Copyright, 1899, by 

 rUORISTS' PUBUISmiNG GO.. 520-535 Gaxton Building. CmCAGO. 



Vol. m. 



CHICAGO AND NEW YORK, MARCH 9, J 899. 



No. 67. 



PLANT NOTES. 



We recently took a walk — and it 

 was a long one — through the immense 

 greenhouse establishment of H. A. 

 Dreer, of Riverton, N. J., and secured 

 from Mr. J. D. Eisele, the genial su- 

 perintendent, the material for the fol- 

 lowing notes: 



Palms. 



Palms are a leading feature at this 

 place and the stock is one of the lar- 

 gest in the world. Mr. Eisele notes a 



have been disturbed in packing, it 

 should when received be placed in a 

 slightly higher temperature (say 70 

 degrees) than it had previously been 

 growing in, or where sharp bottom 

 heat can be given till new root action 

 has begun. Where bottom heat is 

 given the pots sliould be plunged in 

 any loose material; ashes will answer. 

 He grows his latanias in winter in 

 a temperature of 50 to 55 degrees, but 

 the kentias, cocos and arecas have 60 

 to 65 degrees, and when the arecas are 





Cibotium Scheidei. 



continually increasing call for the 

 Kentias. both Forsteriana and Belmo- 

 reana. and less demand for arecas. ow- 

 ing to their tenderness and liability to 

 injury in transit to the purchaser and 

 afterward. Customers often report 

 damage to arecas when kentias shipped 

 in the same package arrive in good 

 shape. Where the roots of the areca 



repotted in winter they are given a 

 tempei-ature 5 degrees higher till the 

 foniiaiion of new roots is started. 



The reason for giving kentias the 

 higher temperature in winter is that 

 this is their natural season of growth. 

 They make more growth from Octo- 

 ber to February than during all the 

 rest of the year. During summer the 



reverse effect is secured by giving 

 them more air than the latanias. The 

 latanias make their growth during the 

 summer, and any forcing of growth 

 during the winter is always at the ex- 

 pense of the plant. 



He keeps fire under the boilers all 

 summer long, and gives heat on all 

 cool nights and during wet weather, 

 with ventilators open to keep the air 

 changing. The expense is slight and 

 the beneficial results very marked. 



The first shading for the season has 

 recently been put on the glass. The 

 ventilator openings are all covered 

 with the fibre cloth. This interferes 

 but little with the passage of the air 

 and prevents the plants from being 

 burned by the sun when the spaces are 

 not covered by the shaded ventilators. 

 It also keeps out grasshoppers, which 

 would some way manage to get into 

 the houses in summer till the venti- 

 lator spaces were covered as described. 



The young plants of Cocos Weddel- 

 liana are allowed to grow to a good 

 size in the seed pans, the seedlings 

 being generally a full year old before 

 being potted. They are then generally 

 placed at once in a 3-inch pot. The 

 cocos makes a thick root that is apt 

 to be broken if handled too young and 

 crowded into too small a pot. 

 Ferns. 



A fern that Mr. Eisele believes will 

 be very extensively grown as a speci- 

 men pot plant is Polypodium aureum, 

 a coarse leaved fern but one that 

 makes a very handsome specimen in 

 a 5 or 6-inch pot for room decoration. 

 It is grown in immense quantities for 

 sale in the Covent Garden Market, 

 London, its fine glaucous blue color 

 making it popular. It is a quick grow- 

 er, and 2-inch pot plants can be grown 

 into fine specimens in a 5 or 6-inch 

 pot in six to eight'months. The Eu- 

 ropean growers often plant three or 

 four small plants in a 4-iDch pot to 

 make a bush/ specimen. 



