Aphii. H. 1904. 



The Weekly Florists* Review. 



1103 



A Hoiise of Princess of Wales Violets at the establishment of William Sim, Cliftondale, Mass. (See page 1 107. ) 



equals 4.5 grams, multiplied by 15.43 

 (grains in a gram) equals 69.435 giains, 

 or approximately 69.5 grains. The reduc- 

 tion to ounces or grains will not be neces- 

 sary if metric weights are used, which 

 is strongly urged. 



When the dose for certain plants in a 

 given house", frame or box is once ob- 

 tained, it should be carefully recorded 

 on the house or box thus: 



Contents 1,015 cubic feet, dose for 

 ferns, .075 gram per cubic foot, equals 

 76.1 grams; for violets, double, at .15 

 gram per cubic foot, equals 152.25 grams. 



If a scale weighing with avoirdupois 

 weights is used, the dose should be re- 

 corded in ounces and grains. 



ORCHID CULTURE. 



At the regular meeting of the Massa- 

 chusetts Horticultural Society, February 

 20, 1904, W. N. Craig, of North Easton, 

 ■was the speaker and gave a "Talk on 

 Orchid Culture, ' ' in which he brought 

 out many valuable hints for the success- 

 ful cultivation of these plants and threw 

 much light upon a subject not gener- 

 ally well understood. He spoke in part 

 as follows: 



"The advance in American horticul- 

 ture during the past fifteen years has 

 been truly remarkable; especially strik- 

 ing has been the steady progress in mat- 

 ters pertaining to floriculture. "While 

 the rose, carnation, violet and chrysan- 

 themum are still the most widely culti- 

 vated and popular of our greenhouse 

 flowers, it must be admitted that orchids, 

 the aristocrats of the floral kingdom, 

 are greatly increasing in popularity and 

 are being cultivated to a greater or less 

 extent, in ten times the number of es- 

 tablishments, especially private ones, of 

 a decade ago. 



"We believe the idea, once so preva- 

 lent, of orchids being difficult to grow 

 and flower is now pretty well exploded. 

 Most of the popular varieties are of com- 

 paratively easy culture, and no one who 

 is able to grow roses and carnations 

 need be afraid to handle orchids. Many 

 kinds will succeed well in any ordinary 

 greenhouse, and we have on more than 

 one occasion seen nicely flowered speci- 

 mens grown in dwelling houses; such 



sorts as Dendrobium nobile, Cypripedium 

 insigne, Lycaste Skinncri .nnd Ccplogyne 

 cristata will flower satisfactorily in an 

 ordinary bay window if frost is excluded 

 and a little judgment is used in water- 

 ing and other essential details. 



"The general impression is that 

 orchids are very costly and only to be 

 secured by the wealthy. While it is true 

 that their primary cost is higher than 

 most other plants, they usually give 

 their initial cost in flowers the first 

 season, and especially is this true of the 

 most showy and popular of our Amer- 

 ican orchids, the eattleyas. Nice, flow- 

 ering-sized plants of most of our popu- 

 lar orchids can be had for from $2 to 

 $5 apiece, while white eattleyas, yellow 

 cypripediums, some of the choicer 

 hybrids and other unique forms may 

 bring from $100 to $500 each. The 

 number of specimens changing hands at 

 these prices is, however, very few in 

 America ; we believe that when the late 

 F. L. Ames paid $1,000 for a white 

 form of Cattleya gigas, he reached the 

 maximum figure ever paid here. As high 

 as $500, or even more, has been paid on 

 many occasions, but the present ten- 

 dency is to grow popular varieties of 

 moderate cost and allow European fan- 

 ciers to hold the very valuable species. 



"We are now getting less and less of 

 new species from the forests and more 

 and more from the hybridist, and in the 

 years to come one will be more depen- 

 dent on the seedling raiser than on the 

 forest collector. Orchids were success- 

 fully raised from seed in England and 

 Ireland as far back as 1849, although it 

 was not until 1860 that the Messrs. 

 Veitch electrified the floral world by ex- 

 hibiting the first seedling orchid before 

 the Koyal Horticultural Society of Eng- 

 land. To-day seedling raising is a 

 hobby with many private growers and a 

 big industry with some commercial ones. 

 In some respects seedUn^ raising is 

 being overdone. Particularly is this 

 true of the cypripediums, which are now 

 so crossed and intercrossed that no liv- 

 ing authority could name them correctly. 



"Twenty-five years ago East Indian 

 orchids were all the rage, while now they 

 are little seen. In America today eat- 



tleyas are our most popular orchid; in 

 Europe odontoglossums are far in the 

 lead. Our climate suits the one, while 

 the European coolness is to the liking 

 of the other. It is unfortunate that our 

 hot summers make odontoglossum cul- 

 ture difficult here, for they are the most 

 chaste and beautiful of all orchids; 

 but we have the satisfaction, on the 

 other hand, thanks to our clear skies, of 

 growing better eattleyas than can be 

 produced in Europe. 



' ' Seedling raising in America is reak- 

 ing good progress, eattleyas, Iselio-cat- 

 tleyas, sophro-cattleyas, cypripediums, 

 c>Tnbidiums, zygopetalums and other 

 genera having been successfully inter- 

 crossed. Some especially fine eattleyas 

 have been raised in late years. What 

 we need here especially at the present 

 time is a seedling raiser who will pro- 

 duce large lots of such standard eat- 

 tleyas as Mossise, Trianfe, MendelU an.? 

 labiata, which are superior to all seed- 

 lings so far raised where intercrossed. 

 Such plants when of flowering size would 

 readily bring much higher prices than 

 dried specimens. Seedling raising has, 

 during the past season, been successfully 

 carried on in the open air in Oviedo, 

 Florida, where an enthusiastic amateur 

 has germinated numbers of eattleyas, 

 Ifelio-cattleyas and dendrobiums on the 

 mossy trunks of magnolia trees, pro- 

 tected by cheesecloth. Temperatures of 

 28 to 30 degrees were frequently 

 recorded where these seedlings were 

 raised. This proves a most interesting 

 experiment and opens up great future 

 possibilities. 



' ' Seedling raising under glass is at- 

 tended with many obstacles and diflicul- 

 ties. Good fern fibre of a soft, spongy 

 natiire is suitable upon which to sow the 

 seeds. They will also germinate if sown 

 on the surface of the soil of growing 

 orchid plants or on caHco cloth kept 

 damp. Very great care in watering, 

 ventilation and other details are neces- 

 sary and if all these prove successful, 

 flowering sized plants may be had in 

 from two to ten years, according to the 

 genera being worked upon. 



"In the matter of compost nothing- 

 is better for the general run of orchids 



