84 
House & Garden 
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These charming fixtures are quite 
in the spirit of the Old Masters. 
Designed to harmonize with furni¬ 
ture and decorations of the Adam, 
Hepplewhite, Sheraton and Eigh¬ 
teenth Century periods. 
No. 70—5 Light Fixture 
Light Antique Bronze finish. . . . 
West of Rockies. 
Colonial Silver finish. 
West of Rockies. 
No. 700—2 Light Bracket 
Light Antique Bronze finish. . .. 
West of Rockies. 
Colonial Silver finish. 
West of Rockies. 
Prices do not include shades, 
EDWARD MILLER & CO 
Established 1844 
Meriden, Connecticut 
Write for name 
of t MILLER Dis¬ 
tributor near you. 
Growing Your Own Orchids 
( Continued, from page 82) 
house, orchids of the Odontoglossum 
species are placed in the coolest part of 
the house, while the Cattleya and 
Laelia, which require more heat, are 
placed on the stagings where the 
warmth of the sun is stronger. Still 
other more delicate species arc hung 
close to the glass. This same arrange¬ 
ment can be reproduced in the sun par¬ 
lor. Cool plants can be placed in that 
section of the parlor receiving less sun 
heat and other varieties hung from the 
wood frames holding the glass in that 
section where the sun lasts longest. 
In the hot summer months, however, 
the sun is much too hot and means of 
shading must be provided if the plants 
are to be protected. It is more or less 
customary to associate the shading of 
a hot-house with a preparation akin to 
whitewash applied only to that side of 
the house receiving the afternoon sun. 
This is really not very practical, especi¬ 
ally where the plants are hung near the 
surface of the glass, for while the white¬ 
wash does break the rays a little, it does 
not prevent the intense heat radiated 
by the glass. Moreover, the ordinary 
whitewash preparation is not rain-proof 
and will wash off. It is, therefore, best 
to have blinds which can be pulled 
down as required. In a standard hot¬ 
house, these blinds are generally fast¬ 
ened to wooden supports possibly six 
inches from the glass on the outside in 
order that the air may circulate between 
the blind and the glass, and the tend¬ 
ency is for cooler temperature. These 
blinds can also be made use of during 
severe winter nights as a protection 
against sudden drops in the tempera¬ 
ture. On dull days, they must be rolled 
back or taken off. 
Growing Requirements 
Now that the heating and ventilating 
has been taken care of, and accommoda¬ 
tion for the plants provided, the begin¬ 
ner must look over his collection of 
plants and plan how to give them the 
proper amount of water and new ma¬ 
terial to grow in when they have out¬ 
grown their present sized pots. This is 
a most essential point in successfully 
growing orchids—how much water to 
give them. 
The composition of peat, or of peat 
and moss, is the nearest approach to 
the fibrous substance of the tropics 
where the orchids originally come from. 
In potting plants, the growers provide 
good drainage which they accomplish 
by filling the pots about one-third with 
crocks. They then carefully surround 
the roots of the plant with peat, placing 
pieces of crock around the peat, thus 
forming a broken sustaining wall, and 
this in turn is placed in the pot firmly. 
Growers are always most willing to 
show how to pot the plants, and give 
any instructions and information they 
can about orchids. 
The re-potting of plants is a process 
that is in operation practically all 
through the year, with the exception of 
a few short months in the winter when 
only the plants that are in poor condi¬ 
tion are re-potted. The one best time for 
potting, however, is right after the flow¬ 
ering season. 
Not all varieties of orchids have the 
same flowering nor the same resting 
seasons, although none blooms more 
than once a year. A beginner can so 
arrange his collection of cool-house 
orchids as to have a plant in bloom for 
practically each month of the year. The 
resting season sets in when the flower 
has been cut off. No water is then 
given except a little now and then to 
keep the plant from too much drying, 
if the cutting is done during the hot 
summer months. After a month or so 
(some plants like the Odontoglossum 
and Oncidium require a longer resting 
season) the plant will show growth-^ 
new roots will appear and new leads 
(shoots) will burst forth. The resting 
season is over now, and watering is to 
be resumed. 
Watering 
The best way to water plants is by 
immersing them into a vessel filled 
with water. After the peat is well sat¬ 
urated, they are put back where the sun 
will dry them. Where orchids are sus¬ 
pended, care must be taken that after 
watering their drip does not fall on 
plants placed on the staging below, as 
this tends to sour the peat. No more 
water is to be given until the peat is 
thoroughly dry, when the same process 
is repeated. In the hot summer days, 
plants require watering every two days 
or so, but during the winter months 
when the sun heat is not hot enough to 
dry the peat quickly, water is not re¬ 
quired oftener than every week or ten 
days. In case of uncertainty as to the 
amount of water any given plant re¬ 
quires, it is always best to give it less 
water than too much, as more harm 
is done through too much water than 
not enough. 
My miniature hot-house was origi¬ 
nally built by amateurs for the purpose 
of growing ferns and hot-house plants 
with a minimum of heat. With this in 
view, its base was built 3' below the 
level of the soil, which of course is in 
direct contradiction of the way a stand¬ 
ard orchid house should be built. Being 
entirely separate from the dwelling, it 
was originally heated by an oil lamp, 
but later by an ingenious device: an 
iron coil was placed inside the steam 
furnace heating the entire dwelling, and 
a hot water system was thus installed 
and conveyed through the ground solely 
for the hot-house. 
The results have been surprising. 
Being only 9' by 6' and 7' high, much 
too narrow for a center stage, a shelf 
was built around the wall low enough 
to allow large plants to be placed there 
without being too close to the side win¬ 
dows, and in the center back, plants are 
hung from the top and sides of the 
house. The collection of orchids began 
with an inexpensive Cattleya Percival- 
iana, which is the easiest growing la¬ 
vender orchid, and gradually included 
an Odontoglossum, an Oncidium, a Cat¬ 
tleya Triana, a Dowiana, which is an 
exquisite orchid of a yellow texture, and 
several other white species. 
The temperature in this miniature 
hot-house is kept at about 50° at night 
and 60° and above in the daytime. 
Orange plants, ferns, heliotrope and 
many flowers are grown and serve not 
only to keep the air full of moisture, but 
also as decoration. These plants are 
placed on a low shelf which is below 
the one used for the orchids, and thrive 
very well in the partial shade. 
Wearing and using cut orchids as dec¬ 
orations has become tremendously pop¬ 
ular, and the price for these blooms is 
extremely high. This, however, is 
partly justified by the ban on the im¬ 
port of these plants from South America 
and other tropical countries. But the 
popularity of growing the plants and 
propagating them by amateurs, even as 
is done with palms, ferns, and other 
plants, is only in its inception. Orchids, 
and especially the cool-house species, 
are capable of being understood, given 
a little observation and a love of flow¬ 
ers, as readily as any less showy and 
admirable house plant and the results 
more than compensate for all the work. 
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