THE ORCHID REVIEW. [November, 
CONFUSING THE AMATEUR ORCHID GROWER. 
By J. M. Black! 
C HERE is much need in the Orchid Review for an Amateurs’ page of 
the most elementary kind. There are several books on the culture of 
Orchids that are helpful to the beginner, but some of these may be said to 
have the defect of their own excellence in explaining too much. I had 
before me lately a table drawn up by an amateur for the guidance of his 
gardener. Plants like Odontoglossum Pescatorei and O. crispum were 
under headings for different treatment, with set temperatures for sections ofc 
the year, the number of times to water “ a day ” (!) or “ week,” the number 
of times to syringe, the beginning and end of a definitive resting period, 
Hue month to pot, and other details all carefully tabulated. This amateur 
is a beginner, and his gardener is confessedly without experience, but with? 
this table his task is to be made easy! The collection is a very small one 
of a dozen or two plants all told, but on the table no two are to have exactly 
the same treatment. Number one is to be syringed twice while, say, number 
four must be syringed three times, and perhaps this operation in the meantime 
has to be withheld from number seven. And so on with the watering. One 
plant has to be watered once a day, another twice a week and so on. Now 
this absurdity is no joke, and the duty was allotted to me to fill in data under 
some headings that this amateur had left blank, not having been able to find) 
the necessary particulars in his readings. I am not tiying to make fun of 
this document. It was a reasonable and praiseworthy effort of an inex¬ 
perienced Orchid beginner to get hold of something to work on, and he 
went to the text-books on culture for his gleanings, or so I have concluded. 
When I received this table all my sympathy went out to the gardener. 
Imagine his watering Oncidium excavatum twice daily “ according to plan,”* 
and against his better judgment. There were seemingly to be no excuses 
from these daily drenchings, such as dull, rainy or cold weather might have 
provided, until the end of September, and then modification set in. 
1 will say no more about the above document, and I am quite sure the 
gentlemen who compiled it will think no worse of me for having said so* 
much—and I hope he will read this—but it has set me thinking of the need 
of a purely amateurs’ page in this publication. Those of us who have been, 
growing Orchids for many years hardly realise the puzzlement that beginners 
experience and how much they rely on written instructions, and how much 
these instructions may bewilder. Much needless mystery has grown up' 
round the culture of Orchids, and while the “ professional ” has become 
used to and understands his own jargon, it may be very different with the' 
man who first ventures into the study of the requirements of these plants. 
Much detail should be swept away in- instructing the- beginner. The Orchid 
