Pests Slugs and Snails are by far the worst pests but they can be easily thwarted by the use of commercially available slug bait used every two weeks starting in the early spring before plant s shoots emerge. Small black weevils emerge mid spring and poke holes in buds of plants as they emerge. Be sure to spray emerging buds in early spring. Twice a week until plants are fully up. Once plants are up, they are pretty much immune to these pests.
Most damage is done only to the emerging eye buds.
From late fall to early spring, mice can chew on the dormant eye buds of the plants. We never have experienced rodent problems personally and have never even used hardware cloth, but some folks have reported problems and thus, we will leave it up to you to decide this one. Deer or Rabbits, we have heard, can be a nuisance if they like to eat the blooms off of Cypripediums. Therefore, if you have a lot of deer in your area, a bug or bird netting tossed over the plants at night when they are blooming would prevent this. When growing in a garden condition fertilizer is not necessary.