ORCHID ADVICE

Cultivating Orchids

Andy Navage, Bloedel Reserve’s Director of Grounds & Horticulture, offers this advice about growing orchids here in the Pacific NW:

Where to begin? Over the years I have tried to grow just about every hardy orchid and several not-so-hardy ones in the garden and nursery. My general take-away from those experiments is that orchids are not as difficult as we are led to believe. Sometimes there is such a thing as too much love.

Most of the ones at the Reserve are in the Rhododendron Glen but can be found elsewhere in the garden too. We just planted several hundred Epipactus Sabine in the meadow near the Bird Marsh.

Here are some good groups to try:

Calanthe sp. cvs.  Calanthe — This is a group of terrestrial orchids from Asia that grow well in free-draining soil under normal garden conditions. The hybrids typically are pretty easy to grow and find: Takane, Kozu, Kojima. Easy species to try: Discolor, Sieboldii. All do well in shade to part sun.

Cypripediums — I’ve had better luck growing these out in the garden rather than containers. The hybrids are pretty vigorous and I think you only need to keep them out of waterlogged wet conditions in winter. Keeping It Green Nursery usually has a good selection. C. Formosana is super easy.

Dactylorhiza and epipactus species — These are very good for our area and like it a little moist. We get seedlings popping up all over in the nursery.