PlantFiles: Chinese Ground Orchid, Hyacinth Orchid, Peacock Orchid, White Chicken
Bletilla striata

This plant does well in both shade and part shade--seems pretty tough in this climate. Nice to see it come back every year.

In my experience this plant is pretty hardy. I've had it over 6 years, it's barely in any soil and got nearly choked out by grass, and this spring it began blooming again. Last spring it did not bloom. I'm watering it twice weekly and it does seem to prefer to be in dappled sun rather than full sun. I'm about to seperate it and put it in better soil so it will grow better and hopefully spread.

They do not like the dry hot California sun. I grow them in the shady spot along with other parennials Forget-me-not, Begonia, Fusia, Foxglove, and annual Immapatients in my SF Bayarea northern CA.

I have a tricky spot around our walkway where it gets part sun and it floods dreadfully. I have not found any plants to survive in it except for lilyturf so when I planted these flowers, I had low expectations. I did not amend the soil and to be honest, I have not checked on them since I planted them a month ago. Last week, I noticed some beautiful purple flowers on one of them and I could not believe it. Finally, some success and even better, it is an orchid, which are stunning. I don't know how they will stand up to our winters yet but it is doing great so far in the summer.

Contrary to the above notation, Bletillas are easily grown from seed sown in much the same manner as gesneriads. Flasking, the usual method of sowing orchid seeds, is apparently not necessary for this genus. I've been having very good luck with raising seedlings almost to the bloom stage in three years since making the original crosses. I'm looking forward to doing much more hybridizing among the species, variants, and hybrids in my collection.

Love it! It's a joy seeing the beautiful 'purple' flowers every Spring. I started with one root around 1998 and left it alone and it has now multiplied to about 10 or 12 'stalks' coming out of the ground. It gets the morning sun and seems happy where it is.

I originally had this plant in clay in a partly sunny sight. It barely grew. So I excavated the clay and replaced the top 8" with composted peat. Wow, what a difference! Now it blooms hardily and has spread to make a nice clump. I add my daily coffee grinds and some pine straw throughout the year to keep the organic matter high.

I love this plant, so pretty and a nice shade of purple when it blooms. I wish this plant would spread faster. I have it is part to full shade and it does great. I started with only one stalk 3 years ago and now it has several. A very underused plant.

A precious, delicate beauty, slow to populate, and always a joy to see in spring. It blooms for a lengthy time (over a month) but I wish it could multiply a bit faster. Neglect works fine here.

I planted three varieties of this ground orchid last year ('hyacintha' - purple, 'alba' - white, and 'aurea' - yellow). One of the albas bloomed the first year. The others didn't seem to be doing well, but several of all three varieties returned this Spring and are multiplying from their underground rhizomes in near distance from the original plants, much to my delight! The hyacintha and alba are currently in bloom. The aurea has not yet bloomed nor shown signs of a flower spike. Some of the alba are the white varigated striped leaf variety mentioned here. I have these orchids planted amongst my ginger plants in semi-shade with almost daily watering. A few thousand of them would be very welcome!

Will also take some pretty good punishment.
Not a tender orchid at all.
Ours is planted in between Maple roots in average to poor soil.
Morning sun.
Has returned and flowered now for 4 years.
No Winter care given.

Tough, long blooming and quite beautiful.

A nice carefree plant. The purple ones that I have tend to be taller and generally more robust than the white ones. I have some in mostly shade, some part sun/shade, and some in almost all sun and they do well in all of those locations. You do have to thin every now and then but I never have problems finding people who wants some.

Edgewood, Washington
There is also a white variety, "alba". I have this and the purple variety growing next to the Koi pond. There is also a variety that has foliage edged in white. Multiplies fast but seems to do best if undisturbed and left to form nice clumps. Foliage is attractive even when the plant is not in flower.

Bletilla striata is a terrestrial orchid from China, Taiwan and Japan. The rhizomes form psuedobulbs half in and half out of the soil from which the leaves and flower stems appear early in the year.

Has lance like, ribbed, mid-green leaves. Bears bright purple-pink flowers.

Flowers between April and July

Loves leafy, moist but well-drained soil in light shade in a sheltered site. Needs to be dry in winter when dormant. May also need a winter mulch in regions that get regular frosts.

The main pests are red spider mite and aphid.