Soil type for Cypripedium Kentuckiense

[Gregt88]

Hello to everyone. New to this site. I recently bought a Kentucky Lady’s Slipper and I’ve been doing some reading on how to properly grow it in my zone 7b.

The site I purchased it from (won’t ship for another month) says to only grow it in quickrete builders all purpose sand with no organic. Another site says they easily grow theirs in rich organic well drained soil, and yet another one says low in nutrients with gravely humus. I read that they are one of the easier species but nearly all members of the genus are finicky to say the least.

Does anybody have any advice they could give me on this? I’m willing to prepare the bed with a pond liner after digging out all the sticky silty brown clay that only seems to grow moss and heavily amend it with sand, garden soil, and peat, much like the set up for a carnivorous plant bog, oh that reminds me, another site says they are not bog orchids rather they grow above bogs and fend or in ravines. It’s so confusing!!

Any help or comments would be greatly appreciated!!

Greg

[Subrosa]

Welcome to OB! If you're going to use an impervious liner, make certain that the planting area is built up well above the maximum water level, or you won't have a well drained situation regardless of what you use for a planting medium. I haven't grown kentuckiense, but have had some success with acaule, until the squirrels got them. If I were growing kentuckiense in pots I would likely go with an inorganic medium, but for an inground situation I would attempt to replicate woodland conditions. Theyre definitely not bog orchids, as unlike acaule they prefer neutral to alkaline conditions.