Potting Orchids 



at the moment whether he possessed two or three 

 thousand plants of 0. crispum alone, told me once 

 that his gardeners use only the dust riddled out in 

 preparing the peat for Cattleyas and Dendrobes, 

 mixed with Bedfordshire sand ; and I believe they 

 do very well under skilful management. Nay, I 

 once bought some Odontoglots, planted, so far as I 

 could see, in garden mould, and they were by no 

 means discreditable. But the only moral of such 

 cases is, how much finer they would have been had 

 a grower so able used the right materials. 



I advise the amateur to get " orchid-peat," if he 

 can afford it. The ordinary kind is a conglomerate 

 of bracken, ling, grass, and sand, but that we 

 require consists of bracken-roots only, a mass of 

 fibre, with very little sand, and none of that 

 unctuous mould which gardeners call " fat." There 

 is not very much of it in these islands, unfortunately, 

 and none is found, they say, elsewhere. It is costly, 

 therefore, in proportion. If he will not go to the 

 expense, let him avoid, at least, the grossly " fat " 

 sorts, and use a greater quantity of Bedfordshire 

 sand. 



Pull the peat to shreds ; chop up an equal 

 quantity of living sphagnum moss ; throw in Bed- 

 fordshire sand, and mix together. The compound 

 thus made will be elastic. It cannot " cake," even 



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