March 14, 1908 



HORTlCULTURi: 



:!2o 



The Culture of Phalaenopsis 



Amabilis, 

 or granditlora 

 Stnartiana 



The frontispiece of this issue of 



Horticulture shows a house of 



Phalaenopsis Aphrodite as grown for 



Mrs. B. B. Tuttle of Naugatuck, 



Conn. There are about 250 plants 



of Aphrodite with an aggregate of 



over 1400 flowers. There were no 



Ph. Schilleriana in bloom at the time 



the picture was taken but a few good 



plants may be seen hanging from 



the roof. About 450 Phalienopses 



are grown here, representing the fol- 

 lowing species: Aphrodite (often 



wrongly called amabilis), Schil- 

 leriana, amabilis or grandiflora, 



Luedemanniana, rosea, amethystina 



and the natural hybrid between Ph. 



Aphrodite and Schilleriana called 



Ph. leucorrhoda. 



As the first four mentioned rank 



amongst the most beautiful and best 



paying cut flowers in the market it 



may interest some of Horticulture's 



readers to hear something of my 

 method of growing this beautiful 

 class of orchids. 



Phalaenopses, as a rale, are considered hard to grow 

 and many otherwise good gardeners fight shy of them 

 on that account. But after four years' experience with 

 these plants coupled with careful observation and many 

 experiments I have found that they can be grown 

 almost as easy as cattleyas and indeed more easily than 

 some varieties of that genus, providing a few sim- 

 jile rules are strictly adhered to. First of all keep the 

 plants free of all insects, especially thrips; second, do 

 not keep the plants nor the air of the house in which 

 they are grown, saturated with moisture during winter ; 

 third, give plenty of fresh air whenever possible, and, 

 last but not least, give them all the light possible with- 

 out scorching the leaves. 



Insects, especially thrips, must be kept down or the 

 plants will not thrive. If the plants are grown suspen- 

 ded from the roof snails and cockroaches will not trouble 

 them much but thrips, red spider, ants and water-bugs 

 will find their way to them no matter where they are 

 and a sharp lookout must therefore be kept. 



Nicoticide is perhaps the best and cheapest compound 

 for vaporizing but it must be used stronger than is rec- 

 commended, else it will have but little effect on thrips 

 and mealy bug. It will, imfortunately, injure tender 

 ferns and therefore cannot be called a safe insecticide, 

 but it is as safe as and kills more insects than any 

 otlier insecticide 1 have tried. It will not injure the 

 flowers of Phalaenopsis although a slight fumigating 

 with tobacco stems will put them to sleep and will also 



Types of Phal.knopsis. 



Aphrodite 



Schilleriana 



Rosea 



cause little eruptions or warts on the tender young 

 leaves. The best and surest way to get rid of all these 

 iroublesome insects is to dip the plants bodily, leaves 

 and all, into a tub containing some Nicoticide and 

 enough fir tree oil to make the water look milky; to a 

 butter tub full of water I use 3 oz. Xicoticide and 2 oz. 

 fir tree oil; this solution will kee]( for several days and 

 will not injure the plants. 



This is the quickest and most certain way to find out 

 if there are any thrips or other injurious insects hiding 

 in the compost. Thrips will quickly rise to the surface 

 and after a few seconds are put out of commission. 

 Water-bugs will live in a solution of the strength recom- 

 mended above for half an hour or more ; however, they 

 will soon come out of their hiding place and may then 

 be killed by hand; the same holds true of snails and 

 cockroaches. Bed spider and mealy bug can easily be 

 kept down bv an occasional sponging and frequent 

 syringing. 



During the winter I try to keep the temperature of 

 the house between 60 degrees and 65 degrees at night 

 and 10 degrees higher through the day. But it often 

 happens that the temperature drops to 54 degrees be- 

 fore morning and then again it may run up to 75 de- 

 grees some nights, which will do no luu'm, because the 

 plants and atmosphere are kept on the dry side during 

 winter with just a little air on tbc bottom at all times 

 I'xcept in extreme cold weather. 



The house is dani|"'(l down diuc a day and tlie plants 



