Slightly OT Serapias
Rand Nicholson (Sun, 19 Jun 2005 07:25:29 PDT)

Hi Jim:

I have been growing this little beauty for a couple of seasons now
and , although I have yet to have blooms, the psuedobulbs have
multiplied. Outdoors, I grow it in a pot with a very porous mix with
the addition of some clay chips you can get for water plants and some
ground limestone. After the weather gets cool in the fall, I bring
them indoors to a sunny, cool windowsill where they sit until they go
down and I then stop watering them, almost. They do get an occasional
watering throughout the winter just to keep the mix from totally
drying out. You may well be able to grow these in outdoors in MO. I
quote Warren Stoutamire, of the University of Akron, Ohio Biology
Dept., who successfully grows these and was so helpful in getting me
on the right track with S. lingua:

"Rand: I have grown Serapias lingua here for several years and the
species is easy to manage. They are potted in fast-draining
sand-soil mixtures with chunks of calcareous tufa in the mix and
around the tuberoids. You can add ground limestone or marble chips
to the mix if you do not have tufa. The clay pots are kept in a
bright position and watered lightly through the winter. They flower
after the other Mediterranean terrestrials have finished, when the
days are long, warm, bright and pots dry quickly. They grow well in
groups and withstand occasional drying out. If you grow Orchis,
Ophrys and other such terrestrials you should have no problems. They
tolerate temperatures from 35 to 45F at night without any problems."

Best Regards,

Rand