February, 1912 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST 



35 



I 



is in a thriving condition the plant 'S 

 thriving. The plants are greatly bene- 

 fitted by frequent dampings between the 

 pots, especially in summer. If grown in 

 pots these must be well drained, and 

 about one-third filled with crocks to en- 

 able the water to run off freely. Many 

 orchids are grown in cribs or baskets. 



PLANT CHARACTERISTICS 



Most orchids consist of bulbs, with ;i 

 pair of leaves on each bulb. Every year 

 a new bulb grows from the bottom cf 

 the previous year's bulb, and the flow- 

 er stalk either comes from the base of 

 the bulb or the top of it. Some orchids, 

 «uch as the cypripediums, throw up the 

 leaves from roots, and the flower stems 

 come from the centre of each cluster of 

 leaves. 



A SMALL GREENHOUSE 



I have a small lean-to greenhouse, 

 with a southern exposure, about twenty 

 feet by fifteen. It has a stone founda- 

 tion, and a brick wall of about four feet. 

 The end, side and roof are, of course, 

 glass in wooden frames. It has been 

 built many years, but if I were building 

 it now I would use iron frame construc- 

 tion for the end, side and roof. It is 

 heated from my house furnace ; and 

 contrary to what is generally supposed, 

 I find no difficulty from this method of 

 heating. It cost me about $250.00 to 

 build, including heating, but would 

 probably cost rather more now. 



I have wooden benches inside, com- 

 posed of narrow pieces of one-half inch 

 wood, with a space of about an inch be- 

 tween each. This allows the water to 

 run off freely. Under the benches is an 

 earthen floor. This retains some of the 

 moisture which arises from the watering, 

 and thus helps to keep the atmosphere 

 moist. 



The greenhouse has a door opening 

 into my back parlor, and another one 

 opening into my kitchen. This enables 

 some air circulation to be obtained even 

 in severe winter weather, when it is al- 

 together too cold to open the ventilat- 

 ors. 



Those orchids which in the wild state 

 grow on trees do best when hung near 

 the glass, at a distance of two or three 

 feet away. Those which in a wild state 

 grow in swamps are best suited to grow- 

 ing on the bench. In my greenhouse I 

 have practically two lots of plants — one 

 lot on the benches and the other hung 

 o\erhead near the glass. I have about 

 one hundred and fifty plants in all and 

 about fifty kinds. 



I need scarcely say much about the 

 beauty of orchid blooms. To my mind 

 they are the silks and satins of flowers, 

 the flowers of other plants being the cot- 

 tons and woollens. The delicacy of color- 

 ing is their greatest glory. It is only cf 

 late years that florists in Canada have 

 begun to realize that orchid blooms are 



easy to grow. They command a good 

 price as cut flowers, and always will, be- 

 cause you cannot get many blooms from 

 a plant, and these only once a year. 



The kinds which I grow are, of course, 

 those of the cool house, and those of the 

 intermediate class which will grow in the 

 same house. I do not grow many of 

 those which bloom in summer. I thought 



I could get lots of flowers outdoors in 

 summer, and, therefore, I grow mostly 

 those varieties which bloom in the late 

 fall, winter, or early spring. By doing 

 this I always have some flowers for my 

 house all the year round ; and I certainly 

 get the most lovely ones from my or- 

 chids right in the middle of winter. 

 (To b& continued) 



Spraying and Fumigating in the Greenhouse 



E. M. Straight, Macdonald College, Que. 



ETERNAL vigilance is the price of 

 freedom from disease and insect 

 pests in the greenhouse, as else- 

 where. No part of the plant is immune, 

 below ground as well as above ; and 

 from the time that the young seedling 

 .sends up its two cotyledons until the 

 harvest, it is constantly in danger. It 

 is worth noting that for all greenhouse 

 work an ounce of prevention is worth a 

 pound of cure. 



Fungicides, for the most part, are in- 

 tended for use as preventives rather than 

 cures. To be eff'ectual they should be 

 applied before the disease has any hold 

 upon the plant. The same is true with 

 many of the insecticides. They are most 

 effective before the insects have reached 

 their full development. One reason for 

 the early application of the remedies 

 against both insects and diseases is that 

 they multiply very rapidly. If not check- 

 ed at the start they may propagate and 

 become so numerous that much harm 

 may be done. 



No man can intelligently fight insects 

 or combat disease without knowing the 

 enemies which he must meet. There 

 are men who persistently attempt to 

 poison plant lice, and wonder why Paris 

 green will not kill them. Recently I 

 was asked which I thought better for 

 potatoes — bordeaux mixture or paris 



green. If every person could be con- 

 vinced that bordeaux is a fungicide, that 

 stomach poisons kill only such insects as 

 chew, and that sucking insects, as 

 aphides, are killed by contact, they 

 would have mastered principles of para- 

 mount importance. The enemies which 

 every gardener must meet are as fol- 

 lows: 



VARIETIES OF INSECTS 



Perhaps no class of insects take on 

 more form than the aphis. In color, 

 they differ more. Usually the green 

 aphides are most common, but on the 

 chrysanthemum the black aphis is com- 

 mon enough. Red and blue aphides are 

 common on some plants. The antennae 

 are long, the head small, and the abdo- 

 men large and much rounded. During 

 the summer these insects are wingless, 

 but in autumn winged forms appear. 

 During the summer aphides bring forth 

 their young alive, but they winter in the 

 egg stage. 



White flies are not flies in the true 

 sense, but close relatives of the aphides. 

 Adult males and females are winged. 

 The wings are outspread. In this they 

 differ from the aphides. 



The red spider is also wrongly named, 

 as it is not an insect or spider, but a 

 mite. They are exceedingly small. It 

 is very seldom that you see them unless 



Sterilizing with Steam for Nematode, at Macdonald College, Quebec 



