PAT 
? 
o 
GET 
MORE 
FLOWERS 
FROM 
SAME 
SPACE 
INCREASE 
FLOWER PRODUCTIVITY 
The thing that makes the difference, 
(presuming, of course, that you have 
adequate arrangements for the sale 
of your blooms) between success and 
failure in your orchid business is not 
how many flowers you produce, so 
much as it is how many you produce per 
square foot of space at your disposal. 
Each of us, one way or another, is 
limited in available space and whether 
or not some of us survive may be de- 
termined by our ability to increase pro- 
duction in our present space without 
greatly increasing our over-all cost. 
There are many ways of accomplish- 
ing this in most establishments. These 
methods are roughly as follows: 
1. Culling. Disposing of all weak, 
unproductive plants and _ particularly 
those producing poor quality flowers. 
Many firms are already practicing this. 
Witness the great flood of the small 
flowered C. Percivalliana and of such 
poor hybrids as C. H. S. Leon on the 
plant market recently. 
2. Selection of plants which produce 
several good flowers per stem instead of 
one, and selection of plants inclined 
to branch freely so as to produce sev- 
eral leads per pot instead of one. 
3.  Inereasing light. Most orchid 
growers find that their plants will grow 
better and produce more heavily if they 
gradually increase their light and ven- 
tilation. 
. eo eA. ais f Le 
Published Quarterly ‘by FENNEL, 
Ore id-Impo 
\ 
? 
rs, Gr 
OSs G-SUMMER — 1951 
BC. GALATEA 
One of our very best late winter Brasso-cattleyas. 
Dark, heavy textured, fine form, free flowering. 
4. Feeding. Above all other things, 
feeding of the right fertilizer in the 
right way will give the most dramatic 
results. Our experiments and exper- 
ience as well as those of many of our 
customers show that our Fenoreo Plant 
Food, if applied regularly to the plants, 
in sufficient light, will greatly increase 
production of both growths and flowers. 
Plants that are fed sufficiently and 
that are given enough light to use the 
additional food branch much more free- 
ly than do plants grown in osmuuda 
without feeding. Our experience shows 
an increase of over 300 per cent in the 
number of growths produced and an in- 
crease of nearly 50 per cent in the 
number of flowers per growth when 
feeding was followed compared with un- 
fed plants under the same conditions. 
Even with feeding you will notice a 
considerable difference in their ability 
to branch and to produce flowers be- 
tween individual plants and culling 
should still be practiced. However, we 
have never had a blind cattleya at the 
Orchid Jungle since we started feed- 
ing. I mean by this that no plant in 
good shape has consistently refused to 
bloom. We occasionally have blind 
growths but no larger percentage than 
we had before feeding. 
(Continued on Page 7) 
RCHID NEWS 
CHID CO. 2 Route 1, Box 230, Homestead, Florida 
wers and Hybridists For Over 40 Years 
No. 1 
DENDROBIUMS 
REGAINED. 
Return 
To 
Former 
Popularity 
(By T. A. FENNELL, Sr.) 
Tt seems to me that of all 
Orchids the great Dendrobium tribe de- 
serves more and gets less attention 
than any other. 
This statement holds true even in 
our own collection. We have over 
a hundred species and hybrids of Den- 
drobiums but unfortunately many of 
them are represented by only one or 
two individuals. However, we are rap- 
idly changing this condition and within 
a few years we will have thousands of 
plants of some of the more showy va- 
rieties. 
These plants are really deserving of 
great attention. One plant we have 
of D. Sander’s Crimson has produced 
over 500 flowers during the last 18 
months. The flowers are about 3 inches 
in diameter, deep glowing purple heavy 
textured and long lasting. They are 
borne on Jong arching spikes about 20 
per spike. 
Our D. Phalaenopsis var. White 
Foam produced some 50 _ beautiful 
round full petalled pure white flowers 
in September- October and attracted 
more attention than almost any plant 
in the “Jungle.” 
One of the most showy and beauti- 
ful. orchids in our collection is D. 
Superbum var. Dearei with its long 
deciduous bulbs completely covered 
with clusters of fine large long lasting 
pure white flowers.in February and 
March. 
(Continued on Page 2) 
