Shift into pots a size larger any small plants, or indeed any plants
that you are desirous to grow fast, or to make specimen plants, as soon
as they have filled their pots with roots.
Cuttings inserted in pots of light, sandy soil, well drained at the
bottom, will readily strike when plunged in the tan-bed, where there is
a little bottom heat, and covered with bell-glasses, that will allow of
the edge being pressed into the soil inside the pot.
Henceforward a certain degree of care and consideration will be
necessary to have the summer growth of plants generally--and especially
that of all those whose period of excitement is continued over a certain
portion of the autumn--so arranged and circumstanced as to secure its
perfect maturity, or, in gardening terms, to have it "well ripened." For
that purpose it is necessary to avoid the application of moisture
beyond what is necessary to prevent a decided check in the growth of the
plants, to expose them to the influence of light, by not suffering them
to crowd or overhang each other, and to prevent from what cause soever
the too sudden declension of the average temperature to which they are
exposed.
The Orchidaceous Plants that are growing to have plenty of moisture and
heat, it will be easily seen when their growth is completed, and then
it is proper to let them go to rest by gradually lessening the supply of
water, and removing them to a cooler part of the house.
Any Orchids that you are desirous of increasing may be separated or
potted into small pots, or fastened to blocks, or placed in baskets.
Fill pots with pieces of turfy peat the size of Walnuts, and peg them
altogether until they form a cone above the pot. On the summit place
your plant, which is, in fact, a piece cut off another plant, and with
four pegs or wires make it fast. Let the roots go where they please
in the pot, or outside it. Orchids depend more for sustenance upon the
atmosphere and moisture, than upon the soil.