The only Lady's slipper that I've found suitable for a typical acid bog is C. acaule. I did have C. candidum and reginae in an "alkaline" bog (or fen) but that would not support the carnivorous plants, they all went into decline and I had to move them.

I have found the soil mix to be very much the same save for the PH and the nutrient content.

I've since moved the Cyps. other than acaule to a prepared bed in the perennial garden.

Sorry, been away.

I usually create a whole separate bed for the slippers, but if I don't have to..

Welllll...it's all just "trickery" and tinkering with what 'should" be, probably part of some neurosis. I don't like to garden within the "rules". I do things like grow tropicals outside, push zones, create pockets of "prairie", pockets of southwest "desert" with agave and cactus. I actually have a single lucophylla (in a hidden plastic bucket w/ holes drilled) in my "native" perennial bed right next to prairie plants like echinacia and liatris. I have really tried to learn plant communities and ecosystems through experience, research and experimentation, then I just kind of can't help myself but to "play" with them. I don't feel connected or at home in this suburban enviornment but kind of disconnected disassociated from the earth so I invite other "others" to join me here as well. Kind of a suburban ark. I understand what "belongs" here on Long Island and appreciate natural systems but it is hard to take restoration seriously given the context of how far removed and disconnected my suburban backyard is from what it "should" be or once was (admittedly plant greed plays a role as well ;o)). I guess I went to the other extreme.

Yes, I like to play a lot of games in and around my bog. The mix I use for the CPs and slippers is much the same, peat/sand, but with the candidum, reginae, andrewsii I do add about 1/3rd perlite for drainage, elevate the pocket slightly, carefully monitor PH to keep it neutral (w/ hort lime) and try to maintain/contain "pockets" of that neutral mix within the bog. Peat doesn't seem to impact PH as much as people think. Those are the only slippers I actually have directly in the bog.

As Fred mentioned (glad to see your post Fred!), and as you know, reginae and candidum like neutral to basic ph and are found in alkaline wet meadows and fens. Having them seem to coexist with CPs goes against what might occur in a natural system at least in that small amount of space without transition but it was something I thought would be interesting to try. So far so good. Candidum is going on five years, reginae three.

Ventricosum, henryii, macranthos and others look like they are actually in the bog but they really are not. They are in self contained pockets (using large plastic pots) with their own mix just beyond the edge of the bog. There is probably some amount of leaching back and forth between the bog and the pockets of high ph mix. So far no casualties directly attributable to that.

Sorry for the monologue on my rationale for plant selection/siteing. Sometimes I feel the need to justify the insanity of my plant zoo... if only to myself.