84 



The Weekly Florists^ Review* 



DECEMBER 22, 1898. 



nearer than 6 feet to the far end. What 

 a blessed thing it is to have a cypress 

 plank for a gutter; how you can chop 

 the ice out without being afraid. Some 

 cypress gutters put in eight years ago, 

 and annually painted are absolutely 

 as sound as the day they were put up._ 

 In fact, they are as sound as Mr.' 

 Giesey's voice. To cover a cypress 

 plank with zinc, tin or galvanized iron 

 would be a horrible, ancient mistake. 

 When the houses are dark with this 

 covering of snow, the worst thing you 

 could do would be to keep a high tem- 

 perature, especially is this true of 

 roses, carnations or violets. You may 

 help melt the snow with your high 

 temperature, but you will spoil your 

 plants. 



The illustration sent is not of any 

 particular horticultural value. It is 

 merely to demonstrate the quantity of 

 snow that suits the average florist. In 

 the background is a Baldwin apple 

 orchard that bore so bountiful a crop 

 two years ago, that we leaiued then 

 that the way to make money out of our 

 apple crop was to let them fall to the 

 ground and rot. This is no joke, for 

 the writer had from a small orchard 

 125 barrels of apples in '96, and if he 

 had not had a bushel he would have 

 been $80 in pocket. The fence to the 

 left is the old Buffalo road, the high- 

 way from New York city to the west; 

 many a weary emigrant has trudged 

 along this road; many a Mark Tapley, 

 low in pocket and lower in spirit, has 

 tried to be "jolly" and to wife, mother 



and bairns forced a smile and cheery 

 word about the "valley of Eden" that 

 lay before them. The pioneers who 

 first subdued the wilderness were mar- 

 tyrs and their descendants can hardly 

 realize the hardships they endured. 



The figure in the foreground is a 

 collector, not of bad accounts, but of 

 our indigenous products. That day, 

 about Dec. 5, before the arrival of the 

 great storm, he was looking for the 

 dormant roots of Quadrupedium rod- 

 entiana cottontailers. He secured ■ 

 some you see. When quite dormant 

 they stand freezing and the specimens 

 shown were very dormant. A beagle 

 hound is a help to finding them, like 

 a truffle dog he scents them. The 

 hammerless Parker (John Burton will 

 explain what that is) you take along 

 for fear you might meet a bear or an 

 Indian. They, the cottontailers, not 

 the Indian, are found often along fence 

 rows and almost any old place. Be- 

 neath a brush pile is a good place to 

 look, but you must not be discouraged 

 if your look is not rewarded. You will 

 look many times and discover nothing 

 but the wintry scene. I am very sorry 

 the collector could not show you the 

 dog, but the dog is looking round to 

 see what prospect there is of a lunch, 

 whife behind the camera is the farm- 

 er's wife, who is just exclaiming: 

 "Come on, you fellers, dinner's ready," 

 and that accounts for the more than 

 usual contented look of the collector. 



BUNNY. 



A Red Berried Plant. 

 From present outlook plants with 

 red berries are selling well and as this 

 taste will be sure to increase for sev- 

 eral years it will be well to be pre- 

 pared for it. Having just what the pub- 

 lie demands is one of the essentials to 

 success in the business. One of the 

 easiest of berried plants to grow Is the 

 well known Solanum Capsicastrum 

 (Jerusalem cherry). It you have any 

 growing select seed from the best ber- 

 ried plants; or, if you don't grow any, 

 get some seed from a reliable house at 

 once and sow first of the year. As soon 

 as they are up they want a moderate- 

 ly warm but light house, up near the 

 glass — which is equivalent to saying 

 good light and circulation of air. They 

 are all the better for two or three 

 pinchings before they are planted out. 

 If they are in a 3-inch pot and bushy 



little plants by end of May. you can- 

 not but have fine plants to lift in the 

 following September providing you do 

 not plant them in too rich a soil. In 

 growing during summer your object is 

 just the reverse of what it is in grow- 

 ing many plants, carnations for in- 

 stance. In the Solanum you don't 

 want much growth. It planted out in 

 a rich, moist soil they will make like 

 all the genus a rank strong growth, 

 flower very late and have few if any 

 berries. You must plant them in a 

 poor soil, not a stiff clay, but in a sand 

 or gravel. They will be sure to grow 

 enough and with a moderate growth 

 will flower early and bear an abund- 

 ance of berries. They lift without los- 

 ing or wilting a leaf. A light house, 

 with a night temperature of 50 deg., is 

 the place to keep them till they are 

 sold. 



Bulbs. 

 Between Christmas and New Year's 

 is a good time to get in a good big lot 

 of bulbs. Those got in then will force 

 satisfactorily; then all through Janu- 

 ary to get long stems and good flow- 

 ers you must give them a steady heat 

 of SO degrees and a heavy shade over 

 them. 



Primula and Cyclamen Seed. 



If you save any of your own primula 

 and cyclamen seed don't sell all the 

 best varieties. If you can't do 

 better pinch off the ffower of 

 any choice variety and then it 

 won't sell, or, better still, mark 

 it sold and put it away in some out-of- 

 the-way corner where it can't be seen. 

 We only improve our varieties of flow- 

 ers by what is known as "artificial se- 

 lection," that is selecting the individ- 

 ual that possesses the most desirable 

 qualities, such as earliness, size, color, 

 form or any other quality that makes 

 the variety desirable. By this means 

 has been produced the pouter pigeon, 

 the pug dog, or Mary Wood carnation. 

 This is a most unfavorable time for 

 saving seed, but individual plants that 

 show great excellence can be kept cool 

 and their flowering delayed till a 

 month or so later, when conditions will, 

 be better. 



Lobelia — Centaurea. 



There are few seeds to sow now, but 

 very early in the year you should sow 

 lobelia if you did not take care of any 

 old plants. Cuttings of lobelia make 

 the l)est plants for baskets, vases or 

 veranda boxes, but seed sown at once 

 will make good plants, though they re- 

 quire time. There is not much of the 

 Centaurea gymnocarpa grown now, 

 but if you want good plants for spring 

 use. sow early in the year. 



Easter Lilies. 

 I would remind you ' that Easter 

 comes very early next year and just 

 as soon as you get the usual space 

 which Christmas will give you there 

 should be no delay in getting your 

 Ea.ster lilies into a good heat. You 

 won't have a day to spare. Harrisii 

 or longiflorum that are C or 8 inches 

 above the pot will do well in a night 

 temperature of 60 degrees. Lilies want 

 an awful lot of sorting and the sooner 

 it is done the better. Some want more 

 forcing than others and they should 

 be sorted out to theii' requirements as 

 soon as possible. WM. SCOTT. 



CARNATION G. H. CRANE. 



This new scarlet carnation, a seed- 

 ling of Mr. Dorner's, gives promise of 

 being an exceedingly useful commercial 

 sort. It scored 92 points at the meet- 

 ing of the American Carnation Society 

 last February and has proved itself a 

 remarkably free and continuous bloom- 

 er. It will be introduced this coming 

 spring by the originators, P. Dorner & 

 Sons Co., Lafayette, Ind. 



WB WISH ALL a Merry Christmas 

 and a profitable holiday trade. 



