On Nov 18, 11:07*pm, "Bob Hobden" wrote:
"Rod" *wrote ..
"Bob Hobden" *wrote

Repotting my Pleione orchids today, bit early but a friend in France wants
some and he's on his way back on Saturday, and to my surprise and delight I
found some self seeded Dactylorhiza in one large pan. Now repotted in the
existing old compost in their own pot. Will be interesting to see what the
flowers are like as they are again probably a cross between the two species
we have, D fuchsii and D maculata. The ones I found years ago seeded in an
old lily pot are superb, bigger than both species.

Do you grow any of these in the open garden as opposed to pots Bob? I'd love
to see if I could get them naturalised in my garden. They're very scarce
around here, verge 'management' has seen off the few roadside populations I
knew, but I see them frequently in Snowdonia. I would guess that some
populations are hybrid swarms.
Any pointers for naturalisation? Presumably the old compost conserves the
mycorrhizae which raises the question of introducing the mycorrhizae to a
garden situation.

The D fuchsii and D maculata are planted as bog plants in our pond, been
there for 25+ years I would think and in all that time I've never found a
young plant in the actual garden soil but then it can get dry round here in
summer and they don't like that.
I have planted some of those I found this time in the open garden but again
I have surrounded them with the old compost for the reason you mention. I
will have to see what happens next spring, it didn't work when I tried it
years ago.
I believe mycorrhizae is now available to buy and often used for tree
planting.

What I do is to shake the seeds out of the flower spikes into likely spots
in our small garden but as they blow about they always seem to come up in
pots of old compost which have a moss covering probably because of the build
up of mycorrhizae there, for example there are also a couple sharing a pot
with a Chinese Elm Bonsai which I have no intention of doing anything about.
Perhaps next year I should send you some old flower spikes with seed pods
for you to sprinkle over a damp mossy area if you have such (and if I
remember!).
--
Regards
Bob Hobden
W.of London. UK

Thanks for that Bob, this is a very new garden but I'm sure I could
arrange a damp mossy spot for next year, not sure about mycorrhizae
though, and they're critical for orchid seeds, probably less so for
plants. I need to do a bit more research.
Mycorrhizae are unlikely to be a magic bullet for everbody's
cultivation problems any time soon because the relationships between
fungi and plants are extremely complex and very little understood. I
doubt if there's any 'multi purpose' assembly of them that would have
a beneficial effect on a range of plants. Though you say you have your
orchids self sowing in pots containing other plants in old compost so
my previous statement is already looking a bit dodgy.
Probably getting hold of some good pot grown orchid plants may be a
possible way of getting some appropriate fungi.
BTW on another aspect of orchids being funny plants. In the old work
garden where I worked for 33 yrs, Broad leaved Helleborines are
cropping up is several parts of the place but I worked there for over
30yrs before I saw any.

Rod