372 THE ORCHID REVIEW. [DuceMBER, 1922 
AN AMATEUR’S EXPERIENCE. 
By JOSEPHINE R,. WALKER. : 
HEN we got our seedling Cattleyas and Lzliocattleyas in the spring 
they were repotted, and many of them have since been shifted into 
larger pots. They are very interesting to us, and I try to follow the crosses, 
similar ones of which have appeared in the “ Orchid Review,” though I expect 
the same varieties crossed by different growers will not give identical results. 
In fact, I expect there is a great difference in seedlings from the same pod. 
We find that the new leaves, and in many cases the new bulbs, are of a 
much deeper colour than those made during the season before we obtained 
them. Nearly all the bulbs are a great improvement on the previous ones, 
and many have produced sheaths, and though one is sorely tempted to let 
them flower and see what they really are, I think it will pay to take them 
out, and thereby give the plants a greater chance to get very strong. We 
had them on the centre section, where they have had the full benefit of 
whatever sun there has been during the past year. They have been without 
shade of any kind and have rooted splendidly. We had some sixteen 
Sophrocattleyas among them, and my husband was reading in an old 
Orchid book that these were better suited in a light, cool and airy position 
for the winter, and at no time did they stand syringing overhead, so we 
have evidently not been giving them the best of treatment. However, they 
look alright, and are now on top of the ‘* Monkey House” on a ledge, 
where they will get all the light and air they require. We will keep them 
on the dry side for the winter. They vary very much in appearance, one 
little fellow, which has very much the habit of a Sophronitis parent, is 
producing two flower-sheaths, another has light green leaves, and others 
have reddish leaves with deep-red lines. I am looking forward to seeing 
them in flower, for I am charmed with all I have seen. 
Our plants of Cattleya Fabia are moving along splendidly ; some are 
now filling their sheaths. They have all been grown on from back bulbs of 
fine varieties. We also have a batch of twenty Cattleya Florina 
(Mastersonie X aurea), a very pretty and free-flowering hybrid, and whic 
are also from back bulbs. When we get these two lots to the flowering 
stage there should be something really worth looking at, and they will be 
most useful for cut flowers in the autumn and winter months. But I 
question whether they will excel the Cymbidium genus with us. Even the 
big specimens of C. Tracyanum that we shifted last spring into port-wine 
casks, their future home for many years, are showing strong flower spikes: 
Certainly we did not do much in the way of root disturbance, but we put @ 
quantity of loam fibre around them that will serve for years to come- This 
may perhaps be wrong in theory, but so far it seems to have answered. 
