Mystery Wild Orchids In Blooming

At the beginning of this year, during my clean up of the aftermath of our January Freeze, I found some mystery plants in the front garden.  I posted the pictures on my blog, and some fellow bloggers helped me to identify those as some kind of orchid, most probably a Lady Slipper orchid (Paphiopedilum)!  Wow, I was very excited, and was looking forward to those gorgeous Lady Slipper flowers someday showing up on my wild orchids.

Here is a picture that was posted when I first found them.

Some of plants were dug out to put in the pots, and some were left in the original spot.  I even passed along some to my friends.  For two or three months, I checked their progress very often, but they did nothing, even the leaves did not have noticeable growth.  So I stopped checking them, they were left under the bushes, and got the rainfall irrigation like any plant in wild does.

A couple of weeks ago, I surprisingly found out that there were flower spikes shooting up from them.  They looked just like the regular orchid flower spikes.  Since the buds were very small, I started suspecting if it is LadySlipper orchid or not.  Finally, now they are blooming.  The flowers are very small, only a penny size.  The flower does look like an orchid, but definitely not like a LadySlipper orchid.

Just give you an idea the size of the flowers, this is a picture of this wild orchid placed next to a dendrobium orchid container.

Since the flowers are so small, I had hard time to get them focused on camera to show you the detail. This is about the best I can do.

Yes, I was a little disappointed, but I am not complaining.  I still consider my garden is blessed to have wild orchids growing.  After all, I did not even pay a penny for these orchids.  As small as the flowers are, they do look pretty up close.  Don't you think?

Anybody has seen something like this before?  Still would like to know if it has some official name.  The leaves are mottled, just look like some Lady Slipper orchids' leaves.   I think that was the major reason that it was identified as Lady Slipper at the beginning.

Mystery plant found during the front yard clean up

Although the freeze seemed did not damage Ixora in the frond yard, I found they were dropping the leaves like crazy in yesterday's windy weather.  When I started raking all those leaves, I decided they all need a hair cut any way.  Next thing I know I spent almost two hours cleaning up the whole frond yard.  Does that sound familiar to you gardeners?! 

After I did a good trim to those Ixora and Star Jasmine bushes, I found about eight plants like this hidden under them.  I don't know what they are, but they certainly don't look like weeds to me (at least I wish).  As much like free plants as me, I digged out four of them, and potted them, secretly hoping I just found a hidden treasure :)

Now, here is what I need my fellow gardeners' help!  What is this plant?  Does it worth my nurturing and caring?  Or it is just a weed that I am potting?!

When I moved to our current house a half year ago, I did not notice these plants at all in our front yard, maybe it has been hidden there for a quite while.  If so, whatever it is, it did not grow much since it still only about 6 to 7 inches long.  Of course that also could be caused by lacking of lights considering they are completely covered by dense Ixroa and Star Jasmine bushes, and also the plam trees. Here is my front yard looked like in August last year, so you can have an idea what this plant's environment is.

This is the view close to my front entry way. From the front to the back:  Sago Palm , Crotons, Ixora, and Star Jasmine.  Except Sago plam was another house warming gift from my friend, all other plants belong to the existing landscape.

This is the left side of the same front yard area.  From the front to the back:  Crotons, Agapanthus africanus (Meems at Hoe and Shovel listed this as one of the six plants she can not live without.  I love it very much as well!), palm tree (only the trunk can be seen in the picture), and star Jasmine.

The front yard faces north east, and only gets a couple of hours morning sun.  The rest of the day is pretty much in the shade or receives dappled sun light.  You can tell that mystery plant really does not get any sun, especially tucked under the Ixora and Star Jasmine bushes.

Now I am anxiousely waiting for somebody tells me I found a treasure!  Or not?

UPDATE: The result is in! "FloridaGirl" at "Peace in the Valley" identified this mystery plant is one kind of Orchids, by common name Lady Slipper. "The Rainforest Gardener" at "The Rainforest Garden" further confirmed Lady Slipper orchids are in the Paphiopedilum genus.

Thanks, FloridaGirl and The Rainforest Gardener! It is very nice of you to spend time to identify this plant for me!

Now the pressure is on, since I am not a very good orchid grower :)  I think I will keep the rest of plants in the original location for a while just in case I mess up the four I have dug out (does not sound very confident, huh?).   I will keep you all updated the progress of this plant.  Thanks again.