The Cultivation of Hardy Orchids—By Wilhelm Miller *, 
AN ATTEMPT TO PUT OUR IGNORANCE OF THE SUBJECT INTO SHAPE FOR DEFINITE EXPERI- 
MENT BY AMATEURS WHO ARE WILLING TO BUY THE PLANTS INSTEAD OF ROBBING NATURE 
N° ONE really knows how to grow 
hardy orchids. There are sixty spe- 
cies in the northeastern United States and 
not one of them will ever become a common 
garden plant. Most of them are too small, 
and all require special conditions. Hun- 
dreds of people can make them live for a 
year or two. A few people have colonies of 
a dozen plants that have flowered regularly 
for five or six years. No one seems to have 
naturalized them on a large scale. 
Unless we can supply those special con- 
ditions it is worse than folly to transplant 
orchids from the woods. It is vandalism. 
The orchids are the shyest of our woodland 
treasures and the most.in danger of exter- 
mination. Even if you buy them from a 
nurseryman your conscience is not clear, 
unless you want them for serious experi- 
ment. Practically all of the hardy orchids 
sold are collected from the wild. A few are 
slowly propagated in the nursery. Some are 
grown on from the seedling stage to flowering 
size, the seedlings being gathered from the 
wild. None of them are grown from seed. 
Any one who will find a practical way of 
growing hardy orchids from seed or any 
other method of propagating them with a 
reasonable degree of rapidity and cheapness 
will be doing a great service to his fellows 
and himself. Perhaps it might be done in 
five years at a cost of $100 or less. But the 
important thing is to establish a large colony. 
THE THREE CULTURAL GROUPS 
We find orchids growing wild in three 
radically different situations—in woods, 
swamps and sphagnum bogs. No one has 
a right to say that any given species will grow 
only in woods, or that it demands wet feet, 
or will not grow without sphagnum. How- 
ever, the important practical question in 
every case is, “‘which one of the three situa- 
tions does the plant we want seem to prefer.”’ 
THE TWO KINDS OF BOG 
A common swamp is full of nitrogen and 
The best hardy yellow orchids, the large 
Fig. 1. 
yellow lady’s slipper (Cypripedium pubescens). 
pale yellow lip. A cultivated group 
It hasa 
of the organisms of decay; a sphagnum bog 
is poor in nitrogen and contains no bac- 
teria. That is why sunken logs are pre- 
served for centuries in peat bogs, and that is 
why certain orchids, heaths and insectivorous 
plants inhabit sphagnum bogs. The pitcher 
plants and sundews have to catch insects in 
order to get enough protein. 
The others 
Fig. 2. The showy orchis (Orchis spectabilis) a 
pinKish purple flower found in the heart of rich 
woods. Every line of it spells ‘“‘orchid”’ 
are supposed to be able to get along with 
very little nitrogen. 
The species that are supposed to prefer 
sphagnum as well as wet feet are the grass 
pink, the Arethusa and the rose pogonia. 
The Calypso grows in sphagnum bogs, but 
in shaded parts, where the moss cannot live. 
The species supposed to prefer wet feet, 
merely, are the yellow-fringed orchis, the 
smaller purple-fringed orchis, and the ladies’ 
tresses. 
The chances are that it will pay to use 
sphagnum in cultivating all the above named 
species whether they grow wild in sphagnum 
bogs or not. You can buy this moss from 
florists, nurserymen or seedsmen. 
None of the above species is known to 
demand either sun or shade, but if you in- 
tend to grow them in the open you must be 
sure that there is a foot of wet mud beneath 
them all the time. Probably all of them will 
thrive in partial shade also. For example, 
‘“‘T have seen thousands of the smaller purple- 
fringed orchis in full sun,” writes one ob- 
server, ‘“‘yet the finest specimens I have 
found were in partial shade.”’ 
THE WOODS-LOVING SPECIES 
Fortunately, all the other orchids, so far as 
we know, are satisfied with partial shade and 
a reasonable degree of moisture. Good 
garden soil is moist enough (except in time of 
drought), and every garden can supply some 
13 
kind of shade. We may presume that the 
ideal is to reproduce the cool moist atmos- 
phere of the woods, the abundance of dif- 
fused light, the free circulation of air with- 
out drying winds, protection from the fierce 
midday sun and above all a mellow, spongy 
soil full of leaf mold. 
Woods-loving orchids should never have 
stagnant moisture. If your soil is heavy, 
throw out two feet of it, put in stones at the 
bottom for drainage and fill in with woods- 
earth. Then you can give them plenty of 
water in summer without fear of overdoing 
it. They want less moisture when the foli- 
age is ripening and they must not be damp 
in winter. Cover them lightly with leaves 
or litter in November, but do not use manure. 
A loose summer mulch is desirable in order to 
prevent excessive evaporation. 
THE NINE BEST SPECIES 
“Which are the six best hardy orchids ?”’ 
I asked the four specialists who have doubt- 
less sold nine-tenths of all the native orchids 
in cultivation. Here is the result: 
Showy lady’s slipper........... 4 votes 
Large yellow lady’s slipper..... 4 votes 
Rattlesnake plantain ........... 4 votes 
Small white lady’s slipper...... 3 votes 
Small yellow lady’s slipper ..... 2 votes 
Large purple-fringed orchis..... 2 votes 
Yellow-fringed orchis........... 2 votes 
SOA, Orv oscacsassnsacsocne 2 votes 
Gigs jotlle podeosasscacsacoascs I vote 
THE BEST PINK LADY’S SLIPPER 
Everyone is agreed that by far the loveliest 
of all hardy orchids is the showy lady’s 
slipper (Cypripedium spectabile). See Fig. 5. 
It may not have the largest flower, as is often 
said, for the slipper or “‘lip”’ is not ordinarily 
much more than an inch long, while that of 
the moccasin flower is sometimes two and a 
half inches. Its airy grace is due partly to 
its shape—for it is rounder, more symmetri- 
cal, more inflated than its rival—and partly 
to its white petals and sepals. 
The lip of 
Fig. 3. The Rocky Mountain white lady's slipper 
growing in nursery rows (Cypripedium montanum). It is 
prettier than the Eastern species, fragrant, and sur- 
vives the winters of Vermont if mulched 
