According to rules established by the traditional hierarchy of orchidists, this chapter—and other chapters to follow on warm orchids—should not have been written. Or, if written, it should have been reserved for a technically advanced book. There was a time when beginners were warned to stay away from warm-orchid culture—from cattleyas in particular, which were once considered difficult to grow. "You've got to know how first," was the attitude of many old-timers. But where you got the know-how was never made clear; they would hint, though, at a long and arduous apprenticeship to some congenial nurseryman. In a sense, this attitude and approach are correct. It is true that to grow cattleyas you must know them; but the way to do that is to learn the rules and then have the fun of acquiring the experience. After all, cattleyas are plants and, treated with common sense, they are easier to grow than many more ordinary plants. However, they are exacting in their cultural requirements. They demand two conditions beyond the needs of most other orchids: humidity and warmth—sometimes as much as 60 to 70 per cent humidity during the day and a definitely maintained minimum temperature of 55° to 60°. These two conditions usually can be obtained only in closed glass structures such as Wardian cases, sealed-off or protected windows, hot frames, and greenhouses. Cattleyas cannot be grown outdoors except in parts of Florida and adjacent states, and even there they are tricky plants to handle; indoors, however, they respond vigorously to correct cultural conditions.

If all orchids were listed in the order of their importance and beauty, cattleyas undoubtedly would come first. They have been the indisputably popular queen of the tribe since the first cattleya appeared in English greenhouses about 1818. They are the orchids of romance and legend, the orchids that started the boom of speculation and exploitation. They are the true florists' orchids which find their way into ballrooms and night clubs on the shoulders and in the hair of lovely women. They are what you think of when the word "orchid" is mentioned. Probably the only true thing you've heard about them is that they are expensive; the flowers often cost more than we are willing to spend except on very special occasions. Sometimes the plants, too, are expensive, although the average prices vary between $5.00 and $50.

Botanically, cattleyas are divided into two groups. The first section, called the "labiates," have rather stout pseudo-bulbs and one leaf only. The labiates are the largest-flowered but not necessarily the loveliest. The second group (sometimes called the "warm section" though grown as intermediate orchids) has longer, more cylindrical pseudo-bulbs and two leaves. The flowers of this section are smaller, more gayly colored, and always more floriferous. They bear eight to ten flowers, each about four inches or more across; the labiates produce from one to three flowers which may be from six to ten inches in diameter. They are all worth growing, however, and a good collection will have one or two plants of each cattleya species. Incidentally, this is the only orchid family which, by itself, can give you blooms the year round. For approximately $60 you can buy twelve different species of cattleyas and have one of the plants in bloom nearly every month.

Don't overlook the more expensive hybrids. Many hybrids have no particular flowering season. They grow continuously and flower when growth is matured. As a result, some hybrids may bloom several times a year. They are larger, sturdier, and often more vigorous than the species. The colors of the flowers usually run through shades of pink and lavender, and are sometimes white. But they may vary a bit and occasionally produce an odd shade of chartreuse, apricot yellow, and red. Not infrequently the lips will be in a contrasting color. Cattleya dowiana, var. aurea hybrids have yellow sepals and petals and scarlet lips; Laelio-cattleya canhamiana alba has white petals and a reddish-purple lip. But these are not easy to obtain.

Cattleyas are closely allied to brassias, laelias, epiden-drums, and sophronitis—all of which have been crossed to produce some of the most spectacular flowers in the world. Such crosses of two families are commonly referred to as bigeneric; of three families as trigeneric. Crosses involving three or more families are often given a specific name of their own. Usually, though, they are described by an abbreviated and euphonious combination of their family names. For example, laeliocattleya, or epilaelia, or sophro-laeliocattleya. The really outstanding hybrids have come from laeliocattleya crosses, the most interesting from the brassocattleyas and the brassolaeliocattleyas.

Perhaps the pleasantest thing about cattleyas is that the plants aren't too large in proportion to the flowers. Most plants will stand about twelve to fourteen inches high, eighteen to twenty inches when in bloom. They are not too large for Wardian cases and are easily benched in bay windows. The foliage remains green and stiff throughout the year and in itself is not unattractive. Some people like to think of the foliage as resembling spineless cactus; others believe a more accurate description is to liken the foliage to a fat wooden salad spoon, the pseudobulb being the handle and the leaf being the curved bowl.

Cattleya seedlings, too, are good foliage subjects during the four or five years of waiting you'll have before they bloom for the first time. They are also the least expensive way of increasing your orchid collection. Considering the cost of parent plants ($150 to $200 each and up) and the care and labor that go into seedling production, the low cost of seedlings themselves is astonishing. The price will vary from $1.00 to more than $5.00 depending upon the parents. Species sell for the lowest amount. Good hybrids will average $2.00 or $3.00. Seedlings from white or yellow orchids bring the top prices. You'll be surprised how easily seedlings adapt themselves to Wardian cases and hot frames and how many of them you can healthfully cram into such small structures.

Cattleyas and their hybrids are not difficult to grow in a temperate zone; they come originally from a temperate climate. They are found only in three geographical areas in the New World: Central America, the Colombia-Venezuela area, and the seacoast of southern Brazil. In spite of geographical divergence, their culture is similar since they are found at elevations between 2,000 and 6,000 feet above sea level. The temperature is rather constant, rarely lower than 50° F. or higher than 90°. Temperatures as low as 40° and as high as 105° have been recorded in these areas, but never for long intervals. Usually, the lower temperatures are accompanied by dry, clear weather, the higher temperatures by considerable humidity and some cloudiness.

The natural habitat of cattleyas is on trees, although at high levels they may take to rocks. In either case, their roots don't enter the ground. They are true epiphytes and find their scanty food in shallow deposits of decaying litter and the occasional droppings of birds.

It is interesting to note that most collectors make some comment on the sun-seeking habit of cattleyas, yet most culturists persist in growing them in full shade. Native cattleyas which find themselves in shaded areas have long, tender pseudobulbs and rarely bloom, while those in considerable sun have squat pseudobulbs, leathery leaves, and bloom their heads off. This is merely another way of stating the earlier premise of orchid culture: give orchids all the sunlight they can stand without injury. Excepting the weedy, rank epidendrums, cattleyas can stand—and need-more sunlight than other orchids. Sunlight is the critical agent in ripening and hardening their growths and is the most important precursor of flowering. A word of warning, though—they cannot take the full, direct sunlight of the temperate regions in summer. Such sunlight has not the soft luminant quality of tropical sunlight. There is something disastrously intense about our summer sunlight. Meteorologists believe it to be due in part to the heavier concentration of the shorter light rays. Whatever it is, it is frequently injurious.

However, orchidists at the Missouri Botanical Gardens have worked out an ingenious shading program for their experimental cattleya house. They sent observers into Central America and the Colombia-Venezuela area. They also looked up the recorded data of historical plant collectors. Most of the information they collected revealed that cattleyas, much of the time, are perched in the lower crotches of trees—or on the vertical trunk below the first level of leaves. In this position, cattleyas receive full morning and late afternoon sun. During midday, however, from about 11:00 to 3:00 o'clock, they are shaded from the vertical rays but receive filtered light that passes through the foliage.

METHODS OF SHADING

Muslin or lath may be used separately or combined for better light control. By placing either material from six to ten inches above the panes of glass, on simple frames, better summer control of temperature is secured. An air gap under muslin, particularly, will reduce the interior temperatures of greenhouses by as much as ten degrees.

During the last two summers orchidists at the Missouri Botanical Gardens have achieved considerable success in growing cattleyas under roller lath blinds placed horizontally over the central three-quarters of the top of the greenhouse. The side glass is left clear; the small portion of the roof between the sides and the level of the blinds is also left clear, or lightly sprayed with a whitewash if the sunlight is severely intense. During the winter months the blinds are rolled up and put away. The whitewash is brushed off and the glass of the greenhouse left clear.

Except in the mild southern latitudes of the United States, cattleyas sometimes lack sufficient light to carry on their normal metabolism and growth. In the southern areas it is frequently necessary to shade cattleyas lightly in winter and to shade them more heavily in the summer. Normally, this is accomplished more easily by painting the glass with a very light coat of white lead paint for winter duty. For summer, an additional coat of whitewash is brushed or sprayed on. The autumnal rains will wash off the last coat without any labor on your part. Incidentally, the older growers in the Pacific Northwest made a regular practice of using mud to shade greenhouses. In the late spring, after all rains were over, they made up a thick solution of clay and water. Using a whisk broom, they flicked the muddy liquid onto the outside of the greenhouses. It was a rather spotty job, but it served admirably to shade cattleyas and was easily washed off during the autumnal rains.

The methods of shading that amateurs may use on their cattleyas will vary, as widely as the section of the country in which they live and the type of structures in which they house their orchids. The best two methods are, without doubt, laths spaced their own width apart, and sleazy muslin or cheesecloth, not the heavier muslins used for sheeting and window curtains. Bear in mind that for home growers better control of growth is possible with lath and muslin than by painting the glass. As a matter of fact, paint should never be used on small structures such as bay windows, Wardian cases, cold frames or small greenhouses. Paint should be used only for large greenhouses, if at all.

With the exception of higher humidities (60 per cent by day), minimum warmth (50°), more light, and plenty of fresh but not chill air, the ordinary rules of culture, propagation, and potting apply to cattleyas. Since they are true epiphytes, osmunda is the best potting medium. Water should be given them in moderation. Don't saturate the pots but water thoroughly each time. More than those of most orchids, their roots have been acclimated to wind and sun in their native lands. Let the osmunda dry out completely between applications of water. Cattleyas are harmed by excess water and prolonged dampness. The quickest way to kill cattleyas is to overwater them.

Moss and ferns growing on top of the osmunda are good indications of overwatering. The roots, too, may serve as a guide to water needs. When wet they are green; when dry they are waxy white. Don't let cattleya roots stay green too long; they become weakened from the surcharge of water, lose their resistance, and die. Cattleyas need lots of roots in order to bloom, yards and yards of roots in fact. Make your cattleyas fill their pots with roots by giving them just enough water to keep them healthy and drying the pots out between times. When cattleya leads are only half developed they contain the flower buds in embryo. There is nothing except lack of roots on your plants to keep you from getting flowers—so watch your watering.

In potting, the grain of the osmunda must be vertical, parallel to the axis of the pots, to insure immediate drainage and rapid aeration. Don't use too much osmunda. You'll be surprised how little of the fiber is necessary to the root health of cattleyas. Don't overpot them either, although you should allow room for two to three years' growth. You can estimate this usually with considerable accuracy by watching the growth habits of your plants. Some orchidists have a rule-of-thumb measure for selecting the correct sizes of pots. Cattleyas with three pseudobulbs are placed in four-inch pots; those with four pseudobulbs are placed in five-inch pots, and so on. Of course, the size and the closeness of the pseudobulbs to each other vary and make this rule not so accurate as could be desired. It is, though, a handy one with which to start.

Some of the finest cattleyas, grown by a midwestern amateur, are in pots which are one-half to two-thirds filled with three-fourths-inch rock. The pots are filled to the rim and slightly mounded with carefully packed osmunda. After his orchids are established, with roots and leads in vigorous growth, he feeds them one of the commercial nutrient solutions now on the market. His feeding frequency works out to an average of once a month during winter, once a week to twice a month in summer. He feeds cattleyas more often when days are bright and dear, less frequently when it is cloudy or when summer rains are prolonged. Liquid manures and commercial liquid concentrates have not, as yet, been applied to cattleyas with continuous success. They must be used, if at all, with considerable discretion.

In actual practice, this amateur's method of potting lends itself extremely well to cattleyas and to other orchids which require little compost. The small amount of compost holds enough water for the orchids' immediate needs. The water must be applied more frequently but the compost drains better and dries out much faster. The orchid roots push quickly through the compost and into the coarse rock, where they receive copious amounts of air, as well as some water which passes through the pots. In a sense, this system is a compromise between standard methods and the newer gravel culture which has succeeded so spectacularly with cattleyas.

Cattleyas are propagated easily by division, usually after flowering. Their increases are satisfactorily pleasant, one plant breaking up into two or more in a few years. The rhizome connecting the pseudobulbs is clipped between each three pseudobulbs—never less. Cattleyas have smaller, thinner bulbs than many other sympodial orchids. Less than three pseudobulbs to a division makes it difficult for these storage organs to support new growth until it is capable of fending for itself. Specimen cattleyas are customarily obtained by overpotting plants, then notching the rhizome to stimulate additional growth from back bulbs.

A peculiarity of cattleyas and of their hybrids and allied genera is that they aren't always grown with other orchids, even those with the same or similar cultural requirements. There are two reasons for this. The immediate reason is beauty alone—cattleya flowers are such striking creations that they may detract from the beauty of other orchid flowers. The most significant reason is that most commercial nurseries grow cattleyas alone as a matter of convenience.

For the amateur this is wrong. Spray flowers like oncid-iums and epidendrums add spice and variety to a small greenhouse that would be boring if it contained nothing but cattleyas. If you are going to grow cattleyas, and the chances are a hundred to one that you will do so as quickly as you can find the plants, then don't grow them by themselves and for themselves alone. They are wonderful, yes, but beauty can be monotonous without some sort of relief. Remember, there are other orchids besides cattleyas— lovely, equally simple to grow, and equally successful under the same conditions that cattleyas require.

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