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RYERSON EXPANSIBLE ORCHID FOLDER Page Q 
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LET'S TALK ABOUT VANDAS 
Last month I "talked" briefly about Vendes. Several customers asked for more. 
While many people are familiar with the Miss Joaquim type...often called "Princess 
Aloha"; "Baby Orchids"; etc. by stores that give blooms as an advertising stunt... 
relatively few seem to know the newer, strap-leaf hybrids. 
I'm not trying to belittle Miss Joaquim. I have her, and her relative, V. teres, 
growing in my yard and enjoy their blooms nearly all year. But they do require 
full sun for their top bloom production. 
It's the strap-leaf kinds that should interest you folks with northern greenhouses, 
for if you grow them right, you'll have no trouble in blooming them. You must give 
them more light than most of you give your Cattleyas...incidentally, many of your 
Cattleyas would benefit from more light than you give them...and you must’ feed them 
profusely. I doubt if it's possible to over-feed Vandas. 
As they mature, your strap-leaf Vandas probably will prefer a cypress raft to the 
clay pot. You also will have to provide lattice-like supports, to which they will 
attach their aerial roots. Unlike your Cattleyas, you won't need to shift them 
every two years. In fact, once their roots are firmly attached to raft and support, 
they will bitterly resent being moved. It's through these roots that they feed, so 
wet every one of them with the nutrient solution. You can't dip these big plants, 
as suggested on Page N, in connection with Phalaenopsis, so use the spray method. 
A customer in Seattle wrote me; "I brought home some blooming size strap-leaf 
Vandas from Hawaii, and for awhile-I thought my friends were right in saying I'd 
made a big mistake. For nearly a year they just stood still, in spite of all my 
efforts to take care of them properly. But now they've acclimated themselves, are 
growing and blooming their heads off. Am I ever proud {" 
30, if you've bought mature Vandas from a sunnier climate, don't lose patience. 
When they start blooming for you, you'll feel emply rewarded, as they are worth 
waiting for. Seedlings...like human children...will adjust themselves to new , 
surroundings more readily than blooming size plants. They have fewer roots to lose. 
If you have the opportunity to attend an Orchid Society meeting that features 
Mr. Kirch's Vanda slides, DON'T MISS IT $ The fabulous array of forms and colors 
that come to life before your eyes will literally take your breath away. 
V.-Sanderiana ~ the most outstanding of all strap-leaf species - has been used 
again and again in hybridizing, and has enhanced the form of every cross,-lending 
the offspring that desired bold, flat form and compact, round shape demanded by 
hybridists and, more recently, by florists. ae 
Haweiian growers nave known the commercial value of Vandas es cut flowers for 
years, but mainland growers are just awakening to the endless vossibilities. 
"lorists wno at first shied away from Vanda blooms, are now demending them. They 
cen do anything with them they can with Cymbidiums, less expensively and all year 
‘round, whereas Cymbidiums have a limited season. 
A friend has a bench of seedlings of a V. Sanderiana hybrid coming into bloom. Ile 
cuts the sprays (averaging 20 blooms each), loads and chills them and flies them 
north, He reports so far they have netted him an average of 25¢ per bloom, and he 
could sell many times the present output. 
How many seedlings have netted you five dollars for their very first blooms? 
