Bletilla striata - Hyacinth Orchid

The Bletilla striata, known as the hyacinth orchid, is a fairly hardy terrestrial orchid that adapts well to most climates. Charming, it blooms for a month in early summer, offering loose spikes of small flowers with pink to violet petals and a white labellum marked with purple. The flowers emerge from a clump of large light green leaves, reminiscent of gladiolus leaves. The Bletilla striata spreads slowly and can easily cover places it likes, whether in partial shade or under morning sun, in a cool, humus-bearing, well-drained soil.

The hyacinth orchid, also known as Bletilla hyacinthina, is a herbaceous geophyte plant with flattened pseudo-bulbs belonging to the orchid family. It is native to Japan, China, and Tibet. The plant produces young shoots from April onwards, which unfold into a cluster of long oblong to lanceolate, pleated leaves, about thirty centimetres long. In June-July, violet-tinged flower stalks appear, bearing 6 to 10 flowers with a diameter of 3 cm. Each flower consists of 4 pink to violet petals surrounding a tubular pink labellum, the white throat of which is striated with the same shade of pink. After blooming for about a month, the flowers disappear, while the foliage persists until November. The plant then goes dormant until spring. Bletilla striata easily multiplies by forming pseudo-bulbs, eventually forming beautiful clumps. Unlike the majority of other species, this orchid does not seem to live in symbiosis with a specific fungus, which makes it easy to establish in the garden.