FEBRUARY, 1606.] THE ORCHID REVIEW. 45: 
CALENDAR OF OPERATIONS FOR FEBRUARY. 
By J. M. Brack, Streatham. 
WATERING PLANTS IN BupD AND FLowER.—I was very much impressed’ 
a few weeks ago by the great difference in the colour of two flowers on the 
same plant, but on different leads. The plant was a Cattleya hybrid, and 
one lead flowered a month or six weeks before the other. In the first 
instance, the plant, through inadvertence, developed its bud and flowered 
in a very wet condition, and the flower fell far short of what was antici- 
pated from the cross—paler and watery; in the second instance, water 
being withheld from the plant, the bud developed in comparative dryness, 
and the flower was of clear and beautiful hues. It will be noticed that the 
experienced Orchid grower always manages to have his plants on the dry 
side when his flowers are expanding. He does not develop his buds in dry- 
ness, but he so regulates his watering that when the flower is open the 
plant appears to the untrained eye to be much in need of a good watering. 
This he knows instinctively to be best, although he may have some difficulty 
in giving dogmatic reasons for it. : 
Cattleyas, such as Trianz, Percivaliana, Mossie, Mendelii, and many 
hybrids, also Lelias, which finish their pseudobulbs in the autumn and! 
rest in sheath during the winter, are liable to lose their buds when these 
are a little way up the sheath. Excess of moisture in the atmosphere, or 
water lodging at the base of the sheath, are the reasons usually advanced 
for this happening, but, while accepting these reasons as being sometimes 
the cause, it appears to me that too much water at the root at this period 
is more often the true reason. It is very necessary that the plant should 
_ not suffer from drought when developing its bud, but as the mode of treat- 
ment will have been conducive to its showing for flower, continue that 
reatment a little longer, entirely ignoring the fact that the buds are there. 
The buds appearing at the base of the sheath should not be regarded as a 
sudden appeal for more water than the plant has hitherto had, and followed 
by atoo hasty acquiescence on the part of the grower. When the buds are 
half-way up the sheath, there will be much less danger of their damping. 
It would seem, therefore, that special care should be given to plants that 
are on the point of flowering, for two reasons : the first, to avoid the buds 
damping ; and, the second, to get blooms of good colour. Shortly put, 
this method would pe: : water te restraint when the buds appear, a 
little more g usly as the b and again with restraint as 
the flowers are expanding. Plants, sticks as C. Gaskelliana and C. labiata, 
which make their pseudobulbs and throw up their flowers with but little 
rest in sheath, are not so sensitive with regard to the damping of their 
buds, but care should be taken that they do not receive a check at this 
