Troutbirder II

Troutbirder II
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Friday, November 2, 2012

The Lady Bunnys Slippers


In 1972 we were staying at a lake cabin near Grand Rapids, Minnesota. A local nursery had Showy Pink Ladyslippers for sale. They are Minnesota's State Flower. I bought two. Fortunately that summer the DNR's "Conservation Volunteer" magazine had an article on how to build a small artifical bog. The plan basically showed digging a pit, lining it with plastic, filling it in with equal parts of soil and peat. Then planting your orchids. The picture above shows what it looked like when completed. The orchids took hold, were carefully nurtured and slowly, very slowly gradually increased in number and size. 
 
These gems were the pride of my rapidly growing flower gardens. They stood along the fence in the backyard shaded by our mighty oak trees. By 2003, the year we built our new house in the woods, they had increased to several dozen beautiful specimens. As part of our contract in selling our old house, the new owners agreed that I could take any plants with me, as they were not interested in gardening. Limited time and physical stamina (I was helping build the house that summer) meant only a few could be moved next door. Naturally, the native orchids were the first priority. A new bog was built in the North Woods and the transplantation was accomplished with much trepidation. 
 That winter I began to evolve the plans for both the North and South shady gardens. I worried about my lady slippers. The Showy Pinks were hopefully safe in their new bog and the Large Yellows had been placed bareroot in the South Woods.
Only time would tell.... native orchids are notoriously difficult to transplant.  What a relief when spring revealed that all the native orchids had survived their abrupt move without a hitch.  Things were going well when we left in late spring for a camping trip to the Blue Ridge in Virginia. We had a great time touring Gettysburg battlefield, Washington DC, Williamsburg and the Great Smoky Mountains. Upon our return to Minnesota though, we found that disaster had struck.  I had failed to poke enough hole's in the bottom of the bog's liner. Heavy rains had filled the bog during our absence turning it into a lake. Half the Showy Pinks were drowned. The survivors looked pretty sick but I hoped for the best.  Slowly they began to revive. There were about ten survivors.
 Previously that spring my visiting grandson, who was just a toddler then, had spotted "the Easter Bunny" hopping about the yard. The bunny was a visitor from the neighbors rabbit hutch.  It was July and I was checking things out in the North Woods.
Several white rabbits were scampering off across Oak Hill Drive returning to their home. I found all the Showy Pinks nipped off at ground level. Each and every one never to return. The Easter Bunnies are no longer on my list of favorite animals.   Since then I have looked in various catalogues for replacements. At one hundred dollars a plant I can't justify replacing them . Since they are now being replicated by laboratory means and as the price is slowly declining, the day will come. In the meantime, I admire my large yellow ladyslippers which continue to do well….

 

20 comments:

  1. Such exotic little flowers! You really have the green thumb, TB. A shame the rabbits got to the Showy Pinks. That's a pretty costly dinner for the rabbits. So they didn't touch the yellow ladyslippers?

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  2. How very frustrating. Maybe you could check with the local orchid society and see if they have some maybe someone would swap. You never know. Good luck. How does a bunny come and visit from a rabbit hutch? They let them run free??

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  3. Your yellows are beautiful! There is a place that sells tissue culture Showy Lady Slippers..I cannot get them to grow..I have tried several times. I will be back with a link for you:)

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  4. here is the link..order yourself some!! :)
    http://www.spanglecreeklabs.com/olsplst.html

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  5. Oh, so sad! We have deer around here that take my neighbor's prize roses in much the same way. But I also wonder how come those bunnies are allowed to run free! I love your pretty yellow lady slippers though. I am very sad for you...

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  6. Tough to lose such beautiful flowers.They are a pleasure to find when out in the spring.

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  7. guess they heard of 'bunny slippers'. :)

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  8. Ouch-that price stings. Hope you get replacements at a much better deal--I agree with others, perhaps you can trade?

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  9. What a shame! Two words come to mind... rabbit stew. Nah, I'm just kidding!

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  10. Why, those wascally wabbits! I love lady slippers and look for them when we are out in the woods. I never thought to grow them and had no idea they were so expensive. It would be useless to try around here...the deer think they are candy.

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  11. I so appreciated your post about the ups and downs of exotic gardening and further proof of Murphy's Law with rabbits on the side! Also I think I would like to read American Empire having lived through those years. . .and from one yellow dog Dem to another, I'm hoping for the best next week.
    p.s. You have a gorgeous shepherd!!

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  12. I really love your picture number two.

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  13. Oh, those darn rabbits!!
    What a great story about your lady slippers. They were beautiful!
    I have never found a ladyslipper in the wild on our property (near Grand Rapids.) But my parent's do have them nearby and I found one in Ontario once. A wonderful thing to come across!

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  14. Oh they are SO beautiful... Darn those rabbits... (Rabbits ate my beautiful Impatiens blooms two years in a row --and 'forced me' to quit planting them.)

    I hope that someday you can have more of those gorgeous Lady Slippers... They truly are marvelous...

    Have a good weekend.
    Betsy

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  15. I'm sorry to hear about the loss of your Showy Pink Lady Slippers, but your yellows are beautiful. I have to admit that I also have issues with Easter bunnies.

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  16. Oh, what a sad story. All that hard work. I'll bet you have a showplace now though if the Lady Slippers are an example.

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  17. Love those lady slippers and that white bunny!
    Wishing you a beautiful November my friend!
    xo Catherine

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  18. Those are some really beautiful flowers. Sorry to read about you losing them!

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  19. Wow! Pricey little plants, aren't they? Hate they got nibbled away and hope you'll have them to enjoy again someday.

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  20. love love love the slippers

    I have had several occasions
    to rescue them ahead
    of the bulldozers
    developing a property .....
    a challenge to transplant .....
    give them exactly
    what they want and need-
    site them well - and get every root tip
    you can manage - their association
    with their fungus is absolutely critical!

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