Gene Schurg wrote:
While dreaming through the spring bulb catalogs I found that Dutch
Bulbs
(www.dutchbulbs.com) is offering Egret flowers (Habenaria radiata) at
2
corms for $10.00. They rate this for zones 5-10.

Is anyone growing this in their flower patch? I have a nice stand of
pink
and white Bletillas that are nice flowers, not great but nice. I
thought
this might be a nice addition to my outdoor orchid collection.

I'm wondering how long the flowers last and how hardy they seem to be
for
other growers.

It's an interesting miniature, but it's not going to light up a
flowerbed. I think it would be better suited to pot culture. I've
grown it on several occasions and have had difficulty getting it
through the winter. The first time I lost my dormant plants, I had
previously given seed to a friend for flasking. The flasked seedlings
grew well and bloomed their second year out of flask, but then slowly
dwindled away over several winters. I think it dislikes wet conditions
while dormant. Perhaps a cool dry dormancy would be better.