Orchid Population

The world would be overrun by orchids were it not that the seed prospers under conditions that are equally favorable to its enemies, pests and fungi. The orchid seed's chance for survival is further reduced by the fact that it is not in itself supplied with sufficient food but must depend on outside help—a friendly fungus called Rhizoctonia, supplanted in artificial cultivation by chemical nutrient. Another important disadvantage of the orchid seed is that, as compared to other plants, it is singularly undifferentiated into roots, leaves, and endosperm.

The matter of propagation is of utmost concern to the grower. Propagating from seed, which will be considered in a later chapter, is a rather technical method for beginning amateurs, but other methods of propagation, either natural or artificial, seem prosaic compared to the thrilling story of seed production and seed growing. In some ways, however, they are more advantageous, in that they are simpler and produce a flower of certain appearance.

Plants of sympodial growth, that is with the new growth coming out of the base of and alongside the old bulbs, will be found to propagate readily by division. Cattleya, Laelia, and Cym-bidium are typical of this type. Cypripedium is frequently found to divide itself in nature even more readily than others of the type.
The Cattleya permits division as long as three or four bulbs are allowed. Each year in the life of the Cattleya adds a new growth at the front end of the plant, and certain species may occasionally grow in two and, more rarely, in three directions. As the new bulbs form, the old ones frequently begin to lose their leaves and roots. They become 'poor relations,' a drag on the living plant.

On being severed from the living plant the backbulbs, as these old drybulbs are called, will, if placed in a warm, moist spot, start life over. After two, three, or perhaps four years these will be new plants and will flower. The advantage of the backbulb type of propagation over the growing of seedlings is that the flower will exactly resemble that of the original plant, while in the seedling there is no way to tell whether it will resemble one parent plant or the other or be something entirely different.