The Weekly Florists^ Review. 



123 



MISCELLANEOUS 

 SEASONABLE HINTS. 



Alter New Year's there is the com- 

 inciuciuont iigain of operatioiir; for our 

 Kaster crops, but before T attonijit to re- 

 mind you of atiy of these, just a word 

 about some things of which you want to 

 preserve some stoek for future crops. 



Poinsettias. 



Poinsettias that have been grown in 

 pots and cut should be laid under a 

 warm, dry bench and be let go perfeetly 

 dry, where they want no attention, till 

 early next April. If grown on a bench, 

 lift the plants and place them in Hats, 

 with a little dry soil around the roots 

 and put them under the bench. If you 

 don't have a dry bench, then a eoriier in 

 a warm shed will do just as well. 



Azaleas. 

 It's not likely you succeeded in get- 

 ting into good flower all your early 

 azaleas, but they will be quite as use- 

 ful for a few weeks yet, so keep them 

 going in a warm house, for they will 

 about stand still if removed to a house 

 where you are keeping your late azaleas. 



Stevia. 



We seem to want an ever increasing 

 quantity of that graceful common flow- 

 er, the sweet stevia. It helps wonder- 

 fully in many a bunch of flowers, but is 

 usually all cut before the new year. Save 

 a dozen pots after the stems are cut 

 down to within a foot of the surface and 

 put on some cool, light bench. You will 

 want them for propagating in March and 

 April. 



Lily of the Valley. 



From now on the newly imported pips 

 of valley will be depended upon for forc- 

 ing. If you sorted them when received, 

 keeping the strongest together, these 

 should be first used. Last year we boxed 

 in sixteen feet of bench beneath which 

 are four-inch pipes, placing slates instead 

 of board for bench bottoms, and on that 

 seven inches of sand. We shade the first 

 ten days with one-half inch wooden shut- 

 ters, and then replace the boards with 

 cheese cloth shading, and to finish them 

 off for the last few days no covering at 

 all unless exposed to the sun. As the 

 sand is about 80 to 85 degrees, and the 

 air of the house about 55 degrees, you 

 cannot fail to produce good flowers and 

 foliage. When first put in the sand or 

 till growth starts you can water over 

 the whole bed, but after a week water 

 between the rows only. Water faith- 

 fully every day and twice, if you are 

 firing hard, but don't let water touch 

 the bells after they show color. 



Lilac. 



Lilac was offered during December, 

 possibly from plants kept in cold stor- 

 age. Imported plants can be forced for 

 the holidays, but it requires much higher 

 temperature and hardly pays. From 

 now on M. Le Graye comes alont; very 

 nicely and without any special demand 

 it is always most useful. In the ab- 

 sence of a very warm house the pots or 



boxes can be stood on edge of path, 

 where the heat from the pipes will soon 

 start the buds. Syringe frequently till 

 the color shows. 



Spiraea. 



Some say they can force spiraea (As- 

 tilbe japonica) in six weeks. We never 

 get it much too early in three months, 

 and soon after New Y^ear's start them 

 going in six and seven inch pots. It 

 is true there is not a great demand for 

 it, nor is it profitable, but you want a 

 few. If the roots have been kept dry 

 till now soak a few minutes before pot- 

 ting, and they do just as well under a 

 bench for two or three weeks as on the 

 top. 



Cyclamen. 



Few plants have sold better this 

 Christmas than the cyclamen, and how 

 few we see really first class! The trouble 

 with their cultivation is that during the 

 twelve or fifteen months of their growth 

 from the seed to flowering there must 

 be no let up to their care. Once a seri- 

 ous check to their growth and it's all 

 ofl'. There is no such thing as to bring 

 them around again, as we can with so 

 many of our plants. Now, this everlast- 

 ing watchfulness, the quality that marks 

 the true and successful grower, is sel- 

 dom bestowed on the cyclamen except 

 by specialists. You start oflT with seed, 

 meaning well, but a fatal day comes 

 around Easter, when the young plants 

 have been allowed to get parching dry, 

 or two weeks in early June they have 

 had most slipshod care because you were 

 driven to death with your bedding plants. 

 We are all guilty of this, but I tell you 

 it's not gardening, and there is no plant 

 more deserving of your unremitting care 

 than the beautiful cyclamen. 



I would call a plant in a si.x or perhaps 

 a seven-inch pot, with perfect but not 

 too luxuriant foliage and fifty open flow- 

 ers and more buds to come, almost the 

 unequaled and ideal Christmas plant. 

 There are a great many such cyclamen 

 plants, I am aware, and some much finer, 

 but the plant I have described would 

 retail at $2 to $3 each, and would that 

 not be a most profitable plant to grow? 

 I am commenting at length on the cy- 

 clamen because the Christmas just past 

 has impressed me more than ever that 

 it is our ideal flowering plant and you 

 can say with such confidence and pleas- 

 ure: "Oh, yes, ma'am, that is one of its 

 best qualities ; it is an ideal house plant, 

 growing and blooming in a light window 

 of your house as well as it does in our 

 greenhouses here," which is all about the 

 truth, but is much too long a speech for 

 Christmas eve. Lengthen your cultural 

 dissertations to your customers accord- 

 ing to exigencies of the season. 



Cyclamen sown at end of September 

 or early October will be about ready to 

 take from the seed pan and transplant 

 either several in a three-inch pot or in 

 flats again. The latter is preferred, as 

 there is less likelihood of neglect of wa- 

 tering, or rather the plants suffering from 

 it. Use a good loam and leaf mould, 



half and half, and keep the young plants 

 on a light bench in about 55 degrees at 

 ni^ht. Cyclamen sown even now and 

 <,'r(]uri without any check will make most 

 a<i(|)lable plants for next Christmas. 



Caanas. 



There is not much hurry about many 

 seeds for a few weeks, but remember that 

 if (iinnas are wanted a good size at bed- 

 ding time they must be sown early. They 

 require a strong heat to get them to 

 start and there is also danger of fungus 

 carrying off the seedlings when the sand 

 is very warm. The cannas come large- 

 ly true from seed, and if sown at once 

 you can have fine plants in flower by 

 middle of May. 



The great bulk of cannas are, of course, 

 increased by divisions of the roots, but 

 sales are so close every spring that we 

 never have stock enough left and have 

 to depend on raising a good many from 

 seed. There is not the slightest indica- 

 tion that the canna will in the near 

 future decline in popular favor. It's a 

 plant that suits our semi-tropical sum- 

 mers in every way. 



William Scott. 



CARNATION NOTES. 



Temperature. 

 If you have been running the tem- 

 perature in your carnation houses high- 

 er than usual during the past week or 

 two, you must be just as careful in re- 

 ducing it now after the holidays are 

 over. If you lower it too suddenly it 

 will cause the calyxes to burst, so be care- 

 ful and lower it a degree each night. 

 There are very few varieties that will 

 not burst their calyx if subjected to too 

 many sudden changes in temperature. 



If you notice any weakness in the 

 stems or any other evil effects from the 

 recent forcing there is nothing better 

 than a dose of lime. Sprinkle it on 

 the soil between the plants about as 

 thick as you do bone meal before plant- 

 ing. Kake it into the soil about one- 

 half inch deep and then water the bed 

 thoroughly. Have the bench just a lit- 

 tle on the dry side when you put it on; 

 but do not apply when the soil is quite 

 dry. 



Many growers do not appreciate the 

 value of lime in keeping the soil in 

 good condition and their plants in good 

 health. An occasional dose keeps the 

 soil sweet and puts the food into proper 

 condition for the plant to take up. If 

 you put on a light mulch in November it 

 will by this time be washed into the 

 soil and taken up by the plants. A 

 dose of lime will put the soil into condi- 

 tion to receive another light mulch 

 in a week or two. 



Better not begin feeding liquid for a 

 month yet at least. It takes great 

 eare and excellent judgment to feed 

 properly at this time of the year and 

 unless you are an expert you would bet- 

 ter wait until the sun is stronger and 

 the soil dries out quicker. There is still 

 a good deal of food left in the soil and 

 with an occasional light mulch and a 

 few doses of lime or hardwood ashes 

 the plants will keep in good condition 

 and produce fine blooms for some time 

 to come. 



Profitable Varieties. 



Now that the holiday rush is past 

 you will likely be getting ready to prop- 



