274 



The Weekly Florists' Review* 



FEBRUARY 16, 1S99. 



a plant for the season. Unfortunately 

 the market will take only a limited 

 amount of variegated carnations. They 

 have a pink sport from Armazindy, 

 from which they expect a good deal, 

 as a pink with the free character ot 

 Armazindy will be a decided acquisi- 

 tion. They grow Armffzindy largely 

 as a summer white carnation, as in 

 Slimmer it comes almost pure white 

 outside. 



They grow some Pingree. but find 

 the call for the flowers rather limited. 

 It produces satisfactorily. 



Many of their carnations are in 

 solid beds and they prefer them this 

 way. They have benches in their 



newest range, but this was because 

 the land lay lower and they lacked 

 filling. 



In addition to Armazindy they grow 

 Scott and Portia for outdoor summer 

 flowers. The plants for summer 

 blooming are propagated about 

 Thanksgiving. 



They contemplate making very ex- 

 tensive additions to their glass the 

 coming summer, expecting to cover ten 

 acres more of ground with glass. 



The city salesroom is at 51 Wabash 

 ave. and is presided over by "Nick" 

 Wietor, while Henry M'ietor devotes 

 his attention to the growing establish- 

 ment at Rogers Park. 



Tobacco Dust. 



A reader asks, "Does the mixing of 

 tobacco dust or gi-ound tobacco with 

 potting sod keep the angle worms out 

 of pot plants? I think it does not 

 last long; has anyone tried it?" We 

 have never heard that tobacco dust 

 was used tor ridding the soil of angle 

 worms. Tobacco stems, when well rot- 

 ted, have been proved to be a very 

 good manure to plough in as you 

 would stable manure. We had a neigh- 

 bor, a leaf tobacco merchant, who was 

 also an amateur farmer, and scores of 

 tons of the tobacco stems he used to 

 plough under and raised excellent 

 crops. 



We don't think worms object to to- 

 bacco, and, like much higher organized 

 beings, may learn to enjoy it. The 

 best known method to rid your pot 

 plants or borders of angle worms is to 

 dissolve one pound of quick lime In 

 20 gallons of water, or that proportion, 

 and when the water is cleared apply as 

 a watering; that will settle the worms. 

 Having occasionally a barrel or two 

 of air slaked lime on the premises, we 

 have often added to our mixture of 

 compost on the potting bench a 4-inch 

 pot of the lime to a bushel of soil, or 

 about that rate. We never saw it have 

 the slightest ill effect on any of our 

 plants, and it has most effectually 

 killed the worms. 



Cinerarias. 



S. P. says: "I have some cineraria 

 plants that are full of buds, but they 

 have no petals to them. The plants 

 are fine ones and were grown in a tem- 

 perature of 45 degrees. They are well 

 budded, but have no petals." This is 

 gt:ange, for without petals it could 



scarcely be a bud. I have noticed this 

 spring from a packet of seed bought 

 for single that there are several plants 

 now growing perfectly double flowers, 

 and when they are in the bud form, or 

 just showing color, they are abortive 

 looking things, and are in reality an 

 aboi-tion and not near so attractive or 

 desirable as the single flower. We 

 surmise that the cinerarias of S. P. 

 are coming double and that is all that's 

 the matter with them. Thev are in 

 right temperature. 45 degrees at night. 

 Greenfly is the deadly and persistent 

 enemy ot the cineraria. Great care 

 should be taken in watering. If al- 

 lowed to get dust dry they lose their 

 largest lower leaves. If overwatered 

 they are easily killed. What with the 

 great space on the bench necessary to 

 grow them well, the great fight against 

 aphisand their unfdaptability to grow- 

 ing in a warm room, with their estab- 

 lished low price, there are many plants 

 more profitable. While a great attrac- 

 tion to a well-kept, cool conservatory, 

 it would be just as well for all com- 

 mercial men to drop them for a decade. 

 Then there would be a. new race of 

 plant buyers who did not know them as 

 "such a cheap plant." 



Azalea Mollis and Deutzia Gracilis. 



P. W. N. asks: "When is the time 

 to take Azalea Mollis and Deutzia 

 gracilis into a night temperature of 50 

 degrees? Sunny days the house is 

 from 65 to 75 degrees for Easter flow- 

 ers. What treatment is required?" I 

 had occasion to say last week that 

 Deutzias should have six weeks; that 

 means that you have no time to spare 

 after this week's Review reaches you^ 

 Azftlea Mollis will do very well with 



the same time. Their treatment is very 

 simple. Supposing you have the plants 

 now "heeled in" in a cold frame or pit, 

 all they want is to be potted firmly in 

 pots just large enough to take the 

 roots and get a little earth round the 

 ball. At the price at which both of 

 these plants can be purchased, it is far 

 cheaper to buy every fall than attempt 

 to carry any over in pots during sum- 

 mer; 50 to 55 degrees at night, with 

 plenty of water at the roots and a 

 daily syringing till the flowers show 

 color is all that is necessary. We think 

 Deutzia gracilis in moderate size a 

 most useful plant, but the sweet and 

 fragile A. Mollis has been anything but 

 profitable to us, and we are quite sat- 

 isfled to let the "other fellow" grow it. 



Sweet Peas. 



From the city of C. comes this grum- 

 ble: "I have a house planted in sweet 

 peas, solid beds, sown last week in Oc- 

 tober. They are 18 inches high, look 

 healthy, but will not take hold, and are 

 sending up thousands ot new shoots. 

 They are showing buds; what is 

 wrong? Two years ago, under the 

 same conditions, they were twice the 

 size." We should be inclined to think 

 if they are sending up thousands of 

 shoots and now showing bud that they 

 have very much "taken hold" and that 

 there is little to complain of. Several 

 reasons may be accountable for a 

 dwarfer growth. It has been a snowy, 

 cloudy winter, with a lower average 

 temperature than two years ago. Then 

 again, perhaps your solid bed was new 

 with a liberal allowance ot manure; 

 now the soil may be much less fertile. 

 You can't force sweet peas and you 

 get no flowers till we get an increased 

 sunlight, which comes in March. The 

 treatment I should give these peas just 

 now is plenty of syringing but only a 

 moderate supply of water at the roots. 



I have had occasion to say on pre- 

 vious occasions that a solid bed is not 

 the place to gi'ow sweet peas for early 

 spring picking. Last spring I saw 

 growing in a carnation house in four 

 inches of soil the flnest peas I ever 

 saw. stems 12 inches long and not a 

 petal dropping. They were sown at 

 each pillar in three-quarter span 

 house, about under the ridge, where 

 they had 7 or S feet head room. The 

 soil was rich with manure, but there 

 was scarcely four inches of it. I am 

 not advocating growing carnations and 

 peas in the same house, but, depend on 

 it, the shallow bench principle is right. 



To some of my readers my experi- 

 ence of seven or eight years ago with 

 a solid bed for sweet peas may be new. 

 It was a toot of good, rich, heavy loam 

 and beneath that more or less rich ter- 

 ritory until you struck Manilla. The 

 vines grew and grew till they reached 

 the top of the house, about 9 feet; then 

 they took a downward inclination and 

 dropped over in a bridal-veil kind of 

 style. With the suns of April they 

 grew up once more till they again 

 reached the glass. They flowered a 

 very little before good early ones out- 



