Orchis

Orchis - These terrestrial Orchids are beautiful, and well worth cultivation among hardy flowers. For those who do not want a full collection the species mentioned below are easily grown if placed under good conditions at first. Some of our native Orchids are worth a place, but few succeed with them, chiefly because the plants are transplanted at the wrong season. The usual plan is to transplant just when the flowers are opening, but at this period of growth the plant is forming a tuber for the following year, and if this is in any way injured it dies. If, instead, the plants are marked when in flower and allowed to remain until August or September, when the tubers are matured, the risk of transplanting is lessened, provided the plant be taken up with a deep sod. The ground where the plants grow may be surfaced with such plants as the Balearic Sandwort, Lawn Pearlwort, and the mossy Saxifrages. The situation for Orchids should be an open one, and the soil a deep, fibry loam in a drained border. The following are the kinds most worthy of culture:—

Amerorchis rotundifolia (Banks ex Pursh) Hultén - roundleaf orchid

Galearis spectabilis (L.) Raf. - showy orchid

Orchis Foliosa - A handsome Orchid, one of the finest of the hardy kinds, 2 feet or more in height, with long spikes of rosy-purple blossoms in May, lasting long in bloom. It delights in moist nooks at the base of the rock garden, though quite happy in deep light soil. Plant in early autumn. Madeira.

Marsh Orchis (Orchis Latifolia) - A fine native kind, 1 to 1 1/2 feet high, with long spikes of purple flowers in early summer. It thrives in damp boggy soil, in peat or leaf-mould. There are several beautiful varieties, the best being praecox and sesquipedalis; the last being one of the finest of hardy Orchids, about 1 1/2 feet high, and a third of the stem is covered with purplish-violet flowers.

Orchis Laxiflora - A pretty species, 1 foot to 18 inches high, with loose spikes of rich purplish-red flowers, opening in May and June, and thriving in a moist spot in the rock garden. Guernsey and Jersey Division.

Hand Orchis (Orchis Maculata.) - One of the handsomest of British Orchids, finest in rich soil, and if well grown in moist and rather stiff garden loam its beauty will surprise even those who know it well in a wild state. The variety superba is a fine plant, and should be secured.

Other beautiful kinds, but more or less difficult to establish in gardens, are O. papilionacea, purpurea, militaris, mascula, pyramidalis, spectabilis, tephrosanthos, and robertiana.

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