The Weekly Florists^ Review. 



457 



House of Cyclamen being grown for seed at the establishment of Lehnig & Winnefeld, Hackensack, N. J. Photographed Jan. 25. 



The second engraving is from a pho- 

 tograph of a plant of cyclamen giandi- 

 flora fijnbriatum. This is not the so- 

 called Papilio or Butterfly cyclamen, but 

 a new strain that they believe will be in 

 great favor in the near future. It is 

 certainly very attractive. 



CARNATION NOTES. 



In the Review of Feb. 1, 5Ir. JIarquisee 

 takes exception to what I have repeat- 

 edly said about the carnation Marquii 

 being a late bloomer under ordinary cul- 

 ture. Now, I do not object to being cor- 

 rected whenever I am in error and we 

 are all liable to make mistakes. What 

 I have written in these notes from time 

 to time about different varieties has 

 been usually the result of personal ex- 

 perience, although in many cases I have 

 been able to learn the experience of sev- 

 eral other growers and in such cases I 

 always consider their experience as well 

 as my own in sizing up a variety, and 

 especially the new ones. 



Mr. j\I. is quite right when he says 

 that just because a grower fails with a 

 variety the first year it is not positive 

 proof of it.s worthlessness; but, I think, 

 that when a variety comes in late with 

 you and you hear of many others who 

 have the same experience, and you can 

 hear of no one who has it in bloom early, 

 you can hardly be blamed for branding it 

 a late variety. I have seen several 

 batches, and heard of many more, that 

 acted the same way as ours, and so it 

 can hardly be my fault altogether. But, 

 of course, sometimes we misjudge a va- 

 riety, which is proven by the fact that 

 Mr. M. had Marquis in full bloom in 

 September and had it continuously in 

 bloom ever since. But does not this 

 prove also that Marquis does need spe- 

 cial culture to bring it into bloom early? 

 Is it not possible that Mr. M. treats 

 it diff'erently than most varieties are 

 treated and that he has lost sight of the 

 fact that he has changed the treatment 

 to suit the needs of the \ariety? I think 

 that this seems more reasonable than 

 to think that all the most successful 



carnation growers in the country should 

 fail with the variety, when they grow 

 other varieties to perfection. 



The fact is, that these growers, not 

 knowing that it has this fault, handled 

 it just like they do other early varieties, 

 which, of course, they would not have 

 done had they known of this peculiarity. 

 At least some of us would have been able 

 to overcome this fault had we been 

 warned in time. Now we know it, and 

 many of us will grow it next year and, 

 I hope, profitably, as it makes grand 

 blooms, which will find a place among 

 the topnotchers anywhere. But we have 

 lost a season's profit, and the variety has 

 suffered in popularity which could have 

 been avoided by a mere bit of frankness 

 on the part of the disseminator. 



Is not this good proof of the value of 

 the suggestion I made some time ago in 

 regard to the disseminators giving, us 

 more information regarding the peculiar- 

 ities of the varieties they are introduc- 

 ing? Mr. Fisher has told us how to get 

 longer stems on Mrs. Lawson and Mr. 

 Marquisee has promised to tell us how 

 to get the Marquis into bloom early, but 

 many of us do not need to be told now 

 in either case. We have discovered the 

 faults and we know how to prevent them 

 in the future, but had we been told last 

 spring or summer, it would have saved us 

 a good many dollars this winter. I 

 have spoken to many growers in regard to 

 this matter, and all seem to think it 

 would be of great benefit to all con- 

 cerned. All except one, who feared that 

 if the introducer recommended certain 

 treatment and some one who followed it 

 failed to be successful with the variety 

 he would blame the introducer all the 

 more. That sounds all right, but it 

 is not to go so far as all that. He can 

 say the variety needs early planting, or 

 it must not be pinched late, or it needs 

 more or less heat than most varieties, 

 and that it does best with him in about 

 so many degrees of heat, or plant it in 

 a heavier or a lighter soil than the av- 

 erage variety wants, and so on, what- 

 ever its peculiarities may be. 



I am well aware that the same va- 



riety often does well with different grow- 

 ers with very different treatment, and 

 it would not always be necessary to fol- 

 low the methods employed by the orig- 

 inator to attain success; but the orig- 

 inator usually has from three to five 

 years' experience with a variety before 

 it is sent out and he usually knows its 

 faults as well as its merits, and he can 

 tell you what to guard against if he 

 wants to. A variety should not be con- 

 demned right away on account of these 

 little peculiarities unless they are seri- 

 ous faults which render the variety in- 

 ferior to other varieties of the same 

 color. There is not a variety in culti- 

 vation today that has not some pecu- 

 liarities of its own which perhaps no 

 other variety has, and it will most like- 

 ly always be so. All hybridists are well 

 aware of this. 



I have heard occasional complaints 

 about E. Crocker not keeping well after 

 being cut, and we had the same trouble 

 until we found out just at what stage 

 to cut it. Now we allow them to open 

 full before cutting, and it keeps fine for 

 us. Just to try its keeping qualities, 

 I cut three blooms of Crocker and three 

 blooms of Mrs. F. Joost on Feb. 17, and 

 put them into a vase together, and set 

 them in a bedroom which ranged any- 

 where from 45 degrees to 60 degrees, ac- 

 cording to the weather. On March 1 

 one Joost went to sleep, and the next 

 day the other two closed up, while the 

 three Crocker remained fresh until 

 March 3, when two of them closed up, 

 and the remaining bloom of Crocker looks 

 as though it would last at least two 

 more days. I have kept carnation blooms 

 longer under more favorable circum- 

 stances, but we all know what a good 

 keeper Mrs. Joost is, and as Crocker kept 

 longer than it did in the same vase, it 

 proves that it is a fine keeper when it is 

 cut right. A .F. J. Baub. 



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