Description
Cypripedium – Lady’s Slipper Orchid – Slipper Orchid –
There are about 45 frost hardy, deciduous, terrestrial orchids, in this genus. They occur in dry woodland or marshy places in temperate areas of the Northern Hemisphere and Southern Asia and Mexico. They have slender rhizomes and several soft, folded, pleated, ovate to fan shaped leaves, which are either spirally arranged or borne in opposite pairs. The flowers are carried singly or in terminal racemes of up to 12 flowers in summer, each have 3 spreading, white, pink, red, or purple tepals, and a slipper shaped, yellow, white, pink, or dark purple pouch. Suitable for a shady rock garden or woodland garden.
Grow these frost hardy plants in rather moist, fertile, leafy humus rich, neutral to acidic soil, in a sheltered site in light dappled or partial shade, outdoors. (see chart below)
Prone to gray mold, rust, cercospora leaf spot, and slugs.
