This year’s Chelsea Flower Show was awash with lady’s slipper orchids, or cypripediums. There are some 65 species of cypripediums, all found within the northern hemisphere, ranging from Mexico to Siberia. Despite being tricky to grow, hybridisers have been at work creating a myriad of new named varieties. The stand-out hybrid for me was large flowered Cypripedium ‘Kentucky Maxi’ – tall and fresh looking with voluptuous primrose slippers and nicely punctuated curling petals.
