August 5,1880. ] JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
109 
5th 
TH 
fth 
F 
7th 
S 
8th 
Sun 
11th Sunday after Trinity. 
9th 
M 
[11 A.M. Shows at Weston-Super-Mare anti Clay Cross. 
10th 
Tu 
Royal Horticultural Society Fruit and Floral Committees at 
11th 
W 
Ramsgate Horticultural Show. 
CULTURE OF DISA GRANDIFLORA. 
jk.NOWING that the desire to grow Disa grandi- 
llora well is much more widely spread than the 
success which attends the efforts of growers 
generally, it may interest some of your many 
readers to learn the mode of culture which pro¬ 
duced the specimen mentioned on page 71. 
Indeed, some of the most eminent public Orchid 
growers in England have told me that they can make 
nothing of Disa grandiflora. This is all the more to be 
regretted, inasmuch as its culture is extremely easy, and 
no Orchid so amply repays by distinguished beauty and long 
lasting the pains which may be expended on it. I may 
mention for the encouragement of others that the plant which 
I showed in Dublin on the 8th inst., and that bore the very 
unusually large number of twelve spikes of bloom, was but 
three years ago a very small piece taken off with the finger 
and thumb from the parent plant. I shall endeavour to be as 
explicit as possible, as nothing is more vexatious to anyone 
seeking directions than to find that important particulars are 
omitted. 
Time of Potting .—I repot or divide the plants in autumn, 
after the flower spikes have withered, and when the young 
growth is actively pushing up. 
Potting Matwial .—I employ sound, not sour or soddened, 
sandy peat, torn into rough lumps, not sifted or made fine, and 
merely the strong roots picked out. I add a liberal supply of 
rather coarse silver sand. I also add during the act of potting 
small pieces of charcoal about half an inch square in size. 
Mode of Potting .—Whatever be the sized pot, I place in 
fully the quarter of it broken crocks and some charcoal, 
taking pains to place the drainage carefully ; then lumps of 
peat and pieces of charcoal pushed in here and there between 
them and at the sides of the pot. I then lay in the plant, and 
place some of the finer parts of the peat about it. I throw in 
some sand as the work proceeds, and add more lumpy peat 
and charcoal. When all is finished I surface with sand, which 
the first good watering from a rose washes quite in. 
Situation for the Plant .—This is, indeed, one of the most 
important matters in the cultivation of Disa, or, for the matter 
of that, of any plant requiring especial treatment. I grow 
mine in a large, airy, and very lightsome greenhouse, but not 
in any part of the greenhouse. I have a shelf over the door 
leading into a vinery, separated from the greenhouse by a 
glass partition. Here the plant has plenty of light, and yet not 
the full blaze of the sun. It has abundance of air circulating 
about it, even in winter when the lantern roof is opened, 
except in frost, and yet it has no draught, which I know it 
much dislikes. Cultivators of Disa must avoid the notion that 
it likes heat and closeness. In its natural habitat on Table 
Mountain it has neither. 
After-treatment .—This may be said to consist simply in 
supplying abundance of water. The plant should not once 
suffer from receiving insufficient water, and growers must 
recollect that Disa grows naturally in swamps which are often 
unapproachable. But, at the same time, I must warn your 
readers against the pernicious practice of standing the pots in 
saucers of water. When the plant is growing strongly it 
may be frequently syringed with advantage, as it tends to 
keep down green fly, with which growers are sometimes 
troubled. I am happy to say I am not. When the flower 
spikes are pushing well up I give an occasional supply of 
liquid manure very weak, made from sheep droppings. After 
flowering and before repotting, the supply of water may be a 
little diminished, but the soil should never be allowed to 
become dry. 
In simple truthfulness I must now disclaim any credit for 
originality in the system of culture which I have adopted. I 
first saw Disa grandiflora in luxuriant health and beauty at 
Glasnevin Botanic Gardens. Mr. Pope, the able and kindly 
foreman of the houses, gave me in few words the outline of 
his treatment, and all the credit which attaches to me is that 
of having intelligently carried out his directions. But still 
there is something in that, as he tells me that almost everyone 
else to whom he acted the same kind part completely failed. 
I really see no reason -why anyone who cares for the plant, 
and is willing to give it the trifling attention it requires, should, 
not have their conservatories and greenhouses brilliant with 
Disas, as those at Glasnevin now are, where blooming plants are 
to be seen by the dozen. —Frederick Tymons, Clh., Dublin. 
SCALDED GRAPES. 
Let me repeat that the so-called scalded berries are not 
scalded at all, but the very opposite—they are chilled. A corre¬ 
spondent once told me that a similar effect would be produced 
by placing ether on the hand and allowing it to evaporate. Of 
the effect of ether I have no practical knowledge, but sup¬ 
posing the statement to be correct, that is much in the same way 
that Grapes are injured when they are said to be scalded. A 
house need not become very hot to bring about the mischief ; 
it might happen, I believe, at as low a temperature as G0° in 
this way : Supposing the night to have been cold so as to have 
lowered the temperature of the house to 50°, the sun is bright 
in the morning and the thermometer indicates 60° before any 
ventilation is given (this might happen as early as 5.30 or 
6 a.m.) ; much moisture will have condensed on all the cold 
surfaces, such as metal, slate, stone, and unfortunately on 
Grapes, stems and leaves as well, where, unless a circulation of 
air is obtained, it will remain till the substance becomes warmed. 
No great harm has actually happened when the moisture is suf¬ 
ficient to be visible in the shape of dew, unless it might be a 
slight injury to the bloom on the skin of the Grapes, but it 
ought not to happen, and can easily be prevented. 
The injury is done by the general instinct to dispose of the 
moisture as quickly as possible, which impels us to open the 
ventilators at once to a considerable extent, and suddenly cause 
a great amount of evaporation. Let it be distinctly understood 
that all the evil is traceable to this rapid evaporation, that 
No. Yol. I., Third series. 
No. 1662.— You. LXTV.j Old series. 
