Not an orchid, but a parasitic perennial herb, Squaw Root, Conopholis americana favors Oak trees as a host. The leaves have been reduced to small brown scales. The flower stems do not emerge from the ground. The flowers themselves do not open. They self pollinate and produce seed completely underground. Now how odd is that?
Crisscrossing the slope at different levels I look for a different leaf, a different flower. I look in open areas and underneath groves of small trees.
I see plenty of the Bloodroot, Sanguinaria canadensis. It has a nice leaf shape.
I even find Turk's Cap Lily, Lilium superbum. Some of these need to be moved to the roadside bed behind the split rail fence. Their height of up to six feet would work behind the fence and they are far more likely to bloom in more sun, than they will in the deep shade of the forest.
Some where in here there may be a Showy Orchis, unless a big tree fell on it and it is hidden under a big log now. I'll have to keep looking.
Let the carnage begin. The cantaloupe seedlings look very thirsty. It has rained more than enough, plenty, and I watered them and still they wilt. The tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers and squash look fine. What is wrong with the melons?
The wilting basil on the deck at the resident gardeners gives me a clue. It has rained more than enough, plenty, and I watered them and still they wilt. I have a distinct feeling there are some herbs and warm season produce that strongly resent temperatures in the upper thirties and low fourties. I think they are dying of hypothermia. A rush to plant may have killed them. Oh well, there is time to plant more, when and if the lows ever make it out of the low fourties.
There are happy plants on the mountain. The Eremurus, Foxtail Lily has buds. These were overflow from one of Bulbarella's catalog orders that ended up in my garden. All six rootstocks finally came up. The smaller one appeared about six weeks after this first one now in bud.
The finished Tulips in the front bed are well hidden by the Daylily foliage. All the plants from last year except two Centaurea survived the winter. The survivors are waiting for the real warmth to take off. It has been cool up here and that makes an impact on what will grow.
There is enough to keep me occupied while I hunt for the Showy Orchis.
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8 comments:
Wow Christopher, foxtail lilies. We have tried and tried to get them going here, without success. Are they in shade at Bulbarella's? What is the secret? You must have eagle eyesight to be able to spot the single orchis, with all the geraniums. Hope you find it. Our spring has been cooler than usual too, it has helped the blooms last longer, but the squash is slow, but the green beans are up, so the soil must be fairly warm under the jungle of sugar snap peas planted at the edge of the bed. We had to bend them over the fence away from the beans and the have completely blocked the path. I have nearly given up trying to pick them while small, too many. We are to have some warm weather this week, it was 74 degrees when we got up at 5 AM!
Frances
Around here where I live there a big melon growing operations. They have their melons out now but there is black plastic around them. When I first moved here I thought these long rows of black were odd looking. It works though. Maybe you could mulch heavily around your cantalope. I am told the melons like water at first but then like it dry and they do like it hot.
Frances, the Foxtail Lilies are in full sun at the top of my drive behind the split rail fence. The soil is well drained since it is residue filled with rocks from road building at the neighbors across the street many years ago.
The wet and cold makes the melons more susceptible to damping off which may be the ultimate culprit, but the bottom line is it has been too darn cold for them so far. Even my Sugar Snap Peas are taking their sweet time growing.
The whole vegetable garden is heavily mulched Lisa. It was done after the soil warmed. It will act to moderate soil temps, slowing heating and cooling and moves to extreme ends. I bet we stay cooler here in the mountains than you do in Indiana.
I do love the foliage on those bloodroot. To keep with the theme of your next post... I would love to acquisition some of the bloodroot!
Kim, you've got mail.
Sounds like your ladyslipper orchids bloom a lot sooner than mine, but your zone is certainly higher. My own showy ladyslipper bloomed on June 20th last year, while my yellow bloomed on June 4th. This year, I don't even see any foliage on the showy orchis yet, and the yellow is just appearing about 4" above ground. Too darn cold this year!
Lisa there is an unknown up here with foliage that looks very very similar to your Lady Slippers except it is glossy compared to what looks like hairy, pubescent foliage in your pics. The resident gardeners said they have never seen these bloom in 30 years. I keep watching them. They must reproduce some how. There are upwards of thirty of them in a range of sizes.
The foliage on my yellow is glossy, maybe those are just too small to bloom yet. I bought a pip of the Kentucky ladyslipper this year, and it's coming up glossy like the yellow as well.
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