IRISH GARDENING 



VOLUME XVI 



No. I So 



Editor-J. W. Besant. 



A MONTHLY JOURNAL DEVOTED TO THE 



ADVANCEMENT OF HORTICULTURE AND 



ARBORICULTURE IN IRELAND 



FEBRUARY 

 192 1 



Native Orchids for the Garden, 



By R. Lloyd Praegeu. 



LtBRAUT 



NEW Y^t<K 

 BOTANICAL 



IN atteinpting some notes on British 

 Orchids in the garden, at the reqnest 

 of the Editor, I am writing on a subject 

 whicli I do not know much about, for 

 the species of which I have personal 

 acquaintance in cultivation are not 

 many. But the Orchids found in our 

 (iwn country are all interesting; they 

 include many pleasing plants, not 

 ilifficult of cultivation; and these 

 '•usual notes, if they only draw atten- 

 lion to the group, may serve a useful 

 pui-pose. 



The number of Orchids occurring in 

 the British Isles may be reckoned at 

 about forty-four species, at a conser- 

 vative estimate ; this excludes certain 

 " splits " in difficult sections of the 

 genera Orchis and Epipactis. LTnlike 

 the great majority of Orchids — which 

 belong to warm, damp regions — the 

 British species are all terrestrial : that 

 is, they have their rootstock and roots 

 buried in the soil. Possibly we might 

 exclude from this statement the tiny 

 Bog Orchis, M<daxis paludosa, which 

 is found on cushions of wet sphagnvun, 

 and the very rare Liparis Loeselii, 

 wliich affects similar habitats, and is 

 now almost extinct through the drain- 

 ing of the fen district in England. 



Eegarding the general treatment 

 of British Orchids in the garden, 

 some hints may be gathered 

 from a glance at theii' distribution in our 

 islands, and the kind of places in which they are 

 found. They are essentially a southern group. 

 While the Creeping Lady's Tresses {(ioodyera 

 repens) and the extremely rare Coral-root 

 (Cnrallorrhiza innata) are the only species found 

 in Scotland but not in England, nineteen species 

 occur in England but not in Scotland. We get a 

 similar result by comparing the north of England 

 with the south of England; and going further into 

 the matter, we find that the main cause of this 

 difference is the presence in south-eastern Eng- 

 land of quite a group of species, mostly very rare 

 even there, which are confined to chalky soils. 

 So it i.s clear that with niuny of our raie kinds we 

 shall succeed best by ])l anting them in a warm 

 corner and giving them a well-drained limy soil. 

 A few others again, notably the Helleborines 

 (Epipactis and Cephalanthera) are mostly wood- 

 land plants, rejoicing in shade and humus. Most 

 of the remainder, including the majority of our 

 connnoner species, are plants of grassy places, 

 In-ightening our pastures and meadows in May 



and June with graceful spikes of white or pink or 

 purple blossoms; these are the easiest to grow, 

 and the ones most frequently seen in gardens. 

 Their roots are mostly tuberous (the effect of a 

 marked thickening of one or more of the root- 

 fibres, for the purpose of storing food for the 

 following season's growth), and they are for that 

 reason the more easily transplanted. 



None of our native Orchids is more showy or 

 more easy to grow than the Early Purple Orchis 

 (0. mascula), which is frequent in pastures and 

 copses throughout the British Isles; a group of it 

 looks delightful in the rock garden or border in 

 May. It is followed in June by the Spotted Orchis 

 (0. jnaculata) with whitish flowers marked with 

 purple lines : this prefers rather moister condi- 

 tions than the last. Natural hybrids between it 

 and the Marsh Orchis group are not uncommon, 

 and some of these are handsome and robust plants. 

 The puzzling Marsh Orchis group (0. latifolia, 

 (). praetermissa, 0. incarnata) yields some very 

 fine dark purple forms, which are striking plants 

 for a wet, boggy spot. The remaining members of 

 the genus Orchis are all, on the other hand, dry-soil 

 plants. The only ones which are not rare and 

 local species of S.E. England, and very seldom 

 seen in cultivation, are the Pyramidal Orchis 

 (0. pyramidalis) and the Green-winged Orchis 

 (0. Morio). Both like a dry, limy soil. The 

 former has a dense spike of bright rose flowers, 

 and' a clump of it is very effective; the latter is a 

 smaller plant with deep purple flowers. Both 

 are easy to grow. 



The native Butterfly Orchids (Habenaria) include 

 two species, H. cliloroleuca and H. hifolia, which 

 are worth growing. They have loose spikes of 

 greenish-white flowers, and like a moist soil. A 

 third species II. intacto, sometimes placed in a 

 separate genus Neotinea, is very interesting on 

 account of its distribution. It is a Mediterranean 

 plant which most unexpectedly pops up again, in 

 the West of Ireland, growing mostly among lime- 

 stone rocks. It is of quite easy cultivation, but is 

 a rather inconspicuous little plant with whitisli 

 flowers (not red, as figured in Sowerby's " English 

 Botany " and elscwliere). 



The allied genus Gymnadenia has two British 

 representatives, one of which, the Sweet-scented 

 Orchis (11. ronopsea) is an acquisition in any 

 garden, on account of its handsome dense spikes 

 of purple flowers and strong delicious odour of 

 Pinks. It likes a sti'ong moist soil. 



The most striking of all the Briti.sh Orchids are 

 the three species of the genus Ophrys. In this 

 group the flowers have conspicuous markings 

 in luown. red or yellow on their curiously shaped 

 flowers which give them to a remarkable degree 



