ORCHIDS. 



557 



CHAPTER XXXII. 



ORCHIDS. 



General Remarks — Houses — Treatment — Hybrids — 

 Pruning — Manure — Insects — Cut Flowers — 

 Spot or Disease — List of Orchids. 



Orchids are generally supposed to be difficult 

 to cultivate; they are, however, with some ex- 

 ceptions, much easier to manage than some 

 other classes of plants, in proof of which state- 

 ment it is only necessary to point to the collec- 

 tions of Orchids which may be found in the 

 worst parts of many of our cities, and in places 

 where scarcely anything else would grow. It 

 is thought by many that only a professional 

 Orchid-grower can manage Orchids successfully, 

 but any intelligent gardener who gives his mind 

 to the subject will soon acquire the necessary 

 skill and knowledge to enable him to compete 

 successfully with the specialist. 



Orchids were formerly supposed to require 

 great heat, and that supposition did much to 

 prevent their becoming popular, those who 

 essayed their cultivation being disheartened by 

 the failure of many of the plants to thrive; 

 hence the belief that they were difficult to 

 grow. Experience has taught that temperate 

 treatment generally is most congenial to the 

 majority of garden Orchids, whilst even those 

 from the most tropical regions thrive in an 

 ordinary stove temperature. 



Where excessively high temperatures are 

 employed the damage is done chiefly in what 

 ought to be the resting season, all Orchids 

 requiring a rest, i.e. a reduced allowance of 

 water and a lower temperature for a time, the 

 length of time varying according to the nature 

 of the species. The differences on this point 

 are most important. 



Much mischief has resulted from the belief that 

 Orchids were plants requiring similar although 

 a special kind of treatment. As a matter of 

 fact, they constitute one of the largest sections 

 of the vegetable kingdom, the different members 

 of which in many cases require as widely 

 different treatment as that necessary for the 

 Pelargonium and the Stephanotis, the Cape 

 Heath and the tropical Aroid. At the same time 

 a selection of Orchids may be successfully grown 

 along with other plants, even where but one 

 house is provided, if care is exercised to select 

 such plants as require similar treatment in a 

 general way, and such as the accommodation 

 afforded is* likely to suit, treating each Orchid 



in all the operations according to its special 

 requirements. 



Whilst the culture of Orchids requires a little 

 extra forethought and careful attention to 

 details, in respect of watering, resting, clean- 

 liness, temperatures, shade, ventilation, &c, 

 common sense enters largely into their treat- 

 ment, as it does in most other garden opera- 

 tions, and those who apply it will find Orchid 

 cultivation as devoid of difficulties as that of 

 any other garden plants. 



It will be well to briefly glance at the native 

 habitats of the species composing some of the 

 larger genera in order to perceive the import- 

 ance of a knowledge of the cultural require- 

 ments of each. Of Odontoglossums, those that 

 require the lowest temperature, and of which 

 0. crispum and 0. Pescatorei are typical, are most 

 abundant in the mountainous regions of the 

 South American Andes, between Bogota and 

 Ocana, at an altitude varying from 5000 to 

 9000 feet, a humid temperate region with a 

 mean annual temperature of a little over 55° for 

 the higher elevation and 65° for the lower. The 

 differences between the maximum and minimum 

 temperatures sometimes are very great, the 

 thermometer in the heat of the day often rising 

 to 90°, falling at night to 40°. From this fact 

 may be deduced the importance, first, of a low 

 night temperature, and secondly, that an occa- 

 sionally high temperature in summer need not 

 cause anxiety if the house is carefully shaded 

 and ventilated, and the atmosphere kept moist. 



Still following the mountain ranges of South 

 America, we find in Costa Rica Odontogbssum 

 Krameri, 0. coronarium, 0. Schlieperianum, and 

 others, which require a little more warmth in 

 winter than the 0. crispum section. Then in 

 Guatemala, between 10° and 15° N. lat., 0= 

 pulchellum, 0. Uroskinneri, and 0. grande, and 5° 

 farther north the Mexican 0. bidoniense, 0. 

 nebulosum, 0. cordatum, 0. maculatum, 0. Bossii, 

 0. Ccrvantesii, &c, occur. These prefer a 

 slightly drier air than the species from the 

 South American continent, the upland plains 

 and slopes which they inhabit being invariably 

 swept by gentle breezes. Miltonia rexiUaria and 

 M. Roezlii inhabit the central and western 

 slopes of the Western Cordillera of South 

 America at the low elevation of 1000 to 2000 

 feet, which indicates that under cultivation 

 they require greater warmth in winter. 



A study of the conditions under which the 

 Cattleyas and Laelias occur in nature will show 

 why the majority of the species, although from 

 districts so widely separated, may easily be 



