Hello from north Wales

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TrevorNW

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Hi everyone. Now I've posted my first pics and posed a few questions I thought I should just introduce myself.

I'm based in north Wales, a wonderful mountainous county that lies to the west of England. We're famous for our sheep, our endless rain and the fact that we're not English! We even speak our own language, Welsh.

I work as Botanical Specialist for a plant conservation charity called Plantlife. Our aims are to bring threatened British plants back from the brink, stop common plants becoming rare, and re-engage people with wild flowers. For more on our work see http://www.plantlife.org.uk/

I became obsessed with orchids when very young after finding an Early Purple orchid (Orchis mascula) on my dad's farm at the age of 12. I was soon growing all sorts of orchids on the windowsills, thanks to a very tolerant mother! I tried oncidiums, odontoglossums, cymbidiums, laelias and all sorts of species, but was captivated by a plant of Paphiopedilum venustum. Not only did i love the strange flowers, it had amazing leaves and I managed to flower it for many years. I was hooked.

Fast forward to today. I now grow quite a large collection of Cypripedium (which are becomming very affordable today - I picked up a 7-stem kentuckiense for £20 ($34) this year) and I'm getting back into Paphs once again. I grow these on windowsills in my home and office, the only restriction being my partner ("not another one of those things!"). Since space is very restricted I have to be very selective in what I buy. My current list is:

Maudiae
Maudiae 'Claire de Lune'
venustum
Venus Hold
viniferum (sold as Callosum 'Jac')
Pinocchio
China Dragon
Druid Spring
Robinianum (two clones, in an attempt at multiflorals!)
Vipanii
Henrietta Fujiwara

The last five are new aquisitions that are yet to flower - exciting times!

As for Cyps, space is less limited outside so the collection includes:
reginae
pubescens
parviflorum
kentuckiense
formosanum
tibeticum
calceolus
Gisela
Cleo Pinkepank
Sabine
Philip
Tilman
Michael
Lady Dorine
Ursel
Ventricosum
Ulla Silkens

So, that's me. I have a few questions to aks later and will be posting pics when things flower.
 
Welcome to the forum Trevor from New York State!

Very informative website you have posted. Our wildflowers are threatened also by loss of habitat (new housing developments).

Looking forward to seeing more pictures!
 
Trevor, welcome from South Africa. I had no idea that the Welsh were so fiercely independent. My only reservation about your venustum is the pouch, the rest is so strongly venustum, that I am tempted to overlook the pouch. It would be be interesting to see how it breeds.
 
Not bad. The UK has a lot of interesting native orchids; they must be very rare because I have never had any. :p Some of our Cyps are also native to UK.
 
Thanks for the warm welcome! I'll post some pics of my Cyps soon, and of my Paphs when they flower.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Welcome Trevor.

I'm glad that you also grow paphs and cyps. It will be good to see posts of your collection when they bloom. I also have the odd cyp, phrag but mainly a multifloral paph collection.

Gary
(Nottingham-Uk)
 
Hi Trevor,
welcome and good to see a fellow Brit with a nice collection of slipper orchids.
You should be able to grow some good cyps with the climate in Wales.
I too started off with paphs on windowsills but have now graduated to phrags.
( still on windowsills) I find them easier,
David
 

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