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FENNELL ORCHID COMPANY, HOMESTEAD, FLORIDA 
2.17 
FENNELL’S 
Published Semi-Annually by FENNELL ORCHID (0. = 4 
ORCHID NEW: 
Route 1, Box 230, Homestead, Florida 
Orchid Importers, Growers and Hybridists For Over 50 Years 
VOL. 8 
SPRING-SUMMER — 1954 
NO. 1 
Collecting 
Orchids In 
South America 
One of my earliest me- 
mories as a very young 
child was the sight of thou- 
sands of species of orchids © 
in blcom—in my Father’s G5 
greenhouses in Kentucky © 
before the first World War, 
In 1940 I had the good” 
luck to collect Cattleyas in — 
both Venezuela and Co- 
lombia and the opportunity 
to learn more about their 
habits in the wild. 
The maximum thrill in 
collecting orchids is to come 
upon large clumps of them. 
in bloom, and I had this 
experience with C. mos- © 
siae and C. Gaskelliana in | 
Venezuela. I was staying in 
Porto Cabello and drove 
out into the country where 
a new road was being built. 
The region was fairly dry 
and covered with rather | 
scrubby growth with here | 
and there a very large old 
tree towering above the 
other vegetation. Generally 
these trees had sparse foli- 
age, probably due to age, 
and many were literally 
covered with orchids. What 
interested me most was the 
fact that they were grow- 
DENDROBIUM FIMBRIATUM var. OCCULATUM > 
This is one of the most easily grown and most decorative of all the UPO? another large group 
— What Is An 
x Orchid Worth? 
What does a sunset cost? 
Gan you hold a symphony 
,,. ip your hand? Perhaps you 
ifégay ten dollars for an opera 
seat. It’s not too high be- 
cause you get full measure 
of. ioy from it. 
_ Have you ever sat qui- 
etly, for ten minutes, say, 
contemplating an orchid 
_ bloom? Try it. Youll have 
a pleasant surprise. The 
beauty grows on you. Think 
of the years it took to grow 
this plant from tiny seed— 
the care to pack and ship 
it—its guaranteed safe ar- 
_ rival. Many people have 
labored to bring it to you. 
Think what the beauty 
of an orchid means to you 
—that this plant will never 
die of old age. 
What is an orchid worth? 
That’s for you to decide. 
We say its worth the plea- 
sure you get from it. 
_ plants were branching in 
| all directions and growing 
over themselves. Water was 
oozing out of the cliff and 
somesoil was washing down 
over the roots. Tcounted one 
spike with eight blooms. 
A few days later I came 
a 
ing in almost full sun. The Dendrobiums. The bulbs produce graceful sprays of yellow-orange flowers Of gigas but they were not 
plants were not pretty —in each spring. 
fact they were about tbe 
color of walnut or light 
Strong plants, flowering size in 5” pots, 4 to 6 canes 10” to 15” tall $15.00 ea. 
Specimen plants in 6” pots, 8 to 12 canes, 12” to 20” tall. 
mahogany, but they were Young plants in 3” pots, 1 to 2 canes 6” to 8” tall 
covered with flowers! As Young plants in 3” and 4” pots, 1 to 2 canes 10” to 12” tall. 
the land was cleared for 
the right of way, many trees were 
felled and it was simple to pick thé 
orchids from the branches of the fallen 
giants. In fact it was the easiest orchid 
collecting I ever did. 
In contrast, collecting Cattleya gigas 
in Colombia was extremely difficult. 
In the Cauca Valley I came upon a 
gorgeous sight—a patch of Cattleya 
gigas about twenty-five feet long and 
twelve feet wide in full bloom on the 
face of a cliff. It reminded me of a 
bed of glorified phlox. These orchids 
were growing in full sun. Their bulbs 
were very stocky and heavy, about 
twice or three times as heavy as 
any I had ever seen, and the leaves, 
instead of being of the usual length, 
were also very heavy and broad. The | 
rhizomes were “short coupled”, you 
might say, for it seemed as if prac- 
tically every eye had sprouted and the 
_ 25.00 ea. 
in bloom. They were grow- 
ing in considerable shade. 
The plants were tall, fine 
5.00 ea. looking plants. I collected 
8.50 ea. some clumps a foot to a 
foot and a half in diameter. 
Examining them closely I found no 
sign where they had ever bloomed. 
Never-the-less I brought them back to 
the Orchid Jungle and gave them 
plenty of sun and food. They respond- 
ed by flowering gloriously. 
They say travel is educational. That 
depends. But I did. mull over the 
many ways I had seen orchids grow- 
ing in the wild and my conclusions led 
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