184 



The Weekly Rorists' Review. 



MISCELLANEOUS 

 SEASONABLE HINTS. 



Verbenas. 



There are a few seeds tliat will soon 

 want sowing. One of these is verbenas. 

 Many are yet grown from cuttings, and 

 time was when the seed saved and sold 

 produced rubbish or at least they all 

 came either a dirty white or a washed- 

 out blue. But nowadays seed is solil 

 by our reputable seed houses which will 

 jiroduce most pleasing varieties and as 

 fine and distinct. in color as the named 

 kinds. I suppose there is scarcely a bed 

 of verbenas planted in orre variety of 

 color anywhere now so the seedlings are 

 just as good and as for harmony or 

 blending of colors varieties of one species 

 can be trusted to please the eye. 



There is one great advantage in the 

 plants raised from seed. They are sure 

 to grow, and we all remember that too 

 often the propagated plants did not 

 grow. Sow thinly and after the seed- 

 lings are \ip keep in the full light, and 

 after making a character leaf pot off into 

 2-inch pots or into a flat an inch apart 

 and later into a 2-inch pot. If these 

 young plants are kept growing in a tem- 

 perature of 50 degrees at night you will 

 be able to get one cutting from them. 

 There is no place suits the verbenas after 

 the middle of April so well as a mild 

 hotbed. The only trouble is that they 

 grow very freely and root through the 

 pot into the plunging material, and 

 when <;iii\vinL' so freely flowering is re- 

 tardi il. So please to remember that dur- 

 ing their time in the frame they want 

 just lifting up sufficiently to break off 

 any roots "they have made into the soil 

 of the bed. 



Petunias. 



The end of the month is time enough 

 to sow petunias. Get the finest strain 

 you can and buy only what is sold for 

 double varieties. There will be 60 per 

 cent come single. So marry ask for 

 double varieties that you never have 

 enough, not that the douhlr llnxMi- make 

 any finer bed, in fact I lliinK ili.> ^iiiu'h' 

 flowers make the best ai-|.hi\. I.iit llio 

 double flowers look so unu U liner mi tlio 

 young plants and you get your orders for 

 them. 



Petunia seed is most minute but has 

 lots of vitality. They want no covering, 

 the seed pressed into the moist soil is 

 enough. I have often said and believe 

 that sowing the finer seeds and their 

 care till they are large enough to handle 

 requires the most skill and care of any 

 of our garden operations. You can put 

 most anybody to putting in cuttings after 

 a few lessons, but you would hesitate very 

 much to give anybody but the most care- 

 ful and experienced hands the job of sow- 

 ing the finer seeds. An hour of bright 

 sunshine or allowing the soil to become 

 dry may lose you all your labor and ex- 

 pense. 



Centaureas. 

 We do not raise Centaurea candidissi- 

 ma any more, and you rarely see it any- 

 where, but we do yet grow C. gymnocar- 



pa and when people ask us fur "Dusty 

 miller" that is generally what they 

 mean. It is very easily raised from seed 

 which should be" sown at the end of this 

 month. When once up and in pots it 

 wants to be quite cool, for it is almost 

 a hardy plant, and when grown cool and 

 its roots slightly cramped for room it 

 has a better color and the plants are 

 more useful than those sown in a hot- 

 bed, where with rich soil they are likely 

 to grow soft and wilt badly when put 

 into a vase or flower bed. 

 Kentias. 

 Some kentia seed is arriving just irow. 

 and if you are receiving any remember 

 that you should never open the package 

 unless you are ready to put the seeds at 

 once into the soil or material that you 

 use for the purpose. To let them lay 

 around the shed several days exposed to 

 the air is fatal and doubtless many times 

 the seedsman has been blamed for send- 

 ing worthless palm seed when it was our 

 own fault. You can sow quite thicldy 

 either in flats or 6 or 7-ineh pots, or, as 

 the large operators do, on the benches. 

 Cover the seeds a quarter to half an inch 

 and keep /Uniformly moist but not satur- 

 ated. Some place "the flats on the ground 

 with the heat above the seeds, but we 

 don't all have that convenience and if the 

 flats are placed where they will get a 

 little bottom heal so much the better. 



Cannas. 



It is a ffood plan about now to look 

 over VI. Ill iaiiii:i mols and see that they 

 are kVrpiii- ;ill i njht. They are a most 

 impdji.ini ii.iii Willi all plant men now- 

 aday,-- anil 11" ii-l. '•!' losing *:hem should 

 be iun. If i -iniu ii tlie earth bottom 

 of ahouse tllr^ >m1I -i.mi m grow let the 

 ground be .-i].].:!!! ni l,\ >'\rr so dry, and 

 here is where a move will much benefit 

 them. If they are under a drip from a 

 bench they will rot and must be moved 

 away. Beneath a rose or carnation 

 bench on boards just to keep them off the 

 ground is a good place, for up till April 

 1st you don't water your benches heavy 

 cnou"gh to cause much drip. 



We don't usually start cannas till to- 

 wards the end of March, but if you are 

 short of any variety you might just as 



ter. 



be taken off and put in the prnpagating 

 bench or potted and given a good warm 

 house till they make a start in the soil. 



Gladiolus. ' 



I don't know whetlier vou ever found 

 it p 



I am sorry to say that we have had 

 fine gladiolus flowers in the month of 

 :\Iay from the carnation houses, and they 

 did" not sell here, but we saw them quoted 

 at a u'ood price in larger cities. They 



f,i,, r r.i-ily iiii.l .1 1 xiiiiit 1'T lie buried 



1,1 , ■ , -,,il . i I ill' 1 ill - m-l ]ii-essed 



mill ■ 'h' -111 l.ii -nil ill ^11 il I- -iillieient. 



A- li, \ n^innv iim i.m. I"\ I wlmt the 



bed wiiuld ordinarily get, if they sell for 

 a good price they must yield a profit. 

 William Scott. 



fniee 



nlus in your carna- 

 ps rose houses. The 

 latter i-1h-i, I.i ,i use the carnation house 

 is riiilei .(Mil: -I ill in that they are in 

 two iiLiiHi- I., lore you can get them 

 from outside. They are rather slow to 

 start anjl before the'y take up much room 

 either with their top growths or roots 

 the season is so advanced that they will 

 do no harm. 



PHILADELPHIA. 



New Year's business in cut flowers was 

 very brisk indeed. The retail stores 

 were prepared and did an immense busi- 

 ness under favorable conditions. Whole- 

 sale prices fell immediately after 

 Christmas, except in a few isolated cases 

 but retail prices were fairly well main- 

 tained until after New Year's. The re- 

 sult must have been very satisfactory to 

 the retailers, the volume of business 

 done on that day comparing favorably 

 with Thanksgiving, with a much larger 

 margin of profit. 



The weather for the past two weeks 

 has been extraordinarily fine, so fine that 

 our florists can hardly pray for any bet- 

 ter weather in the holidays to come. The 

 day before Christmas was bright and 

 warm, bringing quantities of buds into 

 bloom just in time. Ever since we have 

 had bright days and cold nights, keep- 

 ing the stock in the pink of condition. 



Judging by the trade reports Phila- 

 delphia has been more fortunate than 

 either New Y^ork or Chicago in her cut 

 flower market conditions. Here the 

 stock was fresher and of as good or bet- 

 ter quality than in the past; while in 

 New York there was much poor, and in 

 Chicago much pickled stock. 



It is a joyful and rather surprising 

 fact that there has been no lull in busi- 

 ness either in the holidays or since New 

 Y'ear's. As the season is not a particu- 

 larly long one, if we don't get dull 

 pretty soon we won't get dull before 

 Lent. 



The midwinter ball season is well 

 under wiiy, Mr. Bvne.lii-k's dii Oee. 20th. 

 Mr. Wood's on tlu' -"Mli. Mr. Drexcl's (a 

 great affair) on .Inn. l-l. ;iii.l llie Prov- 

 ost's on the 3d. Ilii- wrrk we expect 

 1„.. ,ii,,n. .Mr-. \\!i..i,|-- .ni il,.- ^^Ih mid 

 ,|„ lMi-1 \.-.niliiv nil II..- mil. Now 



better. Of euurse flier<- arc some din- 

 ners preceding the dances and a few 

 bouquets are sent, not many, flowers get 

 crushed at a big ball. 



Curiously enough, the balls themselves 

 matter to just one florist, only one. All 

 our retailers can decorate a parlor or a 

 .■liin.li, a few ,an ilo Houston Hall, the 

 \;ii,it, riiini . r 111.' M.reantile Club, but 

 .inh ,,ne I I I r:i liii in i .nil do the big af- 

 liiii- at ll..rliiiilliiral Hall or the Acad- 

 emy of Music. This may seem str.ange 

 to the uninitiated, so a word of expla- 

 nation may not be out of place. When a 

 large ball is to be given the first object 

 is to secure one person, a skilled decora- 

 tor, who will take the entire contract, 

 furnish all trees, plants, flowers, tapes- 

 tries, greens, millinery, electric and 

 other lights, everything. 



This decorator is always expected to 

 produce novel and striking effects and 

 he generally has to put one or two extra 

 conversation rooms in our own Horticul- 

 tural Hall or put on a new ceiling or 

 shorten the dancing floor. The result 

 involves so mueh worry and requires 



