Thursday, February 25, 2010

Bletilla striata (Chinese Ground Orchid)

Bletilla  is a hardy terrestrial orchid rarely growing more than 12" tall.  The foliage dies back to the ground each winter.  Purple flowers appear in late winter to early spring in Zone 9B, and range in color from pale pink to deep purple depending on the cultivar.  There is also a white color form.  There are usually 6-10 flowers per spike.
Native to China and Japan, it grows well in USDA Zones 6-10 in filtered sun locations.
These are often sold in stores with other packaged perennial bulbs such as Blood lily, Amazon lily, etc.

4 comments:

Curbstone Valley Farm said...

What a lovely little orchid, I had no idea I could grow it here, but now I'm tempted!

africanaussie said...

Thanks grower Jim, for putting a "proper" name to my orchids :) They are lovely and flower way more often than other orchids.

Kimberly said...

Beautiful! Mine haven't started blooming yet.

ibo said...

This is a lovely plant. I was thinking about trying to grow it... but the porblem is I live in an area where its really hot and even under the shade I doubt that this bloom will last more than 2 days the most!