The Orchid Album, Volume 3: Comprising Coloured Figures and Descriptions of New, Rare, and Beautiful Orchidaceous PlantsMoore, Thomas
Science
The Orchid Album, Volume 3: Comprising Coloured Figures and Descriptions of New, Rare, and Beautiful Orchidaceous Plants
Moore, Thomas
Orchids; Orchids -- Pictorial works
In _Lælia albida_ we introduce to the notice of our readers a very
pretty small-growing Orchid, which produces good useful flower spikes
according to the vigour of the pseudobulbs, and which should therefore
be grown in every collection. It blooms during the autumn months, and is
a plant of quite a distinct character. We have many large-flowered grand
species of this genus unsurpassed by any other Orchids, but the smaller
growing kinds come in very useful where space is an object, and can be
grown suspended from the roof, or on back wall of the house provided
they get plenty of light and air, which they require in order to enable
them to grow vigorously and flower freely. We are indebted to Herbert J.
Adams, Esq., Roseneath, Enfield, for the specimen from which our drawing
was taken, and which had been very successfully grown in his collection.
_Lælia albida_ is an evergreen plant, and of compact-growing habit, as
will be seen from the accompanying figure. It produces its flower scapes
from the top of the pseudobulb after the growth is completed, and the
spikes assume a drooping character. The sepals and petals are white, the
lip being rose-purple. It blooms in December and January and lasts for
three weeks in beauty. There are several varieties of it, varying in the
colour of the lip and the size of the flower.
These plants, we find, do well on a block of wood, or in a basket
suspended from the roof of the Mexican house, with as little shade as
possible, and they require a good supply of water in the growing season.
If grown on blocks they require syringing every day during their season
of growth—sometimes twice a day, morning and afternoon, according to the
weather and the state of the atmosphere of the house in which they are
grown. A great deal depends upon this point. It is a good plan to take
the blocks and soak them in water until the blocks and roots are
thoroughly saturated, and when this is done they will not require
syringing so often. If grown in baskets with rough fibrous peat or
sphagnum moss, they must be well drained by mixing a few pieces of
charcoal with the peat. They will also succeed well in the warmest end
of the Odontoglossum house.
Mr. May, the gardener at Roseneath, is very successful in cultivating
these _Lælias_, and they well repay all the attention that is given
them. The plants must be kept from insects; they are subject to the
white scale, which can easily be kept under when taken in time. Whenever
a plant shows signs of insects, let them be at once eradicated, as
delays are dangerous, and through procrastination much mischief may be
done before the remedy is applied.
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