Pink Lady Slipper, Hepatica

This Pink Lady Slipper, just about ready to bloom, is located at the top of the garden under mountain laurel and pines. I knew Lady Slippers were in the area (there are some down by the reservoir and I found one up the hill a bit from the garden last year), but had no idea any were at Eklund Garden until someone helping me out at Twombly Nursery told me about it. I promptly went Lady Slipper hunting and found a couple, but this is the only one that looked like it would bloom this year (I seem to remember reading they take seven years to bloom). And they are notoriously difficult to transplant and picky about where they live (must be acidic ... under pines is a good bet).

While looking for the Lady Slipper I found these interesting plants. I think the taller ornate leave is a Tall Rattlesnake Root and the shorter one with 3 leaves is Sharp-Lobed Hepatica, which is ironic because I was at the garden dropping off Sharp-Loved Hepatica I had just purchased at Twombly.

Anyways, I've picked up my order from Twombly (and added a prickly pear cactus, which is native to Connecticut, believe it or not -- I've seen them growing wild at Milford Point), and will be getting a big delivery from Earth Tones on Monday. There's lots of work to do spreading the Sweet Peat (I think we'll mix the mulch into the soil rather than spread it on top), planting the new plants, and removing the noxious Black Swallowwort.