Hi everyone. Now I've posted my first pics and posed a few questions I thought I should just introduce myself.
I'm based in north Wales, a wonderful mountainous county that lies to the west of England. We're famous for our sheep, our endless rain and the fact that we're not English! We even speak our own language, Welsh.
I work as Botanical Specialist for a plant conservation charity called Plantlife. Our aims are to bring threatened British plants back from the brink, stop common plants becoming rare, and re-engage people with wild flowers. For more on our work see http://www.plantlife.org.uk/
I became obsessed with orchids when very young after finding an Early Purple orchid (Orchis mascula) on my dad's farm at the age of 12. I was soon growing all sorts of orchids on the windowsills, thanks to a very tolerant mother! I tried oncidiums, odontoglossums, cymbidiums, laelias and all sorts of species, but was captivated by a plant of Paphiopedilum venustum. Not only did i love the strange flowers, it had amazing leaves and I managed to flower it for many years. I was hooked.
Fast forward to today. I now grow quite a large collection of Cypripedium (which are becomming very affordable today - I picked up a 7-stem kentuckiense for £20 ($34) this year) and I'm getting back into Paphs once again. I grow these on windowsills in my home and office, the only restriction being my partner ("not another one of those things!"). Since space is very restricted I have to be very selective in what I buy. My current list is:
Maudiae
Maudiae 'Claire de Lune'
venustum
Venus Hold
viniferum (sold as Callosum 'Jac')
Pinocchio
China Dragon
Druid Spring
Robinianum (two clones, in an attempt at multiflorals!)
Vipanii
Henrietta Fujiwara
The last five are new aquisitions that are yet to flower - exciting times!
As for Cyps, space is less limited outside so the collection includes:
reginae
pubescens
parviflorum
kentuckiense
formosanum
tibeticum
calceolus
Gisela
Cleo Pinkepank
Sabine
Philip
Tilman
Michael
Lady Dorine
Ursel
Ventricosum
Ulla Silkens
So, that's me. I have a few questions to aks later and will be posting pics when things flower.
I'm based in north Wales, a wonderful mountainous county that lies to the west of England. We're famous for our sheep, our endless rain and the fact that we're not English! We even speak our own language, Welsh.
I work as Botanical Specialist for a plant conservation charity called Plantlife. Our aims are to bring threatened British plants back from the brink, stop common plants becoming rare, and re-engage people with wild flowers. For more on our work see http://www.plantlife.org.uk/
I became obsessed with orchids when very young after finding an Early Purple orchid (Orchis mascula) on my dad's farm at the age of 12. I was soon growing all sorts of orchids on the windowsills, thanks to a very tolerant mother! I tried oncidiums, odontoglossums, cymbidiums, laelias and all sorts of species, but was captivated by a plant of Paphiopedilum venustum. Not only did i love the strange flowers, it had amazing leaves and I managed to flower it for many years. I was hooked.
Fast forward to today. I now grow quite a large collection of Cypripedium (which are becomming very affordable today - I picked up a 7-stem kentuckiense for £20 ($34) this year) and I'm getting back into Paphs once again. I grow these on windowsills in my home and office, the only restriction being my partner ("not another one of those things!"). Since space is very restricted I have to be very selective in what I buy. My current list is:
Maudiae
Maudiae 'Claire de Lune'
venustum
Venus Hold
viniferum (sold as Callosum 'Jac')
Pinocchio
China Dragon
Druid Spring
Robinianum (two clones, in an attempt at multiflorals!)
Vipanii
Henrietta Fujiwara
The last five are new aquisitions that are yet to flower - exciting times!
As for Cyps, space is less limited outside so the collection includes:
reginae
pubescens
parviflorum
kentuckiense
formosanum
tibeticum
calceolus
Gisela
Cleo Pinkepank
Sabine
Philip
Tilman
Michael
Lady Dorine
Ursel
Ventricosum
Ulla Silkens
So, that's me. I have a few questions to aks later and will be posting pics when things flower.
Some of our Cyps are also native to UK.
