Another route to seeds is to join a good horticultural society with a seed exchange. For example, I've seen yellow lady slipper seed offered in the Ontario Rock Garden Society annual seed exchange (you don't have to be an Ontario resident to join, either - there are members living in Norway!). I don't know what societies you might have in Alberta but I'm sure there is a chapter of the Rock Garden Society there, and believe me they don't limit their seeds to just rock garden plants! Or botanical gardens sometimes sell seed or plants - have you checked out the Devonian Gardens website?

Exactly what hostaholic said. I brought mine in to my daughter's classroom for all to see. I dug a big ball so as not to disturb the root ball. If the soil is really dry I'd water the plant a little so the dirt doesn't crumble but not so much that it's mud.

Ross, No idea how many blooming stems there are. The area is a lot richer than I thought. These populations are somewhat near to the populations I've been watching for 20 or so years but I've not been privy to these groupings before. I will be keeping an "eye" on the plants to see what sort of capsule set there is, but Warren (Stoutamire) tells me that the plants are not pollinated by honey bees, but by bumble/carpenter type bees so the decline of honey bees should not affect capsule set. The larger question is: Will the deer leave the plants alone? I'll do my best to keep you posted!

This old post has stayed alive! I thought I'd comment to clear up a common myth: lady slippers do not need a mycorhizal fungus to survive. In nature, they require a symbiotic/parasitic relationship with a fungus to germinate and develop their first growth bud. After they spring out of the earth 3 years or so after their seed was dropped, they become photosynthetic, and no longer needing those fungi they expell them in some cases; however, often they stay *Partially* parasitic on these fungi which reside inside thier root systems mostly (so no need for transplantation of their soil). There are genera that stay entirely mycotrophic for their lifetime such as Corallorhiza, and Cephalanthera austiniae since they have no clorophyll. We are sure of this information because we grow these plants from seed in sterile jars on a sugar medium, and then transplant them into media, sometimes thousands of miles from their native habitats and native soil fungi. They grow fine this way; and Wendy Lee, you are correct that they don't like to have their roots disturbed during the growing season. As for endangerment, only a handful of the genus's 45 or so members is considered threatened, and only a few are considered endangered, certainly not Cypripedium parviflorum varieties nor Cyp acaule. That absolutely doesn't mean that it's a good idea to go dig them up! Species coexisting, absolutely! Many species of Cypripedium can co-habitate regions of suitable climate since they have similar growth requirements, at least within a few hundred yards! As for retail, here's a list of seed prop sources: http://www.uslink.net/~scl/ http://www.hillsidenursery.biz/ http://asiaticanursery.com/index.php/cPath/17osCsid=b32c4ea8dc7d74a5fc8974f9469d1c8c http://www.thimblefarms.com/98orchidtf.html http://www.c-we.com/cyp.haven/ http://www.orchidmix.com/cyps.htm http://www.vtladyslipper.com/ http://www.infonet.ca/cypr/engl.htm? Best Regards, Ross