62 
THE ORCHID WORLD. 
THE TREATMENT OF WINTER 
FLOWERING CATTLEYAS. 
MOST Cattleya species are at rest 
during- the winter months, and 
probably all that belong to the 
labiata section. C. Gaskdliana, C. Duwiana, 
C. labiata and others will have been resting 
since flowering, and will continue dormant until 
the more congenial days of spring restart 
them into growth; while C. Mcndclii, C. 
Schroder cc, C. Mossice, C. Percivaliana, and 
C. Triancc will be resting in sheath until 
their respective flowering seasons arrive, and 
the two latter may even now have started to 
o-erminate their buds at the base of the sheath. 
Before the advent of the hybrid, the 
flowering of C. TJozviana, never very plentiful, 
and C. labiata marked the end of the Cattleya 
season in the autumn, nothing else flowering 
until C. Percivaliana and C. Triana made 
their appearance in the first months of the 
new year. The Cattleya house was then — as 
far as its Cattleya contents were concerned — 
indeed a place of repose. There was littls 
or nothing in flower, and all the plants coudd 
receive, with little modification, similar treat- 
ment. But there is now a galaxy of beautiful 
Cattleyas that unfold their blossoms during 
the short, cheerless days of winter. My 
remarks are concerned with the treatment 
of these. 
There is something altogether abnormal in 
the conditions in which some of these winter 
flowering hybrids have to flower. Some of 
the best of them are descended from C. 
Dowiana. I will not attempt to enumerate 
them, some are Laelio-Cattleyas, and some 
are secondary hybrids ; two or three will be 
sufficient to illustrate my meaning. C. 
Maggie Raphael is a fine hybrid, and essen- 
tially winter flowering. It is derived from 
C. Triance x C. Dowiana, the former flowering 
towards the end of winter and the latter 
towards the end of summer or the beginning 
of autumn ; and this hybrid, which partakes 
so much Oif the Dowiana, fills in the gap 
between the flowering seasons of its two 
parents. C. Empress Frederick is another 
fine Dowiana hybrid wiiich frequently flowers 
during the winter months, although its other 
parent, C. Mossice, is summer flowering. C. 
Octave Doin is a hybrid between C. Duvoiana 
and C. Mendclii, and most plants in sheath 
will be sending up their buds this month, 
notwithstanding the fact tliat C. Mendclii is 
a m;id-summer flowering species. C. Leda, 
a very beautiful hybrid between C. Percival- 
iana and C. Dowiana, will also be sending up 
its buds now, besides many others which it 
will be unnecessary to mention. 
Bearing in mind the conditions under which 
their parents flower one may be able to 
appreciate a little irrationality in flowering 
these Dowiana. hybrids in a resting Cattleya- 
house temperature. My plea is for a little 
more warmth and more genial and generous 
treatment. C. Mendclii, C. Mussice and C. 
Dowiami develop their blooms in quite a 
tropical atmosphere, the temperature in the 
Cattleya house at these periods frequently 
reaching 90° with natural solar heat, and the 
flowers open and last well. Yet the hybrids 
from these, which for some reason chose 
winter for their flowering season, are some- 
times left to struggle into flower in a dry 
lifeless atmosphere at a temperature of 55°- 
Oo°, unless the sun comes out and lifts it a 
little. That temperature may be all right for 
resting C. labiata, C. Bowringiana — and even 
C. Fabia and other Dowiana hybrids that 
have flowered, and whose natural flowering 
period is the autumn — but it is not sufficient 
to pull the buds well out of the sheaths of 
flowering plants, and open well nourished 
flowers. We know that over and under a 
certain range of temperature every plant is 
either forced or starved, and a clear indication 
of a Cattleya that has been starved when 
building up its inflorescence is a stunted 
flower stem — sometimes hardly lifting the 
flower beyond the sheath — and a small flower, 
frequently opening badly, and remaining 
perhaps somewhat cup- shaped. 
It is sometimes difficult to follow good 
advice, even when willing, and if there is but 
one Cattleya house in, which active and 
inactive plants must be grown siide by side, it 
may have to be a case of the greatest good 
for the largest number, but something may 
