THE ORCHID REVIEW. 
VoL. XV.] OCTOBER, 1907. [No. 178. 
ORCHIDS AT ST. ALBANS. 
By J. M. BLAck. 
Towarps the end of August I had the very great pleasure of spending a 
day in the Orchid nurseries of Messrs. Sander and Sons, St. ‘Albans, and 
having made the intimate acquaintance of this establishment as an employee 
some thirteen or fourteen years ago, I am in a good position to judge of the 
great change which has taken place here during recent years. One realizes 
after a visit to St. Albans the great revolution that has taken place in 
Orchids during the past decade. Here one sees houseful after houseful of 
Cattleya, Lelia, and Cypripedium hybrids. Some of the large houses that 
run from the bottom corridor to the top house, and which are something 
like 300 feet long, with wide centre staging, are now full of Lzlio-cattleyas 
of flowering size, and raising is carried on as keenly as ever. Primary 
hybrids flower, and secondary hybrids with new combinations suggest them- 
selves, and I got the impression that already two-thirds of this extensive 
place is now given up to plants of home-breeding. Mr. Walter Gott, who 
has been in charge of the hybridising department for the past nine or ten 
years, and to whose cleverness with seedlings such magnificent results are 
chiefly due, deserves all congratulations. As time has gone on, and the 
seedlings have encroached on the room occupied by other plants, many of 
the houses were discovered to be not quite suitable for the infant plants, so 
that a large part of the nursery has been reconstructed, and seventeen new 
houses are at present being built on the site occupied by the gigantic top 
house, which is being demolished. Seven of these houses were finished 
when I was there, and were being quickly filled up as the plantlets (from 
other houses) got potted on. 
The question of housing Orchids is not one that should be treated 
lightly, and it is a much to be regretted fact that many a private collection 
(or nursery, for that matter), that has taken years and a mint of money to 
form, has dwindled on account of the houses being badly suited for their 
work. If I were a gentleman about to form a collection of Orchids I should 
begin by getting the advice of men of practical and successful experience 
and build accordingly—and not be niggardly about the outlay. Although 
