Can you send me a pic also? I have several plants on your want list Take a peek..... Here is a link that might be useful: exchange page

Various species of orchids are among the most common native plants in some of our local ecosystems. Calypsos by the billions (not millions) and various cypripediums as far as the eye can see. I applaud a posting above that dismisses the hyseria about 'orchids' as endangered, etc. there are 'specific' plants protected in some regions but not 'orchids' everywhere. Some lady slippers are among the easiest of native plants to grow. Some are more difficult. This however is often dependent on the ecology of where one lives...no different than trying to grow any plant. I can transplant a yellow slipper from one area of the garden to another and it doesn't even hiccup. If I try the same with a non native (to our area) slipper such as Cypripedium regina it will take a year to recover....if ever.

Dottie, though I live in Colorado, S of Colorado Springs, I experiment in Zone denial, and have many pleasant discoveries. The arid climate allows us to get away with things and grow a wider range of plants. The orchids grow in the moist, shady microclimates provided by numerous exotic conifers. The rattlesnakes are indeed Goodyera- oblongifolia and repens. Both are about to bloom now. Flowers are greenish white and insignificant. Foliage is more interesting than flowers. Calypso bloomed a few weeks ago, and Cypripedium is just finishing. By growing these in sunken pots, the soil can be made perfect - like in the wild. For Calypso, that means lots of almost totally decomposed wood and loam. These are dormant in summer, growing a solitary leaf in late summer, early fall, and maturing a flower bud over winter, under snow, that blooms as soon as the snow melts and medium thaws. Cypripedium are in loamy granitic soil with good drainage, clay in the very bottom of the pot. Much easier to grow than Calypso. Commercial Bletilla and Pleione are the least fussy, grown in mix of bark and loamy humus that drains fast. Corallorhiza require pine roots, from which they may steal a little food. These are really hard to establish, and even then, don't appear every year.

Bought the lady slipper! $7.99 for a decently sized one in a 3" pot... Very "little shop of horrors" looking. I love it. I also managed to get a few more photos of the non phals at Trader Joe's today - fairly new to all the other varieties but I'll venture my guess as to what they are (if I butcher it then feel free to correct me)... Some sort of oncidium: Miltoniopsis? ??? No idea but it looked cool Maybe a mini dendrobium to the left and a very handsome green lady slipper to the right. Ok that's the end of it... I stopped taking photos because people were looking at me funny.