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RAISING ORCHIDS 



FROM SEED 



Since Quarantine 37 barred entrance of orchid plants from foreign 

 countries, the raising of the plants from seeds has been dttcinpird by many 

 growers. Much valuable advice to these experimenters is given in this 

 article by one who has long experience and wide knowledge of the subject. 



HE action of the Federal 



T Horticultural Board in 

 putting Quarantine 37 in 

 force was a hard blow to 

 the American orchid in- 

 dustry. Whether, as one 

 of the board's apologists 

 stated at a Boston meeting 

 when being severely criti- 

 cized, this quarantine has 

 been enacted "to stay in force for- 

 ever" is open to serious doubts. The 

 board has to date been unable to prove 

 that imported orchids have been the 

 carriers of any dangerous pests or dis- 

 eases. It is true that the board has 

 prepared a list of insects detected on 

 imported orchids, but the most import- 

 ant of these are cockroaches, mealy bug, 

 cattleya fly, orchid midge, hemispherical 

 scale and others which are in many 

 eases peculiar to orchids. Since these 

 were here, in a number of cases, before 

 any orchids were imported, are not 

 major pests and do not 

 damage our farms, gardens, 

 orchards and woodlands, it 

 would seem that the com- 

 plete shutting out of or- 

 chids is a narrow policy, 

 not to be defended nor 

 permanently continued. 



The complete stoppage 

 of imports, however, has 

 given something of an im- 

 petus to orchid hybridiza- 

 tion and see<lling raising. 

 In this field America has so 

 far been singularly back- 

 ward and the quarantine 

 has performed two good 

 purposes: First, it has 

 taught growers to take 

 greater care of the plants 

 they have and, second, it has 

 encouraged them to embark 

 in seedling raising. 



Economy Taught. 



It is a fact beyond ques- 

 tion that when cattleyas 

 and other popular cut flower 

 orchids could be imported 

 ad libitum, too many grow- 

 ers thought it necessary to 

 buy fresh plants every sea- 

 son or two, flower these for 

 a few years and then dis- 

 card them. The large com- 

 mercial growers were the 

 biggest sinners in this re- 

 spect, and tliey have been 

 taught a salutary lesson. A 

 number of theni are now 

 embarked in the seedling 

 business, and, furthermore, 



By W. N. CRAIG. 



they are taking much greater care of 

 the standard cattleyas they own. 



There are great possibilities in orchid 

 hybridization. Already many thousands 

 of crosses have been made and flowered, 

 and the naming of the bigeneric, tri- 

 generic and other hybrids has become so 

 intricate and complex that few, even 

 of the experts, can determine the gen- 

 ealogy of some of them. Many of 

 these hybrids are wonderfully beautiful, 

 others the reverse. Some are lusty 

 growers and floriferous, others just as 

 frail and shy-blooming. Everything de- 

 pends upon the vigor of the parents. 



Hybrids vs. Forest Species. 



Whether hybrids will in time displace 

 the forest species as cut flowers in our 

 markets is doubtful. If the bars stay 

 down they may eventually do so, but 

 as yet for size, substance, color, form 



Our Doors Are Now Shut Against Foreign Orchid Plants. 



and other all-around qualities, such 

 species as labiata, Trianse, Mossise, 

 Mendelii, gigas, Gaskelliana, Schroederse 

 and Percivaliana still hold the center of 

 the stage. There is this to be said for 

 hybrids, that many of them bloom 

 when there is a marked scarcity of the 

 forest species, that some will give two 

 crops of flowers a year and that they 

 seem to thrive better without the rest- 

 ing period usually considered necessary 

 for the imported species. 



Orchid hybridization commenced some 

 seventy years ago, when J. Dominy, with 

 the noted British firm of James Veitch 

 & Sons, introduced it. His first hybrid, 

 Calanthe Dominyi, flowered in 1856. This 

 pioneer hybridist gave us in all twenty- 

 five hybrids, his last and best, Ljelio- 

 cattleya Dominiana, flowering in 1878. 

 He was followed by John Seden and a 

 small army of amateur and commercial 

 hybridizers in Great Britain, on the 

 European continent and in America. 

 Deterrents to orchid hybrid- 

 ization have been the long 

 time between seed sowing 

 and flowering. It used to 

 take twelve to twenty 

 years, but this is now much 

 reduced. I have flowered 

 <-attleya seedlings in three 

 to four years, and while 

 some may not bloom for 

 eight or ten years, a large 

 jiroportioncan be relied upon 

 to do so in five or six years 

 with modern methods. But 

 til is in itself is a long wait 

 without any return on capi- 

 tal outlay. This deterrent 

 is being overcome in some 

 measure by offering un- 

 flowcred seedlings of the 

 various crosses, and this 

 jiian will have to be adopted 

 to allow the raisers to rea- 

 lize something on their long- 

 time investments. 



Selecting Seed-Bearers. 



In selecting seed-bearing 

 plants, reject those of weak 

 constitution or feeble 

 liealth. The strain of fruc- 

 tification is a severe one and 

 even sturdy plants suffer 

 from it and need careful 

 treatment thereafter. Also 

 give careful forethought to 

 the selection of varieties. In 

 America the raising of cat- 

 tleyas seemsof greatest com- 

 mercial importance, as they 

 are the orchids par excel- 

 lence in our markets. In 



