MARCH 9, 1S99. 



The Weekly Florists' Review. 



351 



of odd size and form being required 

 for plant shipments. 



Wm. Tricker has his aquatics in 

 good shape for the season. A Nym- 

 phaea pulcherrima seen in the aquatic 

 house has never been without bloom, 

 either summer or winter, tor the past 

 three years. Canes of a new variety 

 of Arundo donax were floating in one 

 of the tanks and growths were start- 

 ing from the joints. These will fur- 

 nish cuttings just as the canes of 

 dracaenas do. 



They will this summer tear down 

 10.000 feet of old glass and erect 40.- 

 000 feet of new glass. The new range 



Some years ago we had a few thou- 

 sand Yellow Prince that were so bad 

 that they came blind even up to the 

 month of April. A weak or poorly 

 ripened bulb will flower better if it 

 flowers at all towards spring than if 

 forced in January. 



This year I have no complaint. The 

 varieties forced into flower up to date 

 are: Chrysolora, Yellow Prince, Wat- 

 erloo, Vermillion Brilliant. La Reine 

 and Rose Griseldin, and they are all 

 good. Looking over some flats of La 

 Reine and Yellow Prince this morning 

 I counted 72 and 66 flowers, respective- 

 ly, just the number of bulbs planted. 



Pterb Serrulata Voluta. 



will consist of nine houses, each 21x 

 150, and a corridor house 21x200. All 

 will be fitted with the Evans Challenge 

 ventilators. 



A big battery of boilers in the midst 

 of the plant is covered with a green- 

 house roof. This not only gives abun- 

 dance of light, but no shade is cast on 

 the adjoining greenhouses, as would 

 be the case were the usual construc- 

 tion followed. 



TROUBLE WITH DUTCH BULBS. 



I have been requested to give my 

 opinion on the poor quality of the hy- 

 acinths and tulips with which many 

 people have been supplied for this 

 winter's forcing. When first we be- 

 gan to force tulips some twenty years 

 ago, our earliest efforts with the mid- 

 winter lots were not uniformly suc- 

 cessful, for we were not thoroughly 

 posted on the best methods, but, to 

 use a little slang, we soon "caught 

 on" and for many years did not know 

 what failure was. Now when we fol- 

 low the same methods and force our 

 bulbs year after year under the same 

 conditions and 50 per cent, of our tu- 

 lips come blind or crippled up and 

 useless, we are entirely ju.siified in 

 saying "it is not our fault, the bulbs 

 are to blame." Last year our La Reine 

 was a great disappointment, as many 

 as 75 per cent, being blind or useless. 



While I may be thankful that I have 

 no cause of complaint, it is a fact that 

 a good many poor bulbs were sent to 

 this country last fall, and a neighbor 

 of mine tells me he does not get 25 

 per cent, of good flowers. We were 

 not told by the traveling agents that 

 tulips would be poor in quality, but 

 we heard a good deal about the failure 

 of the hyacinths, and if they are turn- 

 ing out unsatisfactorily it is no more 

 than we might expect. Those flower- 

 ing with me are fair in quality. 



It is expected, perhaps, that I should 

 say something about the cause of the 

 bulbs being poor or giving such poor 

 results. We think the trouble is just 

 climate. I gleaned from an early ar- 

 rival from Holland a few days ago 

 that they are having a very mild and 

 open winter, as is nearly all Europe. 

 Three weeks ago roses were blooming 

 in English gardens. Holland expects 

 what we call a steady winter, not so 

 severe as a Canadian, but plenty of ice 

 for good skating. They are not having 

 it this year, and I believe had a mild 

 time last winter. Now with a warm 

 February the bulbs begin to grow, 

 flowering time approaches and the 

 young bulb is being formed which is 

 to give us a flower next year. When 

 the bulb is in its most critical state, 

 its most important time of develop- 

 ment, down comes a hard freeze and 

 the bulb, which is in an active state of 



growth, must and does suffer, and that 

 is in my opinion the cause of the many 

 failures. I know of no remedy and the 

 appearance of the bulb is no guide ex- 

 cept in size, and varieties differ great- 

 ly in size, and 1 have noticed that it is 

 not always the largest sample of bulbs 

 of any one variety that gives the finest 

 flowers. Why all the tulips or hya- 

 cinths were not bad can be accounted 

 for in several ways. A much harder 

 frost may visit one locality than an- 

 other, texture of soil, etc. 



These failures are very annoying and 

 very costly. Our largest grower here 

 boxed 50,000 La Reine in the fall of 

 18S7. There was a clean loss of half 

 of them. Now that was a great loss; 

 it was not the trifling cost of the 

 bulbs, but labor, space, fuel, etc., had 

 been expended just the same as if they 

 had been perfect. They could have all 

 been sold at least for $3.00 per hun- 

 dred, so at that rate, estimating 25,000 

 a failure, there was a clean loss of $750 

 besides cost of bulbs and expense of 

 growing. The Holland growers can't 

 help this, but when they are assured 

 that the fault lies with the bulb, not 

 the grower, they should make a liberal 

 allowance, for to the florist the loss is 

 serious. WILLIAM SCOTT. 



ROSE HOUSES AND VIOLET PIT. 



"North West" sends a lengthy com- 

 munication, which in substance is 

 this: He wants to build two %-span 

 rose houses with two 6-feet bench 

 walks against back and front wall and 

 in center. He also thinks of building 

 a violet pit on the south side of each 

 house. "North West" lives so far north 

 that he says equal span houses are no 

 use in his climate, being covered with 

 snow and ice while the %-span are 

 clear. 



In the above there is one serious 

 omission. "North West" should have 

 said whether his %-span was to have 

 the long slope to the south or the re- 

 verse. We think though he means the 

 regulation long slope to the south. If 

 so then it is not at all adapted for his 

 proposed plan of benches. In the reg- 

 ular %-span where the front wall is 4 

 feet 6 inches high and the back wall 

 S or 9 feet, the front bench is usually 

 the ordinary height from the floor, 

 say two feet, the middle bench or 

 benches raised another foot or more, 

 and the back or north bench perhaps 6 

 feet from the ground. A %-span is 

 useless unless you raise your benches 

 up to the light. A short slope to the 

 south, which many of our best growers 

 have adopted, particularly the famous 

 growers of Ontario, is exactly suited 

 for the arrangement of benches and 

 walks desired by our correspondent. 

 The south and north wall are both the 

 same height, say 5 feet; 19 feet is a 

 good width; a walk in the center and 

 one against each wall. It gives you a 

 grand place to hang your pipes on the 

 walls. I am only pointing out the ad- 

 vantages of this style of house. I do 



