# My new Cypripedium montanum



## smartie2000 (Jun 14, 2010)

I got this Cypripedium montanum clump this June meeting. It was the last one left, some other members got some awesome plants with larger blooms.
The flowers are small, but very pretty! Also it is lightly scented.

I bought it in a very organic soil. It looks like rotted peat or something. Any cultural recomendations would be appreciated! I will likely do a repot and planting next to my Cyp. parviflorum var. pubescens.


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## KyushuCalanthe (Jun 14, 2010)

Very nice Fren! I love this little beauty, but it is so darn difficult to keep alive. I don't like to say this, but based on those browning leaf tips, I'd say your plant is suffering at the roots. Likely that peaty mix is the reason. These guys need perfect drainage and like to be on the dry side. If it were mine I'd plant in outside in a bed of largely organic compost, say a mix of soil perfector, small pumice, or the like with a taste of coniferous duff compost near the surface. 

Good luck with that beauty.


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## SlipperFan (Jun 14, 2010)

That is gorgeous!


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## parvi_17 (Jun 14, 2010)

I don't know how Tom DeBoer (the guy Fren and I are getting these from) et al. grow these in the heavy soils they use! Mine is planted in a raised bed in 80% grit with some compost added, and it still suffered the first season. I have chalked it up to the plant simply needing to settle in after transplanting. Baby it, plant it in mostly inorganic mix, and hopefully it will do okay! I'm going to experiment with my new ones and see if they do better than my first one. Carl Austin once said he found them growing in a clay-based, sandy soil in BC. Unfortunately they grow in such a wide variety of soils you never know what will work for an individual plant. I'm going to try at least one of my new ones Carl's way though. I'll get around to posting photos of the light colored one I bought eventually. I like it .


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## smartie2000 (Jun 14, 2010)

all of Tom's plants come in these heavy soils. Yet every year he has many to sell to us. So something is working for him I would think.

PS. a parviflorum I got from him, which I planted in shade is budding this year. I have transplanted it to a brighter location already. It will have tiny blooms compared to my other one, but darker ones (if I remember correctly). And I left this plant in heavy soils with added sand and perlite. The shade made it weak possibly.


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## Ernie (Jun 14, 2010)

As an aside, Tom DeBoer and his wife Ype are great folks! Stayed with them in Edmonton a couple years back, and we ate well and watched hockey the whole time. Treated me to some wonderful North American antelope (prong horn deer) he "got" himself.


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## parvi_17 (Jun 14, 2010)

smartie2000 said:


> all of Tom's plants come in these heavy soils. Yet every year he has many to sell to us. So something is working for him I would think.
> 
> PS. the parviflorum I got from him, which I planted in shade is budding this year. I have transplanted it to a brighter location already. It will have tiny blooms compared to my other one. And I left this plant in heavy soils.



Exactly... that's why I'm going to try something new with one of my new ones. I was too chicken the first time because my research implies that heavy, clay-based soils should not be used. Culture in Alberta is obviously different from elsewhere though.


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## parvi_17 (Jun 15, 2010)

smartie2000 said:


> PS. a parviflorum I got from him, which I planted in shade is budding this year. I have transplanted it to a brighter location already. It will have tiny blooms compared to my other one, but darker ones (if I remember correctly). And I left this plant in heavy soils with added sand and perlite. The shade made it weak possibly.



I don't think parviflorums have any problem with heavy soils as long as they aren't sopping wet. Those plants will grow in almost anything. The montanums are very, very fussy though. Even Charles Sheviak of all people reports problems growing them. Have you seen this yet: http://www.cypripedium.de/forum/messages/177.html ? He talks about montanum near the end.


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## Lanmark (Jun 15, 2010)

It's very, very pretty and fragrant too! How sweet! Too bad I'm too afraid to try something like this. I'd definitely want to give it more drainage.


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## NYEric (Jun 15, 2010)

Nice acquisition. Also extremely difficult to get here!


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## jewel (Jun 15, 2010)

what a lucky ducky, very nice


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## smartie2000 (Jun 15, 2010)

I planted it into a sunken pot. Old potting soil, sand, S/H clay balls, perlite, and the heavy soil from the previous pot. Also some dolomite lime, so that it is not too acidic.

Tom was right. The root system is lacking, probably because the plant was only recently dug out from the DeBoer's garden. Hopefully it will recover this season and will be able to bloom the next year. If it were as vigorous as parviflorum I think that it would be fine.

The plant is so cute, it is a quarter the size of my Cyp. parviflorum var. pubescens

These like to stay drier than my Cyp. parviflorum if I am correct. So that means more perlite and inorganics...


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## Jorch (Jun 16, 2010)

Another beautiful one! You guys are lucky to have so many cyps available


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## parvi_17 (Jun 16, 2010)

Jorch said:


> Another beautiful one! You guys are lucky to have so many cyps available



I think you guys have a bit more selection in BC . It's very difficult to get Asian species here. But yes, we are lucky to at least have montanum and a couple other American species available.


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## Jorch (Jun 16, 2010)

parvi_17 said:


> I think you guys have a bit more selection in BC . It's very difficult to get Asian species here. But yes, we are lucky to at least have montanum and a couple other American species available.



Unless you count Fraser Thimble Farm, the only ones available here are pubescens, parviflorum, reginae... other than the Bischoff's might have formosanum for sale at the OS meetings. We definitely don't have montanum or kentuckiense here! LOL


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## KyushuCalanthe (Jun 16, 2010)

Good luck with it Fren. I'd really focus on keeping it just this side of moist and don't be afraid to use fungicide if it continues to blacken - the soil as well. 

Asian species are uncommon in North America period. Maybe if the CITES folks in China would loosen their death grip on exports, there might be a better chance of legal, nursery grown plants coming in, well, at least to Canada. What is so silly is that given the current situation it makes no sense to do things by the book, so you see eBay "vendors" offerring all kinds of stuff through the backdoor. As Carson Whitlow put it so nicely, "CITES - Blueprint for Extinction". The can of worms has been opened...shall we go fishing?


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## jewel (Jun 17, 2010)

when cites was first created it was primarily to protect animals, plants were sort of an after thought. hence all the red tape just to ship a *dead *herbarium specimen


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## gerhard (Jul 26, 2011)

smartie2000 said:


> I got this Cypripedium montanum clump this June meeting. It was the last one left, some other members got some awesome plants with larger blooms.
> The flowers are small, but very pretty! Also it is lightly scented.
> 
> I bought it in a very organic soil. It looks like rotted peat or something. Any cultural recomendations would be appreciated! I will likely do a repot and planting next to my Cyp. parviflorum var. pubescens.



Well Smartie 2000,
it would be nice if you could tell us how your montanum is doing now.


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## Shiva (Jul 26, 2011)

I hope this lovely cyp is doing fine.


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## SlipperFan (Jul 26, 2011)

Very cool!


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