Orchids in a Fishtank?

(blog posts for this project begin with a retroactive entry)

2 January 2009

This post will begin my account of attempts to grow orchids with the riparium planting system. This series of experiments might yield some useful, intriguing results, or it might be a total bust.

Today I acquired an orchid that might grow well as a semi-aquatic. I purchased the hybrid Phragmepedium, ‘St. Ouen’, at Orchids Garden Centre in Waunakee, Wisconsin. Since it is a hybrid clone, optimal growing conditions might be more difficult to predict for this plant than for a true species. However, the species Phragmipedium besseae was apparently among the parental plants that were crossed to eventually produce ‘St. Ouen’. P. besseae is one of several Phragmipedium that are described as growing in saturated soil along the edges of streams.

The plant has a single pretty bloom today. It resembles P. besseae, but has white and pink coloration instead of the brilliant scarlet red of that plant.