was so wet we were lucky to get 2 weeks of sunshine. My tomatoes were late and no chillies but it was good for the cyps..I hope you don't receive another wet spring summer.

cheers

Stephen the sun came out today for a little while. You are right our sun isn't strong here but just in case I have made a little roller blind with shading that I can use if we do get some sun. I hope this rain stops soon, it would be so nice to get going in the garden this time of year.

Fred, your Cyps are lovely.

Angie 

[monocotman]

Fred - nice cyps. That fasciolatum has a very elongated flower.
Angie - a bit of sun is very beneficial to cyps, just keep observing the leaves - they'll soon tell you
if it's getting too much. Mature plants with larger root systems will take more sun as will the
'hairy' leaved species and hybrids - reginae and Ulla Silkens.
Freshly repotted plants prefer shade until the roots establish.
I've a feeling that there is an over emphasis on keeping cyps shaded at all times.
If it's cool like our current weather then they'll take quite a bit of sun.
It's the combination of sun and high temperatures that cause the problems.
You only have to look at the size and number of roots of an average cyp to see why.
A plant just reaching flowering size may have what?  12 x 6-9 inch roots on average?
Not very many and when you look at the total surface area there is for uptake of water - not alot -
you can understand why they struggle with sunny warm conditions.
With your Aberdeen weather and cooler summers you should be able to grow cyps extremely well
compared to 'us in the south'.
They should certainly be able to take more sun that further south
Like most things, it's a learning curve - I'd be tempted to give some of your larger more established plants more sun
and see how they react.
That's one of the nice thing about growing in pots - you can move the plants around.
Regards,
David

[fredg]

Fred - nice cyps. That fasciolatum has a very elongated flower.

So I get told annually David 

[fredg]

Another has opened  .
I'm growing this one quite wet, organics and standing in water much of the time, it doesn't seem to mind.

Cypripedium guttatum

[daveyp1970]

Fred did you notice the greenfly on your Cypripedium plectrochilum 

[fredg]

Yes Dave, there's a few of the little blighters around.
Surprising really with the glut of ladybirds this year.

[angie]

Fred your Cyp, Guttatum is lovely 
One thing is I won't have any greenfly on my Cyps, they will all have drowned with the amount of rain that we have had in the last week 

Angie