FENNELL’S ORCHID NEWS 
Published by 
FENNELL ORCHID CO. 
Homestead, Florida 
Orchid Growing Hints 
Light: — Are you careful to see that you 
give your cattleyas plenty of light? They 
need it, you know, and lack of light, more 
than almost anything else is responsible for 
small, thin-textured blooms, “blind” (non- 
flowering) growths, weak, spindly, twisted 
growths, etc. If your plants are a pretty, 
dark green color you can be sure that 
more light will pay off in increased blooms. 
Water: — Watch that hose; More novice 
growers kill plants by over-watering than 
by all other means combined. Learn to dif- 
ferentiate between watering, spraying and 
damping down. Watering (when each 
plant is thoroughly wet) should be prac- 
ticed only once every one to two weeks 
in the winter, while the plants are at rest 
and only every two or three days during 
the hottest part of the summer. Even 
then you must be particularly careful that 
the drainage keeps operating as a stoppage 
in the drainage will immediately result in 
dead roots and the eventual death of the 
plant. 
Spray gingerly — if you see any new 
growths turn black or if the sheaths on new 
growths turn black discontinue and dry out 
your plants. 
Damping down: — (Wetting the paths 
and benches but not the plants to create 
humidity.) can be practiced every day 
summer and winter except when you want 
to dry out your plants. 
Spraying: — (Quick, fine spray wetting 
only the tops and not penetrating the 
osmunda) can be practiced two or three 
times daily in very dry hot weather and 
daily on bright days during the winter. 
The practice can be very beneficial but if 
overdone it can ruin all your plants. 
Remember that in the wild cattleyas are 
never found growing in deep shade and 
never under conditions of poor drainage. 
The preferred conditions are those under 
which there is a pronounced dry season, 
coinciding with the rest period of that 
species, and not more than half shade. 
Many cattleyas, particularly C. gigas, C. 
trianae, C. Lueddemannia, C. Mossiae and 
C. Schroderae, are usually found growing 
in exposed positions where they often have 
full tropical sunlight for a good part of the 
day. 
Potting: — Watch to see that you get each 
plant firmly into position but do not force 
the osmunda into the pot so tightly that 
the roots are mashed in the process. 
Osmunda is sometimes forced in so tightly 
that the roots have no chance of penetrat- 
ing it. The osmunda lasts longer that way 
but the plant grows less and after all, are 
we interested in conserving osmunda or in 
growing orchids? 
Be sure that you have good drainage! 
We believe that the cup test is a good 
one to follow when beginning. After the 
plant is potted pour a teacupful of water 
into the pot—if the water immediately runs 
thru the drainage is satisfactory, if it just 
drips thru or doesn’t get thru at all the 
plant should be repotted immediately. 


L. A. Fennell among his orchids. 
Photo taken about 1937. 

L. A. Fennell and the Fennell Orchid Company 
Lee A. Fennell, (hereafter referred to as 
Dad) founder of the Fennell Orchid Com- 
pany and father and grandfather of the 
present owners was born in Cynthiana, 
Kentucky in 1870. About 1890 while on a 
trip to Mexico City he became interested in 
orchids and by 1900 he was devoting his 
whole time to their cultivation. He operated 
his greenhouses in Cynthiana until 1918 
when he moved them to Lexington, Ken- 
tucky. 
After 2 disastrous freeze-outs which cut 
his collection to only a few hundred of the 
best plants, Dad moved to Florida during 
the summer of 1923. 
In the period prior to 1916 he imported 
large quantities of plants which had been 
collected in Central America, Columbia, 
Venezuela and Brazil, including principally 
Cattleyas, Labiata, trianae and Mossiae. 
In 1914 he grew his first seedlings, LC 
Aphrodite alba and C. Guatemalenisis. 
Prior to about 1927 the business was 
conducted as “L. A. Fennell, Orchids” but 
in 1927 the name was changed to the 
Fennell Orchid Co., a name to which we 
have adhered since. 
During the late 1920's and the early 30’s 
Dad imported several collections of fine 
hybrid plants from Europe and from these 
a number of excellent hybrid seedlings were 
obtained—particularly BLC Dorothy Fen- 
nell, 
Throughout his entire life Dad showed 
a great love for orchids — he lived orchids 
and had a sort of contempt for other flow- 
ers. To him orchids were a consuming 
passion — he would occasionally sell a 
plant but only to someone he liked and 
who he thought would give it good care. 
Dad was an orchid enthusiast and 
lover who made his living with his hobby. 
As a result the business was never big but 
the collection contained some extremely fine 
plants and Dad was known and liked by 
hundreds of orchid lovers. He had a great 
store of knowledge and understanding of 
plants and he was always ready to help 
anyone he liked with any problems con- 
cerning their plants. However, if you 
should fail to show what he thought was 
the proper amount of respect and apprecia- 
tion for a flower he thought good he was 
liable to dismiss you with a polite but short 
sentence or two. 
The Orchid Jungle which he selected for 
his collection is, we believe, the best natural 
spot for orchid culture in the United States. 
It is full of native epiphytic orchids and 
numerous imported plants which he and 
we have put on the trees. Of course the 
seedlings and the commercial collection are 
grown in pots on benches in our specially 
constructed lath and glass houses. 
In 1923, when Dad moved to Florida, 
there was not a single commercial collec- 
tion of orchids in the state. We believe 
that he deserves the title of Father of the 
Orchid Industry in Florida. 

Feeding: — The rise of the hydroponic 
method of orchid culture has brought atten- 
tion to the value of feeding orchids. It is, 
of course, silly to believe that an orchid can 
exist without food. The idea that it is an 
“air-plant” and exists on water and air 
alone is completely erroneous. However 
the fact remains that an orchid requires 
remarkably little food — therefore feeding 
must be practiced with great care or over’ 
stimulation and the collapse of the plants 
may result. Use a good formula, feed care- 
fully and not too often. 
Gravel culture: — Orchids can be grown 
and grown well under the hydroponics or 
gravel culture method but if you will talk 
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