ORCHIDS 



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ORCHIDS 



hammer, crushing the finer soil entirely out of it ; then 

 pass it through a fine sieve, and what remains in the 

 sieve is the best stuff for orchids : it is light, open, and 

 porous. Next, have some charcoal at hand, broken 

 into pieces no larger than a hen's egg, nor smaller than 

 a hazel nut. Another article, and you will have all you 

 need for pots and baskets ; this is white bog-moss, or 

 sphagnum, which should be partially chopped with a 

 sharp hatchet, and the dust also sifted out of it. We 

 have a great abhorrence for anything close or fine about 

 orchids, excepting terrestrial ones. 



Having all in readiness, take your plant, turn it out 

 of the pot carefully, be mindful of the roots, and bruise 

 or injure them as little as possible. Perhaps some roots 

 will be found adhering very firmly to the sides of the 

 pot, to part them from which we have used a long, thin- 

 bladed knife, thrusting it carefully down between the 

 root and the pot. In very bad cases we have found it 

 necessary to break the pot ; but this must be done very 

 gently, or the very act of breaking may destroy the roots. 

 The plant being cleared from the pot, shake away all 

 the old compost ; then examine the roots closely, and 

 cut off all the dead ones. This is a convenient oppor- 

 tunity, also, to look after insects, especially the white 

 scale, the most pernicious of all vermin to orchids, 

 excepting, perhaps, the black thrip. With a brush clean 

 them all off, and wash the whole plant with strong soap- 

 water. Your plant is now ready for potting. Choose 

 a pot of the proper size : generally speaking, orchids, 

 to grow them well, take larger pots in proportion to 

 their size than any other class of plants. Let your pots 

 be perfectly clean both inside and out. Lay a large piece 

 of potsherd over the hole at the bottom of the pot ; 

 then place some rather smaller pieces of the same, and 

 over these the smallest ones. Altogether the pot ought 

 to be three-parts filled with this drainage. This point is 

 of the utmost importance, for if the plants are not super- 

 latively well-drained they will not thrive long or satis- 

 factorily. Over this drainage place a thin layer of 

 charcoal, and then a layer of the turfy peat, mixing with 

 it some broken pots and charcoal. Introduce the plant 

 now, and spread the roots, if many, all over the surface 

 of the compost, working it amongst them, gradually 

 filling it in till the pot is full, and keeping the body of the 

 plant well up ; raise the compost up about 2 or 3 inches 

 above the level of the edge of the pot in proportion to 

 its width. A small pot need not have the plant above 

 i inch raised, a middling plant 2 inches, and for the 

 largest-sized plant 3 inches will be sufficient. The whole 

 of the plant, pseudo-bulbs and all, excepting the roots, 

 ought to stand clear up above the compost. It will be 

 loose and ready to tumble over if of such kinds as 

 Caltle'yas or Dendro'biums ; to prevent which, thrust 

 into the compost some stout sticks, and tie each pseudo- 

 bulb to each stick firmly. These will secure the plant, 

 and give it a neat, tidy appearance. 



Orchids in Baskets. A considerable number of species 

 require baskets, because the flower-stems are pendent, 

 and, consequently, naturally require a position to allow 

 the flowers to grow down. In fact, some send the 

 flower-stems perpendicularly down through the soil or 

 compost. Now, if these are grown in pots, the flower- 

 stems run down into the soil, and there perish. It is 

 true they have been grown in pots on a hillock built 

 up 6 inches or a foot above the rim of the pot, and then 

 part of the flower-stems manage to find their way to 

 the outside of the little mound ; but a considerable 

 number descend straight downwards, and soon rot for 

 want of air and light. By growing them in baskets this 

 evil is prevented, and every raceme (bunch) of flowers 

 arrives at perfection. 



The baskets should be of a size suitable for small 

 plants small ones requiring only small baskets, middling 

 ones the middle-sized, and large ones in proportion. 

 The way to basket the plants is this : Have the peat or 

 compost prepared exactly as for potting above mentioned; 

 cover the bottom of the basket with a thin layer of moss- 

 green would do, though we prefer white, or sphagnum. 

 This moss is to prevent the peat from dropping through 

 the openings between the rods forming the bottom. 

 Then place a portion of peat upon the moss. In the 

 next place, prepare the plant by taking it out of the old 

 basket or pot, or perhaps off from a log. Do this as 

 carefully as possible, without injuring the living roots. 

 If the old peat, in which it has been growing, perhaps, 

 for years, is very hard, and the living roots are so firmly 



attached to it that they cannot be detached without 

 breaking them, take the plant and put it into the cistern, 

 and let it remain there till the peat is thoroughly soaked. 

 Take it out, and set in some convenient place to drain 

 off the water. If this is done a full week before you 

 intend to re-basket the plant, it will be all the easier to 

 do ; the object being to soften the peat so as to be able 

 to pick away, with a small-pointed stick, as much of 

 the old peat as possible. Examine, also, the pseudo- 

 bulbs and leaves, and clean them thoroughly from dirt 

 and insects. Prune away all dead roots, and then the 

 plant will be ready to be put in its new habitation. 

 Place it in the middle of the basket, and fill in all round 

 it with the new compost. Set the basket then on the 

 floor, and, with the syringe held pretty close to the peat, 

 give it a good watering, forcing the water out of the 

 syringe pretty strongly : this will be found to make the 

 compost firm, so that future waterings will not wash it 

 off the basket on to the floor, or plants underneath. 

 One thing we would especially guard our readers against, 

 and that is, having the baskets made deep. Some may 

 have an idea that if the plants have a large lot of stuff 

 to grow in they will thrive better, and produce more 

 flowers ; but this is a mistaken notion. The roots of 

 orchids of this class run on the surface, or, at least, very 

 closely beneath it ; in truth, if the air is properly sur- 

 charged with moisture, the roots will prefer running 

 out of the compost. Frequently the long roots of Stan- 

 ho'peas, that push strongly, and run along the surface 

 of the compost, send forth fibres, not into the compost, 

 but, strange to say, upwards into the congenial air, 

 gathering, as it were, aerial food to support and feed the 

 plant they belong to. This proves satisfactorily enough 

 that deep baskets are no advantage even to the growth 

 of the plant, but to the flower-stems of some kinds of 

 Stanhopeas they are certainly injurious. We say some 

 kinds, such as Stanho'pea insi'gnis and its varieties, 

 S. tigri'na and its varieties, and all that have, like these, 

 short and few-flowered racemes. Such kinds as 5. 

 ocula'ta, Wa'rdii, and quadrico'rnis y which have long 

 flower-stems, may find their way through a deep basket, 

 but would do so easier and safer through a shallow one. 



Pots. The kind we use and prefer may be described 

 as a shallow, wide pot, the proportions of which are as 

 two, three, and five ; that is, 2 inches wide at the bottom, 

 3 inches deep, and 5 inches wide at the top, all inside 

 measure. Larger pots to be in the same proportions. 

 Small ones need only have one hole at the bottom ; but 

 it should be larger than those generally made. For 

 the 2-inch-wide pots at the bottom, the hole ought to be 

 J of an inch in diameter, the great object being to allow 

 the escape of water quickly. Larger pots must have 

 three holes, each of the same diameter. Hard-burnt 

 ones must be avoided for these plants, as well as for 

 any other. The reason why we prefer these wide, shallow 

 pots is, that the roots of orchids are, generally speaking, 

 either on the surface or very near it ; besides, a large 

 proportionate surface is exposed to the benefit of air 

 and moisture, both of which are beneficial to the roots 

 of an epiphyte. Terrestrial orchids, whose roots descend 

 deeper, will be better in the ordinary-shaped pot. 



Baskets. Various materials and forms have been used 

 in this necessary article. The first probably was made 

 of common iron wire, painted green, and the form round, 

 deep, and with a flat bottom. This material is almost 

 entirely disused, for, although the paint for a time pre- 

 vented them from rusting, the great moisture and heat 

 soon decomposed the paint, and then the wire became 

 oxidised, or rusty, and is then very injurious to the 

 roots, as well as being unsightly. Those made with 

 copper wire are much better, lasting longer, and are not 

 so injurious to the plants. The only objection we know 

 of is the expense. Where that is no consideration, we 

 should have no great objection to their adoption. Baskets 

 have also been made of earthenware ; but, if there was 

 no other objection, their great weight would be sufficient 

 to set them aside as bad. We have tried all these, and 

 have come to the conclusion that baskets made of 

 wooden rods are the best for this purpose. We mentioned 

 before, that the most ornamental are made of corrugated 

 or rough-barked maple rods ; but, as these are not always 

 to be met with, hazel rods may be used, and make excel- 

 lent baskets. Teak wood baskets are the most durable, 

 and are now very extensively employed. The way we 

 make them is simple enough. First, the rods are sawn 

 into proper lengths. The smallest we use are about the 



