RARE ORCHIDS

Evening Post, Volume CXIV, Issue 38, 13 August 1932, Page 7

RARE ORCHIDS

RACING CLUB'S GIFT

The &ve j orchid house presented to the Auckland City Council by the Auckland Eacing Club has now been reorected in the gardens at the Auckland Domain and the gardeners arc busy getting the orchids back into condition (states the "Auckland Star"). People who have'heard'of the transference of the collection, and of its value, are apparently under a misapprehension as to what is to be soon. It, will be a long time before there is much for the man in the street to admiro, though onthusiasts would find the collection interesting at any time. Just now there are not half a dozen blooms, and the whole collection looks rather wan, as it has not had the attention necessary for things of such delicate constitution. In the now surroundings, with plenty of attention, the collection will gradually be nursed back to the same healthy state that marks the city's own collection of orchids. The new house is an up-to-date structure, with green shutter blmds on the 'outside that can be spread over the glass roof or furled, acC°Jm! L' g t0 the strength of the sun. There are some valuable plants in the collection, including some cymbidiums, a greenhouse hybrid, which when in nower makes a splendid show, throwing up arching scapes of variously-coloured blooms. i n flower at the present time are several c ] um p s of the New South Wales rock mj> Dendrobiuia specioSUDl Jam", a rather showy relation to the JNew_ Zealand Dendrobium; its flowers ™V n ith£ fom of Panicles of creamcoloured blooms about an inch across. Others in bloom are a few pieces of a Laeha from Mexico, with blooms of a voiy pure amethyst touched with rich purple; and two plants of Arpophyllum giganticum, which has pale heliotrope blooms of an unusual form ahnost exactly hke a bottle-brush.