Cypripedium parviflorum in the wild

I visited a local natural area this past weekend, where yellow slippers grow like weeds. I got 163 pics of them; these are a couple of the better ones. There were parviflorum and pubescens varieties; these are both pubescens. They grew anywhere from 8" to 16" tall with 3-4" flowers and the tepals were either light yellow-green, reddish, or rarely maroon. Out of the thousands I saw only 3 were maroon like the one pictured here. This huge flower was on a single-stemmed plant that peeked out of the grass. The big clump pictured is the typical form but the biggest one I saw, with 36 flowering stems. Most had around 5-8. It takes a plant 8-16 years to flower from seed, and they slowly spread after that. The parviflorums were 3-8" tall, mostly growing in grass and very easy to step on. Amazing! I also hunted for C. passerinum in this area; I couldn't find the other trail where it is alleged to grow. Better luck next year.

Cypripedium parviflorum var. parviflorum

Here is that same small yellow slipper; the flower is more open now.

Clematis 'General Sikorski'

This is my first clematis. This first bloom is 3" across; once mature the plant will grow 8-10' tall and 3-4' wide, with 8" flowers. It is currently 5' tall and 1.5' wide (maybe 2').

Bletilla striata var. abla? Not!

I am a little ticked because I bought 4 bulbs this spring that were supposed to be the white version of the little pink orchid I've posted before. However, they've turned out to be B. striata! Here is the first flower.

Bearded iris

Bearded iris are fantastic garden plants. These pictured here are in containers temporarily while the bed they grow in is renovated. They are the only bearded varieties I have, and I don't know what they are. The purple and white one has been in our garden for as long as I can remember and I don't know how they got there (there are many of them). They were in huge clumps that were very desperate for division; I divided them last year and this year they are responding amazingly; Iris usually take two seasons to bloom well again after dividing. The yellow and red-purple one I bought last year for very cheap at a garage sale and this year it is twice the size. Because I have such a limited selection of Iris I am striving to get more.

Iris sibirica

The original species of Siberian iris is in my opinion the most beautiful of that type. This beautiful plant was given to us many years ago by a friend of my grandma's who owns a botanical garden. I divided it a couple years ago; it is blooming profusely for the first time this year (it bloomed a LITTLE last year). The species forms attractive clumps that should be divided every 5 years or so to maintain vigour, and blooms in June with beautiful blue-violet flowers with silver and yellow marks. An established clump will produce 25 flowers or more. This one should make around 10-15 this year. This is my favorite iris species besides I. versicolor; I'm starting to really like I. setosa var. arctica, I. cristata, and I. reticulata. The species are way better than the hybrids, I think.