H.E.R LADYSLIPPERS.
Planting and care instructions
We will ship your Yellow Cypripedium via common carrier on an over night delivery basis to your door. The dormant plants will be shipped bare root in a protective box of suitable size and enclosed in plastic to ensure that they do not dry out while in transit. Also enclosed will be a small quantity of soil which contains the spores of the mycorrhizal fungus that your yellow cypripedium lives in symbiosis with and helps the plant grow and propagate.
Your plant should be planted in a pot or flower bed as soon as possible although they can be kept in the refrigerator for a few days while a suitable site in your garden is being prepared. Remember that where ever you plant your Cypripedium mix the small quantity of mycorrhizal rich soil you receive with your plant into the soil where you plant.
We recommend that your cypripedium be planted in a well drained location where they receive 3 to 4 hours of morning and/or late afternoon sun, are shaded from the hot midday sun and the soil remains moist but not wet. A dappled light location near trees is ideal. We have planted Cypripediums calceolus in full sun with adequate moisture conditions and they have done reasonably well. You should plan to let the plants grow undisturbed for several years.
Prepare the site by loosening the soil six inches deep by one foot around and mixing in some peat moss, sand or other suitable material that will keep the soil loose. It is very important to then mix the small quantity of soil shipped with your plant into this soil inoculating the site with this beneficial fungus. Then ensuring that the roots do not dry out plant the Cypripedium rhizome in the bed with the eye bud pointing up and covered by approximately one inch of soil. The roots are fairly brittle so care must be taken during this planting process.
Your plants will benefit from a yearly or as needed application of mulch approximately one or two inches thick. We recommend finely shredded tree leaves in the fall after your cypripedium has gone dormant which is characterized by the leaves and stem turning brown and drying out.
Your plant/plants should eventually produce seed pods containing thousands of tiny seeds at the top of the stem. If so we recommend that the pod be left alone as the seeds along with mycorrhizal fungus spores from the site may well blow into a wild space in your area and grow, ensuring the survival of the species. Or you may want to try seeding them in a suitable site in your garden. If so simply prepare a site as described above ensuring that it is inoculated with mycorrhizal fungus from the original site. Then carefully, on a calm day open the ripe seed pod and sprinkle the seeds on the site. Mulch with shredded leaves and leave undisturbed as it may take several years before the new very and fragile cypripedium plants are big enough to notice. This is a process which we have termed naturalized seeding
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