214 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ March 17, 1887. 
and when going round in the evening examine them, and upon lifting 
he traps the enemy will be found. By this simple method I have been 
able to get rid of a very troublesome pest.—R. Kirby, Hammerrvood. 
ORCHIDS AT WESTBROOK, SHEFFIELD. 
Calling a few days since at Westbrook, Sheffield, the residence of 
A. Wilson, Esq., we saw a truly grand display of Orchids in flower, the 
flowering house being filled throughout with a forest of flower spikes, 
consisting for the most part of Odontoglossums, Lselias, Cattleyas, and 
Dendrobiums, and amongst them many very rare and choice varieties. 
Mr. Wilson is fast improving his already valuable collection by purchas- 
ing at great cost freely and continuously the best varieties of each 
section to be met with, and weeding out the less valuable, so that the 
Westbrook collection bids fair to soon become one of the best in the 
provinces. The plants throughout are in the most robust and vigorous 
health, showing that their treatment is thoroughly understood by Mr. 
Pidsley, the head gardener. Appended is a list of those in flower at the 
time of my visit.—W. K. W. 
Angrascum articulatum 
Anoectochilus Dawsoni (very fine) 
Cymbidium Lowiaaucn (five spikes, 
carrying 60 flowers) 
„ eburneum 
Dendrobium nobile 
„ Ainsworthi roseum 
„ Wardianum 
„ candid um 
„ _ primulinum 
Cattleya Trian® (several very fine 
forms, amongst them a 
pure white-flowered va¬ 
riety). 
Cypripedium Harrisianum 
„ hirsutissimum 
„ villosum 
„ Roezli 
Lycaste Skinneri alba 
Masdevallia triangularis 
„ Lindeni superba 
„ Shuttleworthi 
ignea 
Oncidium Forbesi 
„ cucul latum 
Lselia harpopbylla 
Odontoglossum Andersonianum (one 
pseudo-bulb with 
two spikes, carry, 
ing thirty-three 
flowers) 
Odontoglossum hybridum 
CULTURE OF DENDROBIUM NOBILE. 
Mr. Thomas Todman (Messrs. T. Todman k Son), Rose Park 
Nursery, Tooting Beck Road, recently read a brief but excellent paper 
before the Tooting Horticultural Society upon the cultivation of this 
useful Orchid, the chief points of which are condensed in the following 
note:— 
y Commencing with the propagation, Mr. Todman stated that when 
it is desired to increase the stock largely plants that will not flower 
should be placed in strong heat. Growths will soon be produced, and 
these should be taken off when 3 inches long with a portion of the old 
pseudo-bulb and a few roots if possible, though roots will form quickly 
in a warm moist house. Break some old bricks into small pieces, and 
mix some good peat and sphagnum moss together, half fill large 60-size 
pots with the broken bricks, over that place some sphagnum, and on that 
three of the young plants or growths, filling up with peat and moss 
pressed firmly. Arrange them in a Cucumber house or stove where 
they can be exposed to the sun when necessary, supplying plenty of 
water, as they must never be allowed to become checked at this stage. 
The growth will be finished by September, and if they make 1 foot of 
growth the first year it will be satisfactory. They can be partly dried 
and placed in a temperature not lower than 45° in winter, but do not 
let them shrivel. In February they can be placed in 48-sized pots, 
using the same compost as before. Grow the plants in a Cucumber 
house or vinery as quickly as possible. Give plenty of water, and with 
sun heat a temperature of 90° to 100° will not hurt them. Liquid 
manure sprinkled about the house is very beneficial to them. Treat 
them during winter as before, and if in the following February any of 
them show flower buds, place them in a forcing house. In potting the 
large plants we use rough peat and pieces of bricks. 
In regard to pruning Dendrobium nobile, I should not attempt it 
with young plants unless the pseudo-bulbs were half dead. From plants 
above six years old all old pseudo-bulbs can be cleared off, but they 
should not be cut away before the new growths are 1 foot long, or 
it will weaken the plants. 
SYRINGING ORCHIDS. 
Temperature may be all that can be desired, watering, potting, 
and shading carried out with the most scrupulous care, yet these are 
rendered futile by a careless use of the syringe. Some cultivators con¬ 
tend that the syringe is a dangerous instrument amongst Orchids, and 
such is the case when used in a reckless manner ; but with judgment it 
can be used as beneficially amongst Orchids as other plants. It has 
been urged again and again that water should not be allowed to lodge 
or enter the young growths of Odontoglossums Cattleyas, and others, 
for they are liable to damp under these circumstances. This must 
before long become obsolete, for it prevents timid persons using the 
syringe, whereas when the young growths decay the cause must be 
attributed to the method of ventilation. Water in the centre of a 
young growth in a confined stagnant atmosphere is certain to decay. 
The decay of the young growths may, in the majority of eases, be traced 
either to too low a temperature or a saturated stagnant atmosphere 
about the plants, and the syringe may be safely used provided a judicious 
, system of ventilation is practised. 
Some of those who condemn the use of the syringe ventilate liberally, 
and maintain low night temperatures about their plants. They contend 
that by so doing they are following natural laws, and that the plants 
need no syringing in the morning because they are covered with mois¬ 
ture in the form of dew, the same as may frequently be observed out¬ 
side. This is true, and any plant by a natural system of cooling, even 
in a glass house if the temperature is allowed -to fall sufficiently, can 
have its foliage laden with water in the morning. But whether this is 
the best course to pursue is an open question. I have tried this natural 
dewing system, and by no means approve of it, for under these condi¬ 
tions young growths will decay if water becomes deposited in them. If 
we take Vandas, Aerides, Saccolabiums, Phalaenopsis, and other similar 
plants grown in the plant stove or Orchid house, the temperature, by 
this natural deposit of moisture on the foliage, is too low for sustaining 
the plants in health. Orchids in our houses are subjected to entirely 
artificial treatment, and to follow Nature in this one particular is simply 
absurd. If Cattleyas, and others that will grow in the same house with 
them, are subjected to the same treatment they, too, are starved. The 
cool or Odontoglossum house during the summer months, or say from 
the end of May until the end of September, where no artificial heat is 
employed, cool sufficiently each night for the plants to become covered 
with moisture in the morning. The temperature, however, appears to 
be warm enough for these plants, and, therefore, no harm results. The 
dew deposited upon the leaves is very rapidly absorbed by the atmo¬ 
sphere directly the temperature rises. This leaves the stems and foliage 
of the plants perfectly dry from early in the day until moisture is again 
deposited on their foliage during the night. This may be natural, but 
our province is to improve on Nature if possible by giving the plants all 
the advantages they would derive in a natural state, and at the same 
time shield them from trying conditions. By the non-syringing system 
the transpiration of water from the foliage is going on over a greater 
portion of the day than would be the case if they were liberally syringed 
morning and afternoon. 
From the end of October until the end of March, or later, according 
to the weather, we never ventilate the houses in which Orchids are 
grown, except the one devoted to Odontoglossums, and therefore never 
syringe during that period, unless it is on the morning of very bright 
days during March ; if the last month is excluded we never syringe the 
foliage during any of the others, but maintain the requisite amount of 
moisture by damping the stages, floors, and amongst the pots. On 
bright mornings the syringe is used, and again very lightly at one 
o’clock. This gives ample time for all the moisture to be evaporated 
from the foliage before night. As the season advances we syringe more 
freely, and frequently water lodges in the young growths of Cattleyas 
and others ; in fact, we never trouble about this, but are careful that 
the water is evaporated before night. Some days the syringe can only 
be used once when the day proves dull some hours after syringing, but 
on particularly bright days it is done three times. A little ventilation 
after syringing is afforded at the top, and the water from the young 
growths is quickly evaporated, at least some hours afterwards. The 
whole of the plants in the cool house are syringed twice on every fine 
day after they are potted or top-dressed, and a little ventilation given at 
the top. During the whole of the summer the plants are watered over 
the foliage. 
Those who have low temperatures generally in their Orchid bouses 
must exercise greater care in the supply of water both in the atmosphere 
and over the plants than those who subject their plants to warmer treat¬ 
ment. Spot in the foliage has been attributable to a variety of causes, 
but the chief one is a too free use of the syringe combined with too low 
a temperature. The young growths of Lselias, Cattleyas, Oncidiums, 
and others are then very liable to decay, and in the case of Odonto¬ 
glossums the old pseudo-bulbs will decay as well. I have tested the 
low temperature system for these plants, and with the syringe discon¬ 
tinued, and the amount of moisture decreased as much as possible, the 
pseudo-bulbs decayed of O. cirrhosum, O. roseum, Mesospinidium san- 
guineum, Ada aurantiaca, and others even at the warmest end of the 
house. Do what we would the amount of moisture in the atmosphere, 
combined with the low temperature, proved too much for the plants. 
0. triumphans flourished under the cool treatment, while O. Alexandras 
and O. Pescatorei went back so far that two years was required before 
they were again in a satisfactory condition. With a low night tempera¬ 
ture the use of the syringe may well be condemned, but with warmer 
treatment the syringe may safely be used with advantage. If low 
temperatures are considered from an economical point of view they have 
nothing to recommend them, for the loss of plants or the slow rate at 
which they increase or develope in comparison to those grown warmer 
would, I am afraid, show a balance on the wrong side. 
Yellow thrips are often troublesome throughout the various houses 
devoted to Orchids, but if the syringe is freely used they will give but 
j little trouble. If the plants are clean, whether they are Vandas, Aerides. 
Odontoglossum enspum (many very 
fine forms ; one 
plant with two 
heads, two spikes 
to each head, car¬ 
rying fo.ty-tbrea 
flowers — a very 
fine variety. Other 
fine varieties car¬ 
rying from ten to 
sixteen large flow¬ 
ers on single 
Bpikes) 
„ luteo-purpureum 
„ triumphans 
„ Halli leucoglossum 
„ maculatum super¬ 
bum 
„ cirrhosum 
„ cordatum 
„ pulehellum majus 
„ Cervantesi 
„ Pescatorei 
„ gloriosum 
., odoratum 
Tricopilia suavis 
Phalsenopais amabilis 
„ Schilleriana 
„ Luddemaniana (fine var) 
Vanda suavis 
„ „ Veitchi 
