14t> oiicUiDs: MoW tfo Giiow THEM SUCCESSFULLY. 



RESULTS OF FURTHER EXPERIENCE 



OR 



THE AMATEUR'S ORCHID HOUSE. 



WAVING since the publication of the Second Edition of this work 

 resigned niy position at Highbury, in order to start business 

 as an Orchid Specialist, and at the same time undertaken to 

 pay personal visits to demonstrate and tender advice on matters apper- 

 taining to the successful cultivation of Orchids, I am, in a sense, better 

 qualified to pen these lines than was previously the case ; for during 

 the time I have been so engaged I have visited many collections, both 

 large and small, and do not hesitate to say that in all cases I have 

 learnt something which knowledge I will impart to others. I have 

 invariably no matter in how poor a condition the collection generally 

 may be in seen one or more species in a particularly thriving 

 state ; the why and the wherefore I am always pretty careful to fathom. 

 This fact having induced me to further experiment at home with my 

 own plants I can conscientiously commit the following to paper, and 

 will endeavour to do so, even more down to the level of the amateur, 

 who I will assume knows little or nothing about orchid growing. It 

 being the result of further experience, as above stated, the methods of 

 cultivation hereafter recommended may appear at first sight to slightly 

 contradict in some few instances advice previously tendered in this 

 work. But after careful consideration I prefer to leave the last named 

 entirely as first written, it being the embodiment of carefully thought 

 out considerations in all details that are necessary to first bring success, 

 whilst this will doubtless appear to readers to be a somewhat rash 

 treatment to adopt, but it is one I can at the same time strongly 

 recommend to their notice, asking that the one may be allowed to tone 

 the other wherever any doubt may exist. 



Now to commence with my subject, lam assuming that the would 

 be cultivator has only one house which can conveniently be devoted 

 to orchids the whole year round, and he wishes to have a number of 

 easily grown kinds that will succeed with a general collection of plants. 

 Here I beg to give amateurs and new beginners a word of advice, and 

 to point out a mistake often made when they are commencing. They 

 desire to grow Orchids, and think, and are perhaps sometimes told, 

 that Cool Orchids may be grown in their greenhouse with a varied 

 collection of half-hardy plants with no extra cost for increased warmth. 

 But I must explain that the term Cool Orchids is an elastic one. There 

 are so many so-called Cool Orchids, but the question is, can they be 

 grown successfully in an ordinary greenhouse with an ordinary collec- 

 tion of half-hardy plants ? The answer is, No ! They may not die, 

 they may even grow, but rarely do they increase in size, or make plants 



