AUGUST, 1922.] THE ORCHID REVIEW. 247 
AN AMATEUR'S EXPERIENCE. 
By JOSEPHINE R. WALKER. 
OW seldom one sees really good plants of the Oncidium genus. I 
suppose it is because of their free-flowering habit, which, if not 
checked, causes them in a few years of cultivation to bloom themselves to 
death. I remember some years ago we got hold of a few fine imported 
plants of the beautiful varicosum Rogersii. They were put in small pans 
and hung up in the warm end of a house in which we grew Cattleyas. 
For two or three years they bloomed splendidly, giving glorious spikes with 
anything up to 150 blooms on a spike. We thought we were doing them 
well, but failed to see that each year the blooms were gradually getting 
smaller and beautifully less, and that they were not rooting sufficiently well 
to justify the spikes. All this we found out when too late! The splendid 
native bulbs had given up all their strength, and that was the end. 
We resolved to have another try some day with Oncidiums, but have 
not seen any until last month when we got a note of an importation of 
these lovely varieties—crispum, curtum, Forbesii and Marshallianum. We 
consider these four to be the very best of the genus. If the plants we have 
are any criterion they are a grand lot and have travelled well. We were 
uncertain how to deal with them; there were five to six bulbs on each 
piece, one above the other, which meant that if we put them in a pot small 
enough to induce root action quickly they would be well out of the top. 
Linden, in his admirable book, says whenever he found them they were 
always on the trees with their roots sprawling along and clinging to the 
rough bark, seeking niches and crannies where the fallen leaves had lodged, 
but very few traces of moss did he see. In the evenings they were always 
saturated with the heavy dews and they really never saw the sunshine. 
Williams, in his Manual, says they are’best grown in pots or baskets with a 
compost of peat and moss, and good drainage. Sanders, in the Orchid 
Guide, say they do best in fibrous peat and sphagnum moss, or leaf mould, 
but all agree that they require plenty of moisture and should never really 
be allowed to get dry, though the water should be sparingly given when 
they have completed their growth. 
After an inspection of our little lot we decided they had certainly grown 
on trees, and we decided to follow nature as far as possible. We always keep 
under the staging a number of pieces of rough bark, on some of which we 
cultivate the fine lichen mosses, so we sorted out those of a suitable size 
and laid the plants on them, carefully spreading out the roots, and putting 
on them a layer of soft fibre with a liberal mixing of chopped oak leaves, 
securing it carefully with fine wire. They were then dressed off and tufts 
of living sphagnum moss were plugged in all round the bulbs. That ‘was 
three weeks ago and I am pleased to say they are now rooting splendidly. 
