Once the plants settle in and new growth starts, however, you will notice a complete change in the thickness and length of the leaves, and, together with a much sturdier appearance, the plant adapts and develops a much hardier growth. By the end of the growing season, a plant will look noticeably different, with pseudobulbs varying in their shape from the previous ones. This is the proof that your orchids have thrived and appreciate the more natural surroundings you have provided for them.

The shade-loving genera can be accommodated beneath shade-cloth houses, which are open at the sides to allow air to flow through. This is the method used by commercial nurseries. Alternatively, the plants can be naturalized on trees in the garden. Here, once in position, they can grow into magnificent specimens with the minimum of care.

Orchids growing naturally in this way need to be comfortable with the changing temperatures throughout the seasons. Coolgrowing orchids will not do well in a tropical garden, which may be too hot for even the warmer-growing orchids.

Synonym is Celosia argentea L.

Common names are Cock’s Comb (Eng.); Quail Grass (Benin); Sokoyokoto, Green or White Soko (Nig.); Crete de Coq (Fr); Mirabel (Sp.).

Local forms have been selected for specific areas.

Indigenous to India, Malaysia and Sri Lanka, not widely cultivated but occurs wild in some areas.

Grown to a limited extent in India and some of the Pacific Islands. There is also a related species, A. indica (Rob.) Schott, which is not widely distributed but which is used for food in some parts of India, Malaysia and the Pacific Islands, particularly for curry preparation.

White or green soko is an erect, short-lived annual herb, up to 150 cm in height. Leaves: alternate, light green, 2 cm X 6 cm; leaves on flowering shoots longer, 2 cm X 15 cm and dark green; margins at the base of the laminae recurved; some cultivars have crescent-shaped stipules in the leaf axils. Inflorescence: flowering spike pink, becoming white when seeds reach maturity. Flowers: perianth segments 5, length 6-10 mm; stamens 5 with filaments fused at the base; style 5-7 mm long and conspicuous. Seeds: small, 1 mm in diameter, biconvex, black; approximately 1000 seeds/g. Red Soko is similar in many respects to the green form, but this is generally taller, growing up to 180 cm in height, with many branches and long lateral shoots up to 150 cm long. Leaves: the young leaves, which are pink, have a prominent dark purple marking; leaves on seed-bearing plants often 28 cm X 8 cm, other leaves about 17 cm X 8 cm. Flowers: deep purple, similar to those of the green form.

It is now more than three decades that Temo has made a niche for itself in the manufacture of sunrooms and has emerged as one of the pioneering companies in the sunroom industry. With their headquarters in Clinton Township, Michigan, their entire building has all the important departments of the company. All of the offices of the company as well as the manufacturing and engineering sections are all housed in this premise. Moreover, the shipping section, the warehouse and the retail showroom are also there; which means that the headquarter is the one place to go where a buyer can find anything for building his or her own sunroom. This also means that the company can maintain a strict vigil of the whole process of manufacturing so that the company can produce products with a high degree of quality.

In time, bark- and peat-based composts (growing mediums) will break down, which is why regular repotting is important. A plant that suddenly loses much of its foliage, or shrivels, may have lost its roots, and this will become apparent when you knock the plant out of its pot and examine its condition.

These materials include Rockwool, which is produced for the horticultural industry from spun volcanic pumice. Rockwool looks like discoloured cotton wool, and the surface is sometimes stained green with an algae that grows in response to the nutrients.

It provides a hydroponic base for vegetable crops such as aubergines (egg plants), cucumbers and tomatoes, as well as cut-flower carnations. Rockwool is long lasting and enables plants to be grown under a complete and accurate feeding programme.

Once a plant has filled its pot, and there is no more room for the formation of new pseudobulbs, it is time to repot it into a larger container. Some orchids, particularly cymbidiums, which have an extremely thick and vigorous rooting system, will often push themselves up by their roots before filling the surface area with pseudobulbs. These need to be repotted as soon as possible because it is extremely difficult to water them when they are above the rim of the pot. Orchids will also need repotting when the compost (growing medium) has deteriorated to such a degree that you can easily push your finger through it.

To drop on a plant, remove its pot by up-turning and tapping the pot on the edge of the bench. It should slide out easily, and you should see a ball of white roots holding the compost in place. Select a new pot that is about 5cm (2in) larger to give sufficient room for another one to two years’ growth.

Your plant may already be growing more out of its pot than in, and there may be a number of aerial roots that have not entered the compost (growing medium). Remove the plant from its pot and take away all the old compost and any surplus backbulbs. The plant is now ready to be mounted onto the bark. Have ready a supply of material to place around the plant for moisture retention. This can be a mixture of sphagnum moss and coconut fibre, both of which are available from specialist nurseries.

Stand the plant on this, ensuring that the base of the new growth is level with the rim of the pot If it stands higher, remove a little of the old compost from around the base until you can sit the plant deeper in the pot.

Probably the most distinguished nurseryman of the Victorian era was Frederick Sander, the man they called the Orchid King. His huge nursery was one of the largest in Britain, and he boasted of having orchid collectors in every corner of the world.

When word reached him of a legendary red Phalaenopsis, he immediately dispatched a collector called Robbelin to find it. In 1881, Robbelin arrived at the small island of Davao in the Philippines, after searching the nearby island of Mindenoa without success.

In London, the Royal Horticultural Society appointed an Orchid Committee to set the standards for judging and awarding the best clones, and Britain maintained its lead in the introduction of new species. Early Orchid Nurseries The earliest nursery to specialize in tropical epiphytes and other exotic plants was that of Conrad Loddiges. He set up his nursery in the Hackney district of London. By 1812, he had established the largest collection of tropical plants known at that time. He published a journal, The Cabinet, in which he described many of the new plants. Other nurserymen followed, and the firm of B. S. Williams and Sons in Upper Norwood, London, and William Bull in the King’s Road, Chelsea, London, were at the forefront of supplying orchids to owners of large estates.

Whether you grow the one or both, use a seed box containing up to two inches of finely sifted soil, light and well drained. Sow the seed thickly on the surface and do not cover this but press it down firmly into the surface. Water well, place inside a transparent plastic bag and put away in an airing cupboard or some similar place where the temperature will be fairly steady at between 5o and 60F.

I have yet to meet a woman gardener who is not more thrilled and satisfied by her radish and lettuce than by her chrysanthemums, who does not tend her herbs with greater care than her alpines. Once these women learn that they can grown fresh chives on their kitchen window sills, few dishes seem to appear without this garnish and once the breakthrough occurs there is no holding them.

Miniature bay trees, no more than two feet tall, are on sale in many garden centers and have met with a ready response. They have been grown especially for indoor cultivation and are quite attractive in appearance with their regular, triangular shape and their thick, dark green leaves. Bay leaves are not so frequently used as some herbs, and the odd leaf or two plucked for soups and stews will not be missed from the thick-growing foliage. When the bay is clipped into shape the shoots may be dried.

In temperate regions of the world, orchids that are normally grown indoors or under glass can be placed outside for the summer growing season. A carefully chosen position will provide your plants with conditions that are nearer to those of their natural habitat.

Orchids that benefit most are lightloving, cool-growing types such as cymbidiums, odontoglossums, coelogynes, encvclias and dendrobiums, all of which have fairly robust foliage that may become a little spotted or marked throughout the course of several months but will not come to any harm. Those orchids with softer, wideleafed foliage, such as lycastes, anguloas and the deciduous calanthes, would very soon become notably spoiled by blemishes as a result of the effects of the weather.

The exceptions are the coolgrowing varieties among the pleiones. These plants always do better in a cooler environment for the summer, and any spotting of their foliage usually comes late, at the season’s end, just before the leaves turn brown and are shed.

To sow the orchid seed without contamination creeping in is not easy because microscopic fungus spores abound. One spore entering the jar will grow rapidly on the surface of the agar. At this stage, even the seed contains microscopic fungus spores and has to be sterilized.

Most species clones are diploid. indicated by the scientific symbol 2N. Diploids have an even number of chromosomes and ensure fertility throughout the species.

There are well-documented accounts of orchids in cultivation that are over 150 years old. These plants are exactly the same as they were when they first flowered. Their colour, shape and size do not alter with age, and all vegetative propagations will remain the same. It is possible to divide or take cuttings many times with the results all being identical to the original stock. However, propagating orchids from seed enables the grower to produce new orchids that have not been seen before.

To the grower: diploids are usually even-growing, freeflowering plants. Tetraploids produce larger, more robust plants, with superior quality and better-shaped flowers but fewer on a spike.

However, there is a conservation movement now experimenting with long-term deep-freezing, whereby the seed is dried and kept at extremely low temperatures.

A number of the reed-type epidendrums also readily produce adventitious growth from along the older stems and at the ends of the extending flower spikes. Leave these until they have grown a good root system, which they do extremely quickly, then carefully remove them from the main stem by cutting them off with a pruning knife. Pot them up and grow them on in the usual way.

Orchids with pseudobulbs produce a sympodial growth, which means that new growths appear from the base of the previous pseudobulb, adding to their size each year. The new growths form from tiny “eyes”, as they are loosely termed, and are the growing tips of the plant.

Paphiopedilums and Phragmipediums Sympodial orchids that do not produce pseudobulbs, mainly the paphiopedilums and phragmipediums, can be propagated from a back portion of growth, which is removed at repotting time in the same way as the old pseudobulbs are removed. This should only be attempted when a plant is large enough and is carrying in excess of four strong growths, otherwise it will reduce the strength of the main plant. Most of the phragmipediums are robust growers that are more easily propagated than many of the hybrid paphiopedilums, which can be slow growing, with the older growths dying before there is an opportunity to build up a very large plant.