300 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
Jan. loth, 1885. 
THE 
©rd/ttr (fexainm (ffalmbm. 
Potting 1 Cool-house Orchids. —I have many 
reasons for saying that I have always found the 
early part of the present month the best time in 
which to commence repotting Masdevallias, Odonto- 
glossums, and all the other occupants of the cold- 
house. 'When they are repotted in January, or 
even in the beginning of February, should the work 
not be completed before, they have ample time to get 
firmly rooted and re-established before the hot season, 
which is the critical time with these plants, arrives. 
In spring and summer it is above all things necessary 
that an undisturbed root action should go on, in order 
that the imbibing roots may fully compensate for that 
which is thrown off by the leaves, and for the demand 
made on the vital forces of the plant in producing 
and perfecting the flowers. 
Cold-loving Orchids make roots principally in the 
cold weather, and therefore if re-potted now, the new 
material is immediately made use of, and the plants 
will be in a fit condition to go through the summer, 
whereas if they are allowed to root into the old 
stuff, and are repotted later on, the roots will be 
broken and disturbed at a season when they can¬ 
not so well recover the check, and the hot weather 
mil take more out of the plants than the roots can 
replace. Such plants always fall ready victims to 
thrip and other insects, as they (the insects) seem 
to have a particular liking for badly-nourished sub¬ 
jects, and a shyness in attacking robust, healthy 
specimens. Apart from all other considerations, 
January is a month when the time necessary can best 
be spared to give the proper attention to the matter. 
Potting Materials. 
No hurry need take place about beginning, but no 
time should be lost in preparing clean pots, baskets, 
a good supply of broken crocks, fresh sphagnum moss 
and fibrous peat. With respect to this last-named 
article, great difficulty in getting a good Orchid peat 
is experienced in the present day, and many deaths 
among the Orchids may be attributed to using the 
sandy grass and heath root peat often supplied. In 
many cases it would be better to leave the plants 
without repotting, or to use only sphagnum moss, 
than have anything to do with it. The proper land 
should be light, and composed of bracken root, which 
seems to be almost as indestructable as a fibre, let it 
be kept ever so wet. Mr. H. J. Smyth, of 21, Gold¬ 
smiths’ Street, Drury Lane, W.C., has recently shown 
me a very fine sample—the best I have seen for some 
time. 
What to Commence With. 
It is better to begin with the Masdevallias, follow 
on with the Odontoglossums, and finish with Oneidium 
macranthum and other odd cold-house plants, giving 
to each a shift into a proportionate-sized pot, but 
avoiding over-potting in every case, as it is injurious. 
The pots, of different sizes, being ready, crocked 
carefully a little more than half way up, a thin layer 
of sphagnum moss just sufficient to cover the crocks 
and keep the drainage open being placed in each, and 
a supply of peat, broken into lumps by the hand, and 
of sphagnum moss picked over in the same way, being 
in two separate heaps before the operator, all is ready 
to begin repotting in earnest. I always found it better 
to keep the peat and sphagnum separate, and to take of 
each in the process of potting as it seemed to be 
required for the particular place in which it was to be 
put, using generally about one-half of each for most 
cold-house plants. This I found to be a much better 
plan than to mix the materials together before using, 
as when placed in separately it is much less liable to 
cake as it frequently does when used previously mixed 
together. The fine soil which will always accumulate 
on the bench as the rough is used should be removed 
and put on one side for mixing up for use with the 
stove and greenhouse plants, and the old material 
comes in well for the same purpose. Some are great 
advocates for using charcoal in repotting Orchids, but 
I never recommend it, as although I know it to be good 
and desirable when it can be readily obtained, most of 
the best plants in the country are grown without it, 
and therefore it is shown to be not necessary, and if 
not necessary it is too expensive to be generally used. 
There are a few points that might be noted which, 
during the process of repotting, would be of service 
to the amateur. 
Golden Rules for Potting. 
The golden rules to be observed in potting Orchids 
are:— 
1. Never repot a plant which is dry, but rather give 
it water, and leave'it a time to moisten the ball before 
turning it out of its pot. 
2. Never pot in dry material, but let it be about as 
moist as it is kept when the plant is in it—not wet, 
but moist in the same degree that living sphagnum 
moss always is. 
3. Never pot in new pots, or use crocks of broken 
new pots until they have been soaked in water and 
partially dried again. This is an old-fashioned notion, 
but it is worthy of all respect, as I have found that 
plants potted into thoroughly dry new pots often have 
the ball cake and crack away from the rim of the pot, 
leaving the water to run off without moistening it. 
4. Never repot a plant with an unbroken ball, but 
roughen it by picking out with a bluntly-pointed stick 
some of the old stuff. 
5. Never leave a plant so that it will shake about 
after repotting, but never use a stick to fasten it if it 
can be secured in the pot with the potting material in 
the ordinary way. 
6. Keep the back bulbs nearer to the run of the pot 
on their side than the leading growth is to that on 
its side to allow it room to grow. Always clean every 
plant just before repotting, or during the time it is 
being transferred from one pot to another ; and repot 
every plant except perhaps an odd plant or so, which 
circumstances may seem to say would be injured by it. 
Top-dressing Orchids. 
Top-dressing as a rule is to be avoided, as in many 
cases it does more harm than good through the false 
surface concealing that which is beneath it. I have 
many times seen a top-dressed plant with the surface 
looking in the proper condition, while the old stuff 
beneath has been either sodden and full of decayed 
roots, or dust dry, according as the false surface 
imbibed the moisture or shed it on to the old ball. 
Never use the crocks which accumulate from the 
plants turned out for repotting a second time without 
their being previously washed. Where a plant is so 
rooted into a basket or pot that it cannot be removed, 
take out as much of the old stuff as possible and 
replace it with new, and not merely put a coating on 
the surface, as is too often dons. Any plant which it 
may be advisable to leave in its old pot should have the 
pot scrubbed before it is returned to its place. During 
the repotting any of the plants with far advanced buds 
should be left until they are past bloom, but unless 
the buds are likely to open within a fortnight or so the 
repotting may be done without any harm. 
To be starved for want of water is the worst thing 
that can happen to the cold-house Orchids at any 
season of the year, and therefore, although for a few 
weeks after repotting, the watering of the plants 
should be very carefully attended to, they should not 
be allowed in any case to get dry, it being much better 
to give them too much than too little water. It 
is always best to have a temporary potting bench 
in the house in which the plants are growing and to 
bring in a small quantity of each thing required than 
to take the plants to the potting-shed unless it be very 
handy to the Orchid-house and can be reached with¬ 
out going outdoors. Once upon a time there sprung up 
a notion of mixing sand with the peat and sphagnum 
for Orchids, but the practice soon died out, as although 
it was found to keep a sickly plant just alive, it was 
also as certain to keep it from getting into health 
again. Good fibry peat and sphagnum therefore having 
stood the test of time prove to be the only good 
materials for Orchids, as they who have paid for their 
whims in using cocoa-nut fibre and other things well 
know. 
The Temperatures in which the Orchids in the 
different houses will thrive well during January are :— 
East India or Hot-house, 65 degs. to 70 degs. 
Fahrenheit, by day ; 60 degs. at night. 
Cattleya or Intermediate-house, 60 degs. to 65 degs. 
by day; 55 degs. at night. 
Odontoglossum or Cool-house, 50 degs. to 55 degs. 
by day ; 45 degs. at night. 
The higher day temperature to be attained by sun 
heat only when possible .—James O'Brien. 
- 0 ■' r I> — 
ORCHID NOTES. 
The Orchid Album. —The current number of 
this fine publication contains coloured plates of 
Saccolabium Blumei, one of the finest of East Indian 
Orchids ; Cymbidium Devonianum, an elegant species 
of small growth, with well-furnished spikes of pale 
green flowers, spotted with purple brown, and a 
crimson lip, distinguished by two large blackish- 
purple spots on either side towards the centre; 
Odontoglossum vexillarium superbum, a high-coloured 
variety in Sir Trevor Lawrence’s collection ; and 
Vanda insignis, the beautiful and distinct species 
which has been so rare for many years. The last-named 
plate was prepared from a specimen in the collection of 
E. Wright, Esq., Gravelly Hill, Birmingham. 
-►S-'- 
Leelia anceps var. Dawsoni. —Perhaps the 
nearest approach to the famed Dawsoni which has 
yet flowered among the white and blush varieties of 
L. anceps recently imported, is now in flower with 
Mr. Henry James, Castle Nursery, Lower Norwood. 
The lip has much the same bright crimson, and the 
throat the blackish lines and yellow tinge of L. a. 
Dawsoni; but the sepals, instead of being white, are 
suffused with pink. It is a very beautiful variety, 
hardly up to L. a. Dawsoni in form as at present 
seen, but time and good culture will no doubt greatly 
improve it. Other good forms of L. anceps and many 
other rare Orchids are in bloom just now in the well- 
grown collection at the Castle Nursery. 
-- 
Orchids in Flower at Lake House, Chelten¬ 
ham. —The following Orchids were in flower at the end 
of December, in the collection of G. Neville Wyatt, Esq.: 
Aerides Leeanum, Angrsecum eburneum, Calanthe 
Veitchii, Cattleya Exoniensis, C. maxima, C. Hol- 
fordii, Cypripedium barbatum, C. concolor, C. Dominii, 
C. Haynaldianum, C. insigne, C. insigne Maulei, C, 
violaceum punctatum, C. longifolium, C. Spicerianum, 
C. Sedeni, C. venustum, Dendrobium bigibbum, D. 
Dalhouseianum, D. heterocarpum, D. infundibulum, 
D. superbiens (extra fine variety), Laelia anceps, 
Lycaste Skinnerii, L. lanipes, Masdevallia Tovarensis, 
Maxillaria grandiflora, M. venusta, Odontoglossum 
Alexandra, O. Kramerii, O. Hallii leucoglossum, 0. 
Pescatorei, O. Roezlii, O. Rossi majus, O. sceptrum, 
O. Londesborougliianum, Oneidium aurosum, 0. 
cheirophorum, 0. Forbesii, 0. Suttonii, 0. varicosum, 
Pescatoria Lehmanii, Phakenopsis amabilis, P. grandi¬ 
flora, P. violacea, Saccolabium violaceum, Sophronitis 
grandiflora, several, one charming plant having eight 
large very highly coloured flowers open; and Zygo- 
petalum Mackayi.. 
Orchids at the Royal Botanical Garden, 
Manchester.—With a sharp frost outside, it was a 
pleasure, about ten days ago, to turn into the 
vestibule attached to the Orchid-house, and to have 
the opportunity of inspecting the many plants in 
bloom, both here and in the other houses. The 
general health and vigour of the plants, too, tell 
plainly of still further additions that will by-and-bye 
be made to the floral display. A noticeable plant now 
flowering is Cypripedium Lowi, not particularly on 
account of the size of the plant, but of the five flowers 
on the spike. These being large in size, dark in colour, 
and much more spotted than is usually the case, make 
it at once a prominent and striking object. C. 
Spicerianum, too, is flowering. This beautiful species 
is a great favourite with Mr. Bruce Findlay, and, as 
though it appreciated the estimation in which it is 
held, it is almost always in flower. Fine forms of C. 
Sedeni and C. Dominianum are also in bloom, but the 
grand display is made up principally of C. insignis. 
This is an old and well-known sort truly, but when 
seen, as here, in a group, with nearly five hundred 
blooms open, fine in form and colour, in conjunction 
with seventy-two spikes of Amaryllis, chiefly aulica, 
and relieved with ferns, palms, and other fine-foliaged 
plants, it makes a display most interesting and 
beautiful. The old Ccelogyne speciosa is also flower- 
