The Garden Under Glass

84 THE GARDEN UNDER GLASS for a few days to become warm. This amount of soil will be sufficient to pot about one hundred and twenty bulbs separately into 5-inch pots. Only clean pots and clean crocks can be tolerated, and the latter should fill the former by about one-third. It will then be necessary to grade the bulbs. Very large ones may merit a 6-inch pot, the next size a 5-inch, while the smaller ones may be set in a 6-inch pot, three or four in each, according to size. In potting, the soil should not be mounded up over the rim as is done with such orchids as cattleyas, dendrobiums, etc. The bulbs should be so placed that the base is only just covered and the soil may be firmed with a stick. In doing this it is quite possible to injureseriously the roots and thereby cause the young growths to become black. This, of course, must be guarded against. Orchids cannot be potted quickly, but they can and should be potted well. When all the bulbs are potted, set them pot thick on the double staging which I recommend for so many other subjects. I do not advise watering for quite a week, but syringing should be done for some time until the leaves begin to break away from the growths. It is best to give water only when it is quite sure that it is needed. This question of correct watering is difficult to explain, but if the bulb is kept quite firm and the young growths fairly stiff there need be no fear of starvation. From now onwards the culture is all plain sailing. Whether, when two growths show from a bulb, both are to be left or the weaker one pulled out, is a matter for the gro wer to decide. Personally I prefer one monster growth to two smaller ones, but if it is desired to increase the stock then two must remain. Three times every day the lower staging should be damped ; the temperature must not fall below 6o°; the