318 



The Weekly Florists' Review^ 



pciaturc, say 40 to 45 degrtes, they need 

 very little water. When we pot our 

 cuttings about this date without putting 

 them in the sand we give them one good 

 watering and for the next three weeks 

 are very careful to keep thera only wet 

 inough'to prevent wilting. If we watered 



carelessly we would lose many of them 

 from blackened stem. 



Give your plants all the sunlight you 

 can, air on all possible occasions, and if 

 cool keep them on the dry side till active 

 growth begins in brighter weather. 



\Vm. Scott. 



MISCELLANEOUS 

 SEASONABLE HINTS. 



Hyacinths and Tulips. 



I have never believed in forcing the 

 Dutch hyacinths very early. They are 

 not badly needed and are not very sat- 

 isfactory. Now they will force easily 

 ;ind by the time liiey are in flower the 

 -un will be higher and there will be more 

 .icmand for plants and they sell. 



Tulips from now on force with less 

 heat but still need a little .shade to 

 lengthen their stems. Give them plenty 

 lit water at the root every day and mois- 

 ture all around them helps to develop 

 tliem. We occasionally get a disappoint- 

 ment through the tulips wilting badly 

 after they are cut and this is especially 

 »o of those that are forced in a high 

 teiBiperatiU'e. As soon as the flowers 

 are well developed the flats should be 

 removed to a cooler house. This will 

 somewhat remedy the wilting but the 

 right thing is to cut tulips and put 

 the stems in cold water 24 hours before 

 they are used, then they have gotten 

 over all wilting. This is the plan adopt- 

 ed witli lily of the valley and we all 

 know that if cut from the bed and used 

 in designs at once it wilts badly, though 

 if placed in water for 24 hours it will 

 stand up wherever used. 



Deutzias. 



It will now be time to bring your 

 deutzias into a teriii)(rature of 50 de- 

 grees. They talce seven or eight weeks 

 to nicely develop their flowers and are 

 much better grown moderately cool than 

 when forced at a high temperature. 

 There is one point in the forcing of all 

 deciduous shrubs that is not always 

 thought of and that is syringing. Ke- 



M. 



ip'<i. 



at 4o >\ri.,.. -, :,i.| !, \. .. ,i. .,,,>- -|,,,,,M 



be. 'J-1h -■ ,h_ii. ,. : I , . , I ,, 



phere ii > i ■ .i'- - . i ■ ■ :,. i,., 



en up 111'' I'lhl- .Mill II' 111 i-!i r... ..J, .■mil- 

 leaves. All such things as lilacs, deut- 

 zias and other deciduous shrubs should 

 be often syringed. The less active the 

 roots the more the syringing is bene- 

 ficial. 



To bring out rhododendrons they also 

 should have plenty of moisture and a 

 night temperature of CO degrees. Others 

 may have found that a lower temperature 

 will do but our experience is that with- 

 out a good brisk heat and plenty of 

 syringing the buds will remain a long 

 time without any sign of a move. 



Seed Sowing. 



There is not much to sow just now 

 providing you have sown cannas, which 

 to obtain good sized plants should be 

 sown soon after New Year's. Petunias 

 can be sown about the middle of this 



month. As I have often said, get the 

 very best strain you can find and we 

 sow only the seed advertised as double, 

 of which, if it is a good strain, about 

 40 per cent will come double and the 

 remainder will be fine single flowers. 

 The double flowers are always in demand 

 and if customers select a dozen they 

 are sure to want the double but really 

 they make no finer a bed than the single, 

 in fact not so good. Petunia seed has 

 lots of vitality but it is very small and 

 you are very likely to sow it too thickly. 

 It wants only pressing into the soil and 

 when once well up should have the full 

 light in a cool house or it will draw up 

 thin and spindling in a very few days. 



With the exception of some very early 

 asters it is a month too soon to sow 

 the general run of hardy annuals. It is, 

 however, a good time to sow seeds of 

 many of the desirable hardy perennials. 

 Not "as good as September for if sown 

 in September and wintered in a cold- 

 frame many of them will flower the fol- 

 lo^ving season while only a few will flow- 

 er next summer if sown now. Yet it is 

 a good time, for you do not have the 

 trouble and risk of carrying them over 

 winter. Sow now and you can plant 

 them out in cold-frames in April and the 

 following August they will be fine plants 

 and can be transplanted to the perma- 

 nent beds or borders. Digitalis, aquile- 

 gia, Lobelia eardinalis, coreopsis, heu- 

 chera, asclepias, helenium and manj- 

 others. 



Gloxinias. 



We always believe that the gloxinia 

 should be treated as a midsummer flow- 

 ering plant, for in Julv and August there 

 is n ilrarth of flnwrririL' plants. Our 



llriillll-Ml- ll.ixr. ll.iui M.). I,,., -11 -Luting in 

 mil. li ,.aili, r an.l IliiM' llirlii in llnucr in 



. 11. - .11 II . I 11.11. h noticed, ^■ou can 

 Ml 11. I it you think you need 



W.. -la It I I. Ill ill 3-inch pots in soil 

 ' tliat is half loam and half leaf-mould 

 and sand. After the first watering kwp 

 them rather dry till the leaves have 

 started. Gloxinias are difficult plants 

 to handle when once the leaves are any 

 size so when there are sufficient roots in 

 the 3-inch pots and the leaves have made 

 a growth of two or three inches I be- 

 lieve in shifting them at once into their 

 flowering pots. For ordinary sized bulbs 

 a .T-ineh pot is plenty large enough. 



The best gloxinias I over grow wore 

 the result of taking the greatest pains 

 with the watering. They wilt quickly 

 when dry and are easily injurccl by over- 

 watering. In fact tllcy waul llic )li(.-t 

 careful attention. 'J'1h.\ "ill iIimm. Iir-f 

 without their foliage > \, i l.i iiiu' u.t. Imi 

 on bright mornings wlnn i.\a]ic.rati(iii ii. 

 rapid it may do no lianii. A gooil por- 



ous soil, careful watering, a night tem- 

 perature of 55 to 60 degrees and good 

 light without the direct rays of the sun, 

 are the essentials for success with glox- 

 inias. WiL.Li.\M Scott. 



SAVING OF SPACE AND OTHER 

 BENEFITS OF THE IRON GUT- 

 TER AND IRON POSTS. 



B.V Geo. M. Gahl.\xd. Des Plalnes. in. 

 [Read before the Cliicago Florists' Club, Feb- 

 ruar.v 1. 1901.] 



Mb. President and Brother Florists : 

 The ordinary method of greenhouse con- 

 struction has been so thoroughly dis- 

 cussed by Mr. Carmody and others that 

 there remains but little to be said on that 

 subject, but owing to the inability of a 

 great many to understand the advan- 

 tages of the method advocated by myself, 

 it gives me pleasure to address you this 

 evening, confining mj'self to permanent 

 construction by the use of iron gutters 

 and posts. 



The post and gutter is the foundation 

 of the house, and is also the vital part 

 thereof, therefore care should be taken to 

 supply a foundation that will not rot 

 out in about one-third the time the house 

 would otherwise last. In my life experi- 

 ence in the business the necessity of con- 

 tinual rebuilding set me to thinking, and 

 as necessity is the mother of invention 

 the iron gutter resulted from my endeav- 

 ors to practice economy. 



With all important business enter- 

 prises the key to success is economy. 

 The paramount question with a success- 

 ful business man is not how large is my 

 store or factory, but how much business 

 have I transacted and what are m\ 

 profits therefrom. So, also, with green- 

 house establishments. It is not how 

 much glass have I. as is the usual custom 

 of referring to one's place, but how much 

 bench space have I, aird what can I 

 realize from the same. 



In many large establishments the un- 

 necessary waste of room which is allowed 

 for shade and drips from leaky and 

 bungly gutters amounts to more than 

 several medium sized establishments. 

 Nearly all the ordinary wood construct- 

 ed greenhouses visited by me have an 

 allowance of 5 feet from the soufli 

 bench in north house to the nmth bench 

 in south linii-i , ■_> f... ( all. .»...! for walk, 

 12 inches im .jiiii.i an.l |...si-, ■_' feet for 

 next walk, ihu.- Imuil- i ^^alk on both 

 sides of guliiT ji.-i-. h i- n..i only the 

 expense incurred in the ii.'i t non- 

 producing space which si M L. lak.ii 



into consideration, but tin imi.i .liaii. 

 on one's bank afmmit for ili. luuin^hing 

 of coal to lii.it till- -pare llnough the 



many w int. i ~ t 



This ta.i I L' .III fully weighed I 



bi...;air ili. m.'iI. .1 pi . .\ idiiig a method 



of I all. Ill . . ii-i I II. lion, obtainable 



Willi. Ill 1 i-iii._. 111. ..list of the same. 



'J'lii- \\.i- a.rnni|ili-lir.| by using iron 

 gutters ami posts. I lure being no leaks 

 from same, and drips being carried off 

 by drip conductor. I found the same 

 room could be obtained with about 3 

 feet less construction, or 15 per cent of 

 .a 20-foot house, making 3 feet less glass 

 to heat or a saving of 15 per cent of the 

 fn.l . i.Iliiiiilx ir.innvd. 



Ill ■ . 1 ..1 , rinrist of Aug. 18, 



1' ,.i| I 111. I. .1 lowing item: "In 



ill. iiiij. .111. a \li. I'ct.er Reinberg put 

 ii|. ilii- Mil. lin was enabled by the use 

 oi 111.. II. n unllcr to secure four benches 

 a- .lu.iin-i lima, bv his former method of 



nut 



tt was gained, but a 



