+36 THE ORCHID REVIEW. (Max, 1908 | 
shown, were pictures of health and good cultivation, and must have given ‘ 
the growers great pleasure to exhibit. 
Calanthes that were potted as advised in previous Calendars, will require 
more water as the pots get filled with roots. A little weak manure water 
will help them to make fine large bulbs and flower spikes. 
Flowering plants of all kinds should, if possible, be removed from the a 
growing houses, as with the extra moisture required for the growing plants 
the flowers soon spot, and are then useless for exhibition or cutting. Itis 
surprising what a display of flowers can be kept, even from a small collec- 
tion, ifa little care is taken of them. Most of them take a year to grow, often 
for only one flower or inflorescence, especially the rare varieties, anda small — 
house or corridor used for a flowering house, well repays the extra labour of 
shifting the plants just while they are flowering, and most Orchids are no 
worse for being left in flower a month and with Cypripediums two months; 
in fact it seems to keep them more in their season, provided, of course, they 
are fairly strong and healthy plants. A great heat is not required if the 
house (not the plant) is kept dry. Our flowering house keeps from 50° to 
55° in winter, and in summer we dispense with fire heat except in damp 
weather. The plants do not suffer from the lower temperatures during 
their flowering season, and the flowers keep perfect till they wither with 
age. It is worth a trial, and I am sure would make Orchids more popular. 
We often have visitors here, many of them gardeners, who are very much 
surprised to see Orchids with anything like a brilliant colour. Their only 
idea of an Orchid is something green, most of them with a curiously shaped 
flower, something which can only be grown in a very high temperature, and 
very expensive and difficult tocultivate. A group of Orchids is not equalled, 
never mind beaten, by any other class of flowers, and one can make a group 
and have the satisfaction of looking at it for a fortnight at least without re- 
arranging it every day. 
TEMPERATURES during the next few months will be difficult to keep 
anything like even. As little fire heat as possible should be used, only 
sufficient to keep the houses from dropping below the proper figures, which 
are as follows :-— 
Cool house, 55°; Intermediate, 60°; Cattleya, 65°; East Indian, 70°. 
It is no use putting a lot of air on to keep temperatures down. Use the 
ventilators just enough to keep the air in the houses changing. Plenty of 
moisture must be kept in the houses, so do not be afraid to use the syringe 
during the summer months, as there is no danger of damping if used with 
care. The harder growing sections will stand a lot more than the soft 
growers, which are heavily shaded. Keep a sharp lookout for thrip and red 
spider, and fumigate or spray as soon as they make their appearance, or 
they soon mark the leaves. 
See Ga pan 
