Sr".,;>~TT-^,,^^ «.*r-Vj-T-r^,r-yTCj,r. _* V' ■VTK^t'Va' 



10 



The Weekly Florists' Review* 



Febbuarx 23, 1911. 



BAUM'S OBCHIDS. 



Among the most noteworthy of the 

 recent signs of progress in floriculture 

 is the success that has been achieved 

 in the growing of orchids by many of 

 the general florists — florists who make 

 no pretensions of being specialists or 

 even of ranking among the largest 

 growers of miscellaneous stock. A good 

 example of this class of orchid growers 

 is Charles L. Baum, of Knoxville, 

 Tenn., some specimens of whose 

 products are here illustrated. He de- 

 scribes his experience among orchids 

 as follows: 



"I bought my first case of« orchids, 

 Cattleya Trianae, of Lager & Hurrell, 

 of Summit, N. J. I gave the order to 

 Mr. Lager at the S. A. F. convention 

 at Niagara Falls in 1908, and received 

 them early in September. I knew noth- 

 ing whatever about the growing or 

 care of orchids, so I asked Mr. Lager 

 how I should care for them, and he 

 seemed pleased to give me all the in- 

 formation he could. He answered any 

 and all questions I asked him, and they 

 were quite a few, I assure you, as I was 

 anxious to know how to handle them. 

 However, I have been as successful as 

 I well could wish. A year later I re- 

 ported my success to Mr, Lager, and 

 he said I had done unusually well, as 

 every plant had made from two to 

 eight new growths, and I had several 

 blooms the first year. The two pho- 

 tographs sent for reproduction in The 

 Review are from plants of the first 

 case. They are all Cattleya Trianai 

 and had from four to twenty-two 

 blooms to the plant, and we retailed 

 the blooms at $1.50 to $2.50 each. 



"Last August at the S. A. F. con- 

 vention at Rochester I bought more, 

 having also bought some the year be- 

 fore at Cincinnati, and I still have the 

 orchid fever. I have three varieties 

 of cattleyas — Trianae, Percivaliana and 

 Schroederee — about 300 plants in all, 

 besides a few other varieties. 



"I will now try to tell you how I 

 treat them. Whether my method is 

 right or wrong, I can't say, but they 

 seem to grow and do well under my 

 treatment. On the arrival of the 

 plants, the case is opened at once. The 

 plants are taken out and nicely cleaned, 

 watered, and spread out on a shady 

 bench. If the weather is sunny they 

 are sprayed three or four times each 

 day for six or eight days, and as soon 

 as the bulbs plump up they are potted 

 or mounted on bark slabs, using peat 

 as potting material and giving plenty 

 of drainage by means of broken pots 

 and a few pieces of charcoal. Clean 

 pots and material are always used, and 

 they are potted so firmly and solidly 

 that, by taking hold of the plant by 

 the top, the plant and pot are lifted 

 together. Then they receive a good 



watering and are placed in a warm, 

 shady house, where a light spraying is 

 given three or four times each day in 

 sunny weather until they begin to grow 

 and make new roots. Later, as cool 

 weather begins to approach, I withhold 

 the water from the plants, but always 

 spray under the benches and on the 

 walks to maintain a humid atmos- 

 phere, only spraying the plants when 

 they appear dry. I avoid watering 

 late in the day, so the plants will not 

 go into the night wet. 



"The foregoing is the way I treated 

 the newly potted plants. As the plants 

 grow older and become established, 

 they are watched closely and watered 

 carefully, and a moist atmosphere is 

 kept at all times in the house. As soon 

 as the growth is matured and the flow- 

 ering sheath has developed, the plants 

 appear to want to rest and water is 

 withheld until the sheath begins to show 

 the buds starting; then more water is 



given until the buds appear. At this 

 time I am careful not to let any water 

 get on the buds or blooms, as I find this 

 is decidedly injurious to them. I begin 

 to shade in February, starting with 

 only a light shade, as we often have 

 some warm, bright weather in Feb- 

 ruary. As the summer approaches more 

 shade is given, but not so dense that 

 the plants become dark green and are 

 rank in growth, as I find that they do 

 better and give me more blooms when 

 they have a light yellow-green color, 

 r give them all the air they will stand, 

 day and night, so long as the tempera- 

 ture stands at 58 degrees at night and 

 68 degrees in the daytime, with no 

 wind blowing, and they seem to do well 

 under these conditions. I wish also to 

 state that the seasonable orchid notes 

 in The Review have helped me a great 

 deal and often prevented me from mak- 

 ing mistakes." 



GABDENIAS FOB EASTEB. 



My gardenias in 6-inch and 7-inch 

 pots are well set with small buds, show- 

 ing fairly good condition, but knowing 

 that gardenias are slow growers, I 

 would like to ask you what to do to 

 bring them into bloom by Easter. They 

 are standing now in a house for mixed 

 stock, such as lilies, ferns, bedding 

 plants, etc., with a night temperature 

 of 65 degrees. R. S. 



Give the gardenias the warmer end 

 of your house; 65 degrees at night 

 should bring them along in ample time 

 for Easter. You do not state how large 

 the buds are now, but if they appear 



Cattkya TrianaelFIoweredJby C L. Baum. 



