"Hardy orchids for the garden... not many are available and they tend to be expensive. ... no one has yet developed a cheap and efficient method of mass propagation [really ?]. ... the presence of certain microscopic fungi for germination... is not a process easily reproduced in the garden or nursery. ... One hardy orchid is so vigorous... that it can be divided after a few years' growth into several new plants. Left to its own devices, the Madeiran orchid (Dactylorhiza foliosa) forms a good... clump after a few years... with... 16-24in stems topped with a dense mass of bright purple-pink or magenta flowers...
My first thought with D. foliosa was Victorian ladies in crinolines [so old ?]. ... Dactylorhiza is a European [not only] genus... D. foliosa is from Madeira, where it is found on damp rocky slopes in woodland glades at the higher altitudes. Comparable in size, vigour and colour is D. elata, also from the Mediterranean region. Similar and also available are D. incarnata, D. majalis and D. praetermissa. All appreciate damp... ground and are reasonably vigorous. Also available commercially is the common spotted orchid, D. fuchsii... pale pink species with distinctively spotted leaves familiar from grassy places throughout Britain; those with a garden in the country are liable to find this particular orchid appearing spontaneously in damp grassy areas. ... often occurring in large numbers in places where the ground has been disturbed several years previously - such as roadside verges... motorways and new roads have proved to be a boon for several wild orchids - they love the raw, infertile soil of the verges and can spread exuberantly in their thousands. Anyone with numbers of wild orchids locally is liable to find occasional plants in the garden... I shall never forget seeing D. purpurella growing as a "weed" in a window box in northern Holland. ... The Madeiran orchid will grow in either light shade or full sun. ... the lighter and warmer the site, the more important is adequate moisture. Soil must be moist but never waterlogged, and ideally acidic and open with plenty of humus. The plants grow from tubers, which only last for one year, being replaced with two new ones during late summer. Consequently plants build up to form good-sized clumps after only a few years. However, they will eventually crowd each other out and run short of nutrients, leading to a decline. The answer is to dig up and divide the clump every three or four years, at any time when the plants are dormant." URL : http://www.telegraph.co.uk/gardening/main.jhtml?xml=/gardening/2008/06/13/garden-howtogrow-foliosa113.xml photo : http://www.telegraph.co.uk/gardening/graphics/2008/06/13/howto113.jpg ****************** Regards, VB _______________________________________________ the OrchidGuide Digest (OGD) [email protected] http://orchidguide.com/mailman/listinfo/orchids_orchidguide.com
