Posted by seedmoney 8A (seedmoney@embarqmail.com) on Mon, Feb 18, 13 at 15:45 This offer is now closed. Tip...when responding to any seed trade or 'offer' it is a good idea to scan through the posts in the thread to see if the OP (Original Poster) has updated, changed, or closed the offer...as in this case.

Yes you can grow C. pubescens in the garden, but no, I would not try it from seed. Mature, blooming size plants run about $40-$60, and are available mail order from a number of different sources (although many are likely sold out already for the year). Google around. Wild Orchid Co and Vermont Ladyslipper are two sources. If you live in the NE and have a large, respectable nursery nearby, there is a fair chance they will carry it in the wildflowers, natives, or very expensive (!) sections. C. pubescens is not the most difficult of cyps, but still requires some extra effort: well-drained soil (mostly sand and leaf mulch) with some direct sun in the morning or late afternoon, but not midday heat. Think high open shade under large trees. Plant shallow and mulch in the fall. Very light fertilizer if any, and neither let it dry out nor sit in soggy ground. Hope all this doesn't turn you off. They're wonderful plants.

Might be more like late April/early May before the B. sinensis are heard from - they're hard to distinguish from grandis when they first emerge (lack of leaf spotting and green, rather than red, backs of leaves are the best indicators). We're having a fairly "normal" winter here for once, meaning no three week stretch of 70 degree weather in January; this should keep things dormant longer and be a lot easier on my tree peonies and Cypripediums, which need to remain dormant at this time of year. B, sutherlandii is a small, bright orange flowering plant native (I think) to S. Africa which has a similar growth habit to sinensis. It's been hardy here in warm winters, but I suspect it's more tender than the others overall. It produces lots of bulbils in the leaf axils, just like grandis and sinensis, as well as tubers, so can be carried over in a dormant form (I'm thinking now that I forgot to do that last fall!) in colder climates. I love hardy aroids as well - I'm looking right now at a potted Arisaema kiushianum which insisted on coming into growth (I was trying to store it dormant in the unheated garage) and bloom WAY too early. I have several species of those and many other things in that family, and have A. flava and sikokianum coming along from seed for the first time. I have only one Pinellia, and am unsure of the species - it hitch-hiked in along with something else in a pot. I grew some Philodendron bipinnifidatum (sp?) from seed about 3 years ago and am testing 3 out of 6 plants in the ground under mulch this winter to see if they make it; experimentation is one great benefit of growing things from seed. Anyway, send me an email sometime in April, and by then we'll know how the begonias have fared. In the meantime, you might want to look over my very haphazard blog to see the rest of my very haphazard garden! Here is a link that might be useful: Transitional Gardener Blog

plantfreak, It's interesting how gardeners always envy gardeners in other parts of the world. We grow quite a few tropical plants and orchids in our house. They are a struggle to keep healthy and we are thrilled when one of the orchids bloom. Then we'll travel somewhere in a more southern climate and see the same plants neglected but thriving in someone's yard or along the roadside. I remember when I was a young lad and saw my first palm tree. It was magical. We went up and touched the bark and had our photo taken. You ask when cyps flower in our region. Firstly 'our region' is quite large and the ecology varies quite a bit. In my garden the Yellow slippers bloom around the middle of June. The Sparrow Eggs maybe a week before. Both stay in bloom for a long time. I have some Yellow slippers on the north side of the house that aren't in bloom until the fourth week of June. In the wild it is much more variable. The Sparrow Eggs are in bloom anywhere starting from the first week of June in lower elevations to the first week of July at higher elevations. The same with the yellows but a week later. The wild C. montanums are often only out in mid July because they are found in areas of deeper snow cover and the growing season starts later. The C. montanums, however, can be out earlier at lower elevations (especially across the border in the province of British Columbia). The most prolific orchid in our region is the Calypso. They come out in the millions of clumps starting about June 10 or so. They can be found all along the coniferous forest that runs along the eastern base of the slopes of the Rocky Mountains. Especially from the latitude of Calgary northwards. Among the white spruces there's often Calypsos opening their blooms beside the remnants of snow patches...very similar to how crocuses will open with snow still on the ground in the garden.