Proper blinds running on iron or wooden supports, raising them well above the glass of the roof, are absolutely necessary. Lath roller blinds are excellent for shading, being durable, clean, and easily let down and drawn up.
Light canvas or scrim shading fixed to roller blinds answers the purpose well, but care should be taken not to employ heavy, closely woven canvas. Too great attention cannot be paid to the working of these blinds, for they must never be down except when required for protection against the sun's rays, and they must be drawn up during dull intervals.
The blinds are useful also during severe winters as a protection against excessive cold at nights, and in this particular the lath roller blinds are the best, and may be left in position where they are likely to be required for this purpose.
When canvas blinds are used during the summer and removed in late autumn, care should be taken to have them perfectly dry before they are stored for the winter in some dry place, or they will be useless when they are required for placing in position the following spring.
CHAPTER V
THE POTTING AND BASKETING PROCESS
We are often asked what season is the best for potting and basketing Orchids. Experienced growers say that, with the exception of the winter season, they are engaged in potting operations all the year round, potting each section as it requires it. Springtime is a period when a general overhaul of the plants is usual, and, at that time, plants requiring it should be repotted, but those which are not in the proper condition, or which are showing flower-spikes, should be allowed to remain until their flowering time has passed.
As a general rule, it may be said that the best time to perform the operation is soon after the flowering season has passed, and that no plant should be repotted unless it really requires it; but any plant which has become in a bad condition in the pot by being in unsuitable material should be repotted at once, no matter what season it may be.
Care should be taken to use the pots and crocks in a thoroughly clean condition. Broken crocks are generally used for drainage, although they are not now placed in the pots to the depth of one-half or more, as they used to be. The depth of the crocks varies from about one-third in Cypripediums and terrestrial Orchids generally, to a rather greater depth for Cattleyas, Lælias, and similar Orchids, the depth of crocks also being varied according to the density of the material used, fewer crocks being necessary when a mixture of Osmunda fibre, or other material which lets the water through quickly, is employed in place of peat.