Orchid Growing Videos Search! Enter Your Topic Below:

Growing Orchids Sitemap

Preface - Primarily this book is an adventure in orchids, an experience you are invited to share.

The superstitions and legends about orchids have scared many gardeners away from them and have made orchid culture seem an impossible dream for amateurs. But in recent years study and experiment have shown that orchids are an integral part of the plant world, amenable to home and garden culture just as any other plant.

01. About Orchids - You may have confidence in yourself as a grower of begonias, or rare irises. You are sure of yourself with roses. But orchids—you speak of them with reverence and approach them with awe. You believe that their culture is hazardous, their expense tremendous, and the plants temperamental as prima donnas.

02. What Are Orchids? - It is a mistake to believe that all the different kinds of orchids may be counted on the fingers of one hand. This bland assumption was made originally by Carl Linné, often called the father of botany because he established the binomial system of plant classification. Later, in his eighteenth-century annals, Linné wrote that the world when finally explored would yield, perhaps, as many as 100 kinds of orchids, including the ninety he already knew about. Exploration still is incomplete—and botanists have discovered and named more than 16,000 distinct orchid species.

03. Rules Of Orchid - There is no cultural difference between orchids and · other garden plants. All green plants have five basic growth requirements: air, sunlight, warmth, food, and water. Cultural divergencies among plants are not qualitative, only quantitative. For example, fuchsias require less sunlight, less food, and more continuous soil moisture than zinnias; but like zinnias they can take considerable warmth and need plenty of fresh air. The same growth factors are basically necessary to both plants; it is only the proportion in which these factors are combined that creates a different culture.

04. Home Orchids - To those of us who live in crowded cities where a window box or terrarium is the only means we have of indulging a desire for green and growing plants, orchids offer special attractions. Indoor gardeners say that a house full of plants is soothing. This is certainly true of the frequently grasslike and gracefully arching foliage of orchids. But orchids in flower are wondrous beyond all other plants. Ordinary house plants have an air of quiet respectability. Orchids bring to your home an exotic touch, a hint of faraway lands.

05. Greenhouses - Growing orchids in Wardian cases (small glass boxes) placed in some strategic spot in your house is neither a new idea nor a temporary expedient. Such cases have been used for more than a hundred years since Dr. Nathaniel Ward, a London physician, invented them to protect rare plants shipped to England. Charles Darwin used them for his classic orchid studies. Commercial growers propagate orchid seedlings in them. Scientists employ them for controlled plant experiments.

06. The Garden - Nearly all orchids are benefited by a period in the garden. There is something about outdoor life, no matter how short the period, that imparts vigor to them, ripens their pseudobulbs, and prepares them for heavy flowering. European gardeners stumbled onto this fact a long time ago. Several varieties of Mexican orchids, including the Flor de Maio (Laelia majalis), did not flower until placed outdoors from April through October. The famous South African Flower of the Gods (Disa grandi-flora) wasn't cultured successfully until it was grown the year round in unheated cold frames.

07. Greenhouses - Someday in the future when your preliminary orchid education is completed, your ambition will go beyond the limits of heated frames and modified Wardian cases. You will begin to look with longing and envy at the large greenhouses of established amateurs and the larger houses of nurserymen. Off you will go to buy one, and you will be appalled by the initial expense.

08. Composts - Orchid composts are often the most misunderstood factor in orchid culture; they are frequently misused and are a continual source of failures. Yet the rule for their use can be summed up as a simple corollary to the rules in Chapter 2: Orchid composts must be exceptionally well drained and exceptionally well aerated.

That's all there is to it, but in practice no man-made compost can duplicate the soils, dead vegetation, mosses, and other physical conditions in which orchids naturally grow. We can offer only artificial measures to satisfy the habits of growth and the unusual root systems of orchids.

09. Potting - Bear one thing in mind when potting orchids: Don't use glazed or painted earthenware pots! Though decorative, they are damaging to plant growth. They keep the compost overwatered and underaired—both fatal to orchids. Otherwise, potting orchids—except for the trick of packing osmunda—is no different from potting azaleas or begonias.

10. Seed Germination - There are three methods by which you can increase your orchid collection. The simplest, and most expensive, is to go out and buy more plants. A cheaper method is to make propagations from your own stock. Some terrestrial orchids double their size each year, and many sympodials every third year. The cheapest method of all, and the one that is usually the most fun, is to grow orchids from seeds. But that does take special knowledge, frequently needs special equipment, and often requires more than the patience of Job.

11. Propagation - Right here is as good a time as any to stop £or a moment and take a deep breath—to remind yourself again that orchids aren't basically different from other plants. This may be hard to do if you have just finished reading about the care and work that go into orchid seed germination. However, can you recall the patience and skill that are necessary to germinate tuberous begonia seeds, or pansies for that matter? Some bromeliads give even more trouble and offer less success with their seeds than most orchids do.

12. Watering - All living matter lives in water. More than 90 per cent L of the bulk of plants is water. Without continuous access to water there would be no plant growth. As a result, water becomes the limiting factor in our gardens. When and how much to water perplexes many gardeners.

In rearing orchids watering is no problem. It is subject to exact rules. The amount of water orchids should receive, and when, is prescribed by their root structure, botanical classification, and type of compost. This is the wonder of orchid culture. It is reducible to simple rules and practices.

13. Nutrition - Most of us who grow orchids have inherited the traditional approach: "Everything for the blooms, and to blazes with the plants!" Actually, if we gave our attention to the plants, the flowers would take care of themselves and be more spectacular to boot.

This we have learned to do in the preceding few chap ters. But we also can do more; we can give orchids that extra little fillip that lifts them out of mediocrity. You wouldn't think of growing carnations at their best without incorporating into the soil any additional nutritional elements they require.

14. Pests - Unlike many garden plants, orchids have few native pests. The high altitudes at which most orchids grow, their preference for living in trees, and their usually leathery leaves and thick stems make them an undesirable diet for predatory insects. Only two native pests, the cattleya fly and the orchid weevil, may become dangerous, but they are largely limited to a few areas on the East Coast and the San Francisco Bay region.

15. Select Orchids - Now, having learned in general what makes all orchids grow, you are at the stage of becoming familiar with their relationships, backgrounds, and the variations in cultural requirements which may occur between genera, or within a genus. That knowledge will be invaluable to you in selecting orchids to grow. One genus may do best in full sun, another in semishade, a third might require heat, and a fourth may need a cold spell. Such variations make it foolhardy to try to grow orchids together whose cultural requirements are opposed.

16. Bletia - This genus has the honor of including the first tropical orchid introduced to culture—Bletia verecunda, which reached England in 1731. Not that orchids weren't known before that time; many English gardeners were familiar with their native terrestrial orchids, including the generally insignificant Orchis and Epipactus, now commonly known as the Marsh Orchid and Hellborine.

17. Calanthe - There is no better recommendation for calanthes than that implied in their name, which means "beautiful flower." That is exactly what they are. They are not often found in greenhouses because their foliage takes up too much room. But once you have seen them you will want them; once you grow them, their easy culture will surprise you and you will find yourself adding more and more of them to your collection. They require little attention and offer much in return, with their three-foot spikes of tightly clustered flowers: yellow, rose, and white.

18. Cattleya - 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.

19. Cymbidium - Cymbidiums have broken every rule of orchid culture. They are grown equally well in greenhouses in the North, lath houses and open gardens in the South. Temperatures as low as 18° F. for limited periods and as high as lio° F. haven't injured them. They are grown successfully in elaborately formulated composts, leafmold, common garden soil, and plain adobe. They have been fertilized with liquid manures or mulched with its barnyard equivalent.

20. Cypripedium - Cypripediums are the orchids that nature improved and then forgot: They did not share in evolutionary developments of other orchids. However, many of them did become hardy and easily amenable to culture. They have been used for house plants in Europe and America for more than eighty years. Their small, flaplike leaves and short-stemmed, bizarre flowers do not take up much room. A hundred cypripediums can be grown in the space occupied by twenty large cymbidiums.

21. Dendrobium - This genus of orchids once made fortunes for plant collectors, for the plants died almost as fast as they could be imported, and consequently became rare. Even after the rules of orchid culture were clearly established, dendrobiums were tagged as temperamental. This was natural because so little was known about them for so long. The approximately 600 known species are spread over a vast area in the Eastern Hemisphere from the Indian Himalayas to the Philippines and down to Australia. Several members of the family spill northward into Japan and others southward below the equatorial belt into New Zealand

22. Disa - The most beautiful orchid in the world is Disa grandi~ flora, called by African natives the "Flower of the Gods." Later it was colloquially nicknamed the "Pride of Table Mountain," from whence—on the southern tip of the Cape of Good Hope—it comes. Unfortunately, disas were once considered difficult to cultivate and still have that undeserved reputation. The plants also are scarce; they were exported in such great numbers that their limited native habitat was stripped nearly bare of plants until the Union of South Africa stepped in and forbade further exploitation of them.

23. Epidendrum - Many epidendrums can be grown outdoors in northern United States for a major portion of the year and can be grown the year round in southern and western gardens. Although their flowers are small, their vigor and robustness make them worthy of a beginning orchidist's attention. The largest flower (Epidendrum cinnabarina) is three inches across; the average diameter is one inch, and several midgets barely reach one-sixteenth inch. Of the 500 known species, only about eighty are grown for their gay colors, extreme floriferousness, or rich perfumes.

24. Laelia - Laelias have two characteristics which endear them to . orchidists: most laelias are reasonably hardy; and their flowers are as lovely as those of cattleyas, although not always so large. The dean of orchidists in this country, Dr. Louis Knudsen, once gave his wife several laelias and told her to grow them in a window without trying to look up their cultural requirements first. Her success convinced him that many people could grow them, even in New York State where this casual experiment was made.

25. Lycaste - Lycaste was the beautiful daughter of Priam, king of Troy, yet only one member of this orchid genus deserves the name—Lycaste skinneri. Discovered by George Ure Skinner, he considered it to be the consummation of his lifelong search for rare and beautiful plants, and asserted that any man would not regret giving his life to secure it. Skinner did not lose his life, but he spent many of his after years in popularizing the beauty and culture of Lycaste skinneri until it became a common conservatory plant in many parts of the Old World.

26. Odontoglossum - Among cool orchids there is none superior to odontoglossums, whose name means "tooth-and-tongue," a reference to two small toothlike projections on their lips. The name was compounded to describe Odontoglossum epidendroides, a plant now unknown to science except for a preserved fragment placed in the Berlin Herbarium by the explorer von Humboldt early in the nineteenth century. Many claims for the rediscovery of Odontoglossum epidendroides have been made, but none has been substantiated. It remains one of the numerous lost plants of the world, a horticultural mystery.

27. Oncidium - Although oncidiums constitute one of the largest genera in the orchid tribe, nearly 300 species having been identified, they have not achieved corresponding popularity. This is understandable because they were once considered temperamentally difficult; except for a half-dozen species their culture was often variable and usually tricky. Many continental growers still continue to regard them as shortlived, lasting for a year or two in cultivation; stock is renewed by constant importations.

28. Phalaenopsis - Nearly every book on orchids contains the emphatic assertion that no orchid collection can be complete without a few phalaenopsis plants—they are so wonderfully beautiful and prolific. Historically, phalaenopsis once were intractable orchids, but today, though sometimes difficult, they are no longer unmanageable. It was their beauty that kept them in cultivation long enough for orchidists to solve their cultural requirements. Phalaenopsis plants are plain, downright tropical. This will help to explain any failures you may have, for they are accustomed to warm, humid climates and demand the same conditions in cultivation.

29. Quaint Orchids - There are differences of opinion about roses; gladioli J. and carnations have their cliques. But all differences and cliques vanish when the name of an orchid is mentioned. An orchid, no matter how insignificant, is always an orchid. Therefore, the uncommon botanicals listed in this chapter are worthy of your attention. They are either beautiful or have some unusual feature to recommend them. Their only shortcoming, if any, is that often there is no ready market for their flowers. They aren't always to be found in commercial nurseries.

30. Special Purposes - It is harder to select orchids for your beginning collection than it is to grow them. While growing orchids is a feat of memory aided by experience and common sense, selection requires long association with orchids and long evenings spent studying orchid catalogues. The special lists in this chapter have been compiled as a guide in selecting orchids. One or more of the groups which follow should stimulate in you the reaction: "These are the plants for me!" Whether you wish to specialize or to generalize, these lists will help you move along an old gardening path into a new world of pleasure.

31. Descriptive Tables - .......

Bibliography - Orchid books of the past century and the present, pamphlets, bulletins, and notes . . . comprise an extensive and not often available literature. For a practical knowledge of orchids—and a peep into their dramatic historic background—you will find the following list of selected references valuable as a start. Each book and pamphlet will direct you to several more; and they in turn will carry exciting hidden references. As your research progresses, you will spend weeks and sometimes months in tracking down vague allusions—and suddenly find you have become an orchid bibliophile.

THE END