PLEIONE 'SHANTUNG RIDGEWAY'

This strange looking spring-flowering plant caught my attention yesterday in the Alpine House of the RHS Gardens in Harlow Carr.  To me, it looks like a cross between an orchid and a carnivorous plant.  It's called Pleione 'Shantung Ridgeway' and is actually a member of the orchidaceae family.  It's a terrestrial orchid (rather than epiphytic, and according to my Royal Horticultural Society Gardeners' Encyclopedia of Plants and Flowers (1989), page 526, these plants 'grow in soil or leaf mould, sustaining themselves in the normal way through roots or tubers.  Some may be grown in borders, but many in temperate climates need to be cultivated in pots and protected under glass during winter'.

Pleione 'Shantung Ridgeway'

Pleione 'Shantung Ridgeway'