No advice, sounds to me like you're doing everything right. I can report that my Calopogon, grown in an outdoor bog, are up and very close to flowering. Additionally mine have never skipped a season that I am aware of. Sometimes it does take things a period of time to get used to new conditions and since they came from a lab they might be a bit out of synch and come out of dormancy late. I have had good experience with the things I've bought from plantek but I find they do need to be babied for a season or two. Hope my experiences help in some way. Good luck!

I can find quite a bit of the wild stuff, but certainly couldn't afford to send that much. Chicory, plantain, fireweed, Purslane, wood sorrel, Solomon's seal (false?), some type of gooseberry (wild ones, when I go to Idaho) Jerusalem artichoke, red alder, skunk cabbage--maybe, kinnikinnick, MAYBE serviceberry, wild ginger (certainly not 40 of them, though), possibly Oregon grape, bedstraw, burdock, not sure on monkeyflower, cascara, snowberry, all heal, yarrow, yellow violets, Virginia creeper, maybe nuphar polysepalus, wild strawberries (fragaria virginiana and chiloensis).

Hi all, Sorry this is a double post from the orchid exchange, but I didn't know where to put it. Would anyone be interested in pollinating some native orchids in your yard (or in your pots) and doing some sort of trade later this fall when the pods are ready? The exchanges I'm thinking of are very negotiable and are on the lines one of the following. 1.) NON-NATIVE: I have a few small tropical orchids which I will happily trade to get a large pod or two worth of hardy orchid seed. 2.) NON-NATIVE: For those interested in flasking, I have 15 pods of Phaius bernaysii, (and I only need half of one), as well as a few pods of Bletilla striata, hopefully several Bletilla formosama, a single Pleione bulbocodioides, conceivably some Epi radicans if there was interest. 3.) NATIVE TRADE: I will delightfully take your seed, and if it germinates and grows into seedlings, I will send you a percentage of the seedlings (30% maybe) in one and a half years when they're ready. Of course, please only respond if the plants are on your property: Illegal removal of parts of orchids from parks etc is bad. I will consider any native hardy seed species, except for Cypripedium acaule, the pink lady slipper unless you choose option #3, (don't expect much in return, though), because it's too hard to germinate. Those genera that I am particularly looking for are cypripedium, calypso, pogonia, platanthera, habenaria, calopogon, arethusa, epipactis gigantea, galearis spectabilis, and triphora trianthophora. By the way, if you need help pollinating some orchids, I can help. I also have an excellent essay on the pollination of Cypripedium by Camiel F DeJong that he has posted on the internet for private use. This is for my private research and learning. It is of great interest to me, but It is in the interest of $$ that I don't pay $6 a packet at the Orchid Seedbank Project, as wonderful as it is. Any interest? Ross

FABULATASTIC ROSS!!!! That is way cool! Hope you keep a photo journal on its progress! As far as acaule is concerned I think if the mix is free draining that watering every day with the acidified distilled would do the trick. Of course I am using a mixed wood based media and I think that I may try and bag up some and get it wet so that it rots in the bag and see if that might work if it retains its free draining qualities or even if its pH works out to 4.5 or thereabouts. Of course there is always the possibility of growing it in a live sphagnum bog-it is just that I cannot fit my bog in a bucket into my refrigerator during winter!!!!!! Maybe I should invest in an ice machine!!!