June 7, 1883. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
463 
7th 
8th 
9th 
TH 
F 
S 
Royal Society at 4.30 P.M. 
10th 
SUN 
3rd Sunday after Trinity. 
11th 
M 
[11 A.M. 
12 th 
TU 
Royal Horticultural Society. Fruit and Floral Committees at 
13th 
W 
Royal Botanic Society (Second Summer Show). York Floral 
[Fete (three days). Colchester (two days). 
POTTING AROIDS AND ORCHIDS. 
remarks on this subject are not alto¬ 
gether intended for the professional 
\ r IPl\ ' g ar dener, but for the benefit of those 
w ^ ose experience is limited in the culti- 
vation of the plants that will be referred 
,x * 3 ^ to, and for young men especially. In 
many gardens where choice plants are 
grown, the potting is generally conducted 
by the head gardener, or his foreman if he be 
sufficiently experienced, and the remaining 
young men have but little chance of seeing how 
the operation has been performed. Some will perhaps 
say they must keep their eyes open. I have been told 
this on more than one occasion when practising as 
journeyman, and making inquiries about such work; but 
this is not sufficient, for the young men are frequently 
engaged in other duties while work of this description 
is being done. In fact, men in charge of departments 
other than those in which the plants in question are 
situated may not have the slightest idea that the plants 
have been repotted until they notice them when walk¬ 
ing round in their leisure hours. As the manner in 
which many plants are potted is an important element 
of success, I do not hesitate saying that if gardeners 
generally would show or inform intelligent young men 
anxious to learn how the work should be done they 
would be altogether better men, and soon capable of 
doing such work as well as the chief, and they would 
also work with greater earnestness and take more 
interest in their duties generally when they found a 
desire apparent to make them practically acquainted 
with every routine operation of the garden. 
In the cultivation of choice Alocasias, Anthuriums, 
and Orchids too much importance cannot be attached 
to the way in which they are potted. These plants 
are not unfrequently placed in larger pots as if they 
were Heaths, Azaleas, or Pelargoniums. This would 
be perfectly right if the plants required potting two or 
three times during the summer ; for instance, a young 
plant of Anthurium Andreanum in a 3-inch pot might 
require one three times that size before the end of the 
season. It is the system of affording larger pots year 
after year that is wrong. Continually shifting into 
needlessly large pots is certainly injurious, and may 
prove fatal to the plants under notice. If overpotted 
plants are examined a few living roots may be found 
near the surface or round the sides of the pots, but 
those inside the ball are generally dead. The majority 
of these plants have thick fleshy roots and will not 
thrive satisfactorily in soil that becomes close, and 
sour quickly. They delight in an open compost of 
fresh peat, sphagnum moss, charcoal, and crocks, and 
should when repotted have all decomposed matter re¬ 
moved from amongst the roots. This need not be done 
annually, but at least every alternate year the old 
compost should be carefully picked out without muti¬ 
lating the roots, and the new worked amongst them 
with equal care. Some Alocasias, such as A. Lowii 
and A. intermedia, do best when subjected to this treat¬ 
ment annually, while Anthuriums of the Warocqueanum 
and Schertzerianum types will stand well for two years, 
and do better than if the roots are disturbed, if given a 
moderate shift when required, and top-dressed the 
following year after potting. When potting such plants 
every second year it does not always follow that they 
require larger pots, for we frequently return them into 
the same size after the old compost has been removed 
from amongst their roots. If found in any way sour the 
roots should be washed in tepid water before being 
placed in fresh compost. 
Orchids rarely succeed for any length of time when 
potted annually or every alternate year unless the old 
material is picked out from amongst their roots. There 
are exceptions to this rule, but the varieties that succeed 
are those that are inclined to throw out stem roots and 
live from the moisture of the atmosphere rather than 
from the material in which they are potted. Although 
these plants will flourish under such conditions with 
their lower roots black and dead, they grow with still 
greater luxuriance with their lower roots healthy and 
in full possession of the material in which they were 
potted. If we take two of the most common and easily 
grown of Orchids—namely, Dendrobium nobile and 
Cypripedium insigne, the former will grow luxuriantly 
while the compost remains fresh, watering and other 
treatment being satisfactory ; but when decomposed 
the pseudo-bulbs gradually decrease in size. The 
Cypripedium will live in the same pot for many years, 
forming a hard mass of roots, the soil in which they 
were once growing being washed away. It is evident 
this good old plant would live if the roots were laid 
amongst charcoal or crocks and syringed and watered 
frequently. But what would be its condition in com¬ 
parison with plants provided periodically with fresh 
suitable material to root in ? The former would be 
starved and puny in appearance by the side of the latter, 
with large dark bold foliage and gigantic flowers with 
frequently two upon one spike. Many Orchids when 
brought into an unsatisfactory state through sour soil 
are often worse to recruit than newly imported plants. 
They may only be a little in advance of these by having 
a few living roots made with the last break or two. 
Plants of this description seldom ever make back breaks 
when the whole of the roots attached to the old pseudo¬ 
bulbs are dead, and even if they do the growths are so 
weak that they may be years before they attain a 
flowering size. 
Peat used for these plants in lumps decomposes much 
sooner than the fibre with the soil shaken out. The 
latter is decidedly preferable for all Orchids that re¬ 
quire abundance of water wdiile in active growth, and 
should be used by all whose experience is limited in 
the culture of these plants. In potting those varieties 
that cling tenaciously to the sides of the pots it is much 
better to break the pots than attempt to turn the plants 
out and injure the roots in doing so. When broken the 
portions of pot attached to the roots can be left clinging 
No. 164 .—Vol. VI., Third Series. 
No. 1810 .—Vol. LXIX. Old Series. 
