Many years ago, Bill Steele was a geologist at Eastern Washington University in Cheney, Wash., and the Latin word cypripedium was only vaguely familiar to him. One day, however, Steele came across an endangered member of the genus cypripedium – the yellow ladyslipper. “The yellow ladyslipper is endangered in that part of the county, and I decided that I wanted to do something to help them,” said Steele. As a result, Steele started reading and soon learned that nobody was growing the rare plant from seed. In the early 1980s, he started experimenting with the plant’s tiny seeds in his own home. It took countless hours of reading, research and trial and error, but eventually, he produced a seedling. The secret, he said, was in understanding the orchid seed’s energy source. “Orchids produce seeds, but there is no food reserve for them, as there is in most other seeds,” said Steele. “As a result, orchid seeds digest the fungi that attack them. That’s where they get the energy to grow.”

Trying varied mixtures and ratios of nutrients, Steele developed a gel food for the seeds, which consists of sugar, nitrogen, potassium and other critical ingredients. Also, he used a careful sterilization process before planting the seeds in the gel. Within a few years, Steele was producing more ladyslipper seedlings than he and his wife Carol could plant. “We began selling them,” said Carol. “And it took off from there.” Now, starting in about December of each year, Steele plants the seeds in the gel and incubates them until the next December. When a full year has passed, he pulls the seedlings out of glass containers, which are stored in carefully marked cardboard boxes, and refrigerates them. This step not only mimics the winter season, but ensures they’ll be ready for planting in mid April. “This year, we sold about 10,000 seedlings to customers and nurseries around the country,” said Carol. “Our plants normally include white, yellow, showy and southern ladyslippers.” When the Steeles first began growing and selling flowers, they were still living in Washington. Given that Bill’s interest in ladyslippers was growing –– and the climate in their home state wasn’t good for most orchids – they began looking for a new locale. “Carol said she would move if it meant I wouldn’t be growing ladyslippers in our kitchen anymore,” said Bill.

Having traveled Highway 2 in the past, Bill was familiar with northern Minnesota and knew also that the state’s summers were generally cool and moist. The couple began looking for a home and found one east of Grand Rapids in 1997. Happily, the property included a tamarack swamp that was rich with pink ladyslippers.

Today, the Steeles sell their ladyslippers on the Web site www.ladyslipperfarm.com. Carol’s son Brandon also sells the plants at the family’s greenhouse on the River Road. Around the country, a total of 47 ladyslipper species exist. Six of these are native to Minnesota, and some, including the yellow and ramshead ladyslippers, are endangered in some parts of the country. “Some ladyslipper species are fairly easy to grow,” said Carol. “It depends on the climate, but the yellow ones are generally the most adaptable. That’s normally what we recommend to people who are planting a ladyslipper for the first time.”

For more information, visit Itasca Ladyslipper Farm on the web at www.ladyslipperfarm.com