618 



The Weekly Florists^ Review, 



ApitiL 4, 1901. 



account of so much warm, muggy weath- 

 er so late in the fall. 



If you wish to keep i..em blooming as 

 long as possible in the spring 1 find it 

 necessary to shade the glass with lime 

 the last week in February or the first 

 week in March; it keeps them from 



sending up their young foliage and for 

 those in the frames about the last week 

 in March 1 lay the shutters on and tilt 

 the sash from one side. By so doing I 

 keep good blooms on them from two 



to thr 



fks 



MISCELLANEOUS 

 SEASONABLE HINTS. 



Geraniums. 



After the eventful days of this week 

 there is still a great deal of important 

 work to do, particularly with those who 

 have been growing a lot of Easter stuff 

 to be succeeded with bedding plants. 



Our most important item is to get 

 all the zonal geraniums shifted from a 

 3-inch to a 4-inch pot. We have to give 

 them this size for our patrons want a 

 good plant in flower. Don't ever put 

 zonals into a rich, light soil or they will 

 grow leafy and soft with a poor flower. 

 Use heavy loam with a fifth or sixth of 

 old rotten manure and see that they are 

 potted firmly. I have many times urged 

 this point but it is an important one. 

 Firmness of the soil produces a stout, 

 hard growth with a tendency to flower 

 and that is what you want. You feel 

 tempted to shade every house in the 

 bright suns of April and May but we 

 manage to get along till the end of May 

 jwithout any shading oTer the geraniums. 



I have also often commented on the 

 great benefit of plunging material be- 

 tween the pots. I cannot wholly account 

 for the great benefit it is to all plants in 

 pots on a bench in hot bright weather, 

 for it is not any manurial quality that 

 the plants receive. It is doubtless the 

 uniform moisture that the roots enjoy, 

 or rather the ill effects of the severe dry- 

 ing out which they escape, and that 

 teaches us quite a little. Of all the ma- 

 terial for this purpose nothing equals 

 for cleanliness, easy handling or good 

 results, the refuse hops. Even if your 

 plunging reaches but half way up the 

 pot it is of the greatest benefit. Now, 

 this plunging of plants costs some labor 

 but really scarcely a fraction of a cent 

 on each plant, and it is well repaid in 

 the size and vigor of the plant. This 

 plan does not apply to geraniums alone 

 but to all plants that should receive the 

 full sun till bedding out time. 



Hot-beds. 



We still believe in the old-fashioned 

 hot-beds and five or six weeks in a mild 

 one will finish off many plants that no 

 greenhouse can do. You do not want a 

 great deep affair, such as the growers 

 of lettuce and cucumbers make in March j 

 eighteen inches of stable manure is 

 enough with five or six inches of soil 

 or sand for plunging material is all you 

 want. Now, there arc some plants that 

 are not at all benefited by a hotbed, or 

 rather would make a rank growth which 

 would unfit them for bedding. Among 

 them the flowering geraniums, salvias, 

 petunias, centaurea, nasturtiums, in fact 

 anything that grows freely inside. But 

 there are several of our bedding plants 



that don't grow freely inside and the hot- 

 bed makes them jump. The alternanthe- 

 ras, lemon verbenas, variegated and 

 scented geraniums, verbenas, small pots 

 \oi mignonette, and a little later coleus 

 and achyranthes and acalypha will do 

 finely. There is a decided advantage in 

 having the bedding coleus in a hot-bed, 

 because by the middle of May you can 

 lift off the sash on warm days and hard- 

 en them off, which is an immense ad- 

 vantage when putting plants into the 

 open ground. 



Soon after Easter your seedlings will 

 be ready and by the middle of April the 

 asters, phlox, dianthus and other so- 

 called hardy annuals will do very well 

 in a cold-frame. 



Begonias. 



We usually start tuberous rooted be- 

 gonias for bedding about now. You 

 do not want large plants of these for the 

 flower gardens; they don't do so well 

 when put out. The best beds of begonias 

 I ever saw were started in a mild hot- 

 bed as late as May the first, they had 

 made little growth when put out on 

 June the first, but grew finely and made 

 the most brilliant bed, not eclipsed even 

 by a geranium. We start them in flats 

 of sandy soil on a warm bench and about 

 May the first pot them into 4inch pots, 

 tind then into a hot-bed in the full sun 

 and ventilate on all possible occasions. 

 To take a tuberous-rooted begonia out 

 pi a shaded house and expect it to do 

 «ell out of doors in the broad sun an<l 

 wind is not reasonable, but if grown 

 right they do make a fine bed. 



Poinsettias. 



I believe these were very popular last 

 jWinter and are now known by many of 

 us as the Christmas flower. Supposing 

 \you have, or buy, any old canes, it is 

 time now to start them growing. Don't 

 cut them up into pieces three or four 

 inches long as we used to. It is a slow 

 method and they don't make as good 

 plants. Just shake off all the soil and 

 re-pot, at the same time cutting back the 

 cane to sound wood. In a good warm 

 house the eyes soon break and when the 

 cuttings are a few inches long take them 

 off just below a joint, but leave one eye 

 ,of the new growth on the old cane be- 

 cause fi'oiii (IliI Mill will get another 

 cutting. ^I'li i:iii kirp on propagating 

 till next Sipi iimIii r. Cuttings root eas- 

 ily and sinrly in sniiil during the whole 

 summer, but you must keep them soaked 

 and shaded. 



The earliest rooted cuttings sometimes 

 make tall plants. Last year, with us. 



for some reason or other they grew up 

 taller than was desirable. Those propa- 

 gated in July and August often make 

 the most useful and those propagated in 

 September make the right plants for 

 pans, in which shape now we find most 

 of our customers prefer them. Y'ou must, 

 however, get the old canes up and start- 

 ed or they will be starting themselves 

 beneath the bench. 



William Scott. 



MILDEW ON ROSES. 



What can we do to prevent mildew 

 on roses? We have grown Jacqueminots 

 for the last twenty years. With the first 

 crop we have no mildew, but the tender 

 growth of the second crop is generally 

 badly affected. Makyland. 



Mildew on roses under glass is easily 

 kept in check, but it is very difficult, in 

 fact, almost impossible, to keep outdoor 

 grown roses clean in some localities. It 

 is brought on by exposure to cold 

 draughts when the plants are growing 

 rapidly, by too much moisture over night, 

 by sudden and extreme changes of tem- 

 perature and by various other causes. I 

 know of no way to prevent it other than 

 to avoid these conditions as much as pos- 

 sible. The best remedy is sulphur, and if 

 used in time will do much to keep it from 

 spreading. M. Stauch. 



SMILAX ASPARAGUS-CARNA- 

 TIONS. 



What is the proper temperature for 

 sniilax, also for Asparagus plumosus and 

 A. Sprengeri ? 



Which are considered best for carna- 

 tions — solid beds or benches? 



J. G. W. 



The pages of the Review have many 

 times contained my opinion of how to 

 grow smilax. It can be grown in a night 

 temperature of 55 degrees, but tinder 

 these conditions it would not be profit- 

 able; 65 degrees at night is the right 

 temperature to grow it profitably. Con- 

 trary to what might be expected, smilax 

 grown in a high temperature is not by 

 any means more liable to wilt than that 

 grown in a cool temperature. With good 

 management you should be able to get 

 four crops in a year. ' To do that you 

 must plant early in July and they should 

 be strong young plants in 3-inch pots. 

 A good heavy soil suits smilax as it does 

 all the family. 



Asparagus plumosus will grow very 

 well in 60 degrees and so will Asparagus 

 Sprengeri. Plumosus is always planted 

 out. It does much better in a solid bed : 

 and have no boards or planks between 

 the earth and the bed. IjCt it be on the 

 solid ground. Asparagus Sprengeri will 

 do on a raised bench. In fact it is a 

 better place than on a solid bed and 

 can be very well grown in 7 or 8-inch 

 pots or hanging baskets. Sprengeri is 

 a great feeder and soon exhausts the soil 

 you start with. 



The question about carnations is rath- 

 er a heavy one and quite a chapter could 

 be written on it. Some growers are very 

 successful with the solid benches. My 

 own opinion from experience is that I 

 would rather have them on raised 

 benches in five inches of soil. When we 

 see the good results that are obtained by 

 the leading growers on benches why 

 should we want anything better? 



