376 



The Weekly Florists' Review* 



MARCH 15, ISSl 



them. Over-fertilization, In the first 

 place, tends to produce a small root 

 system If there is plant food in abun- 

 dance near the plant, there is no need 

 of sending out manifold roots and 

 rootlets to search for it. In this re- 

 spect plants are much like men— they 

 will not work for their food if they 

 can obtain it without. 



We want our plants to have good 

 root systems. Over-feeding is said to 

 cause a rapid decay of the root-hairs, 

 through which the food is taken into 

 the plants from the soil. These root- 

 hairs are quickly replaced by new ones 

 which, in turn, decay and no roots 

 are sent out into the soil to increase 

 the system of roots. A plant with 

 such a small root system may make a 

 good top growth for a time, but it usu- 

 ally reaches a point where the roots 

 cannot take up moisture as fast as it 

 transpires from the foliage. Then the 

 plant wilts. 



Perhaps some of the gentlemen pres- 

 ent expect me to give a general for- 

 mula for fertilizing the carnation 

 plant. If there were a formula that 

 would answer all requirements, it 

 must needs be a good deal like some 

 of the proprietary medicines upon the 

 market that are said to cure the con- 

 sumer, no matter what the disease. 

 My friends, there is no royal road to 

 success in carnation growing, or any 

 other branch of horticulture. There 

 is no magic formula that will fit all 

 soils, all plants and all conditions un- 

 der which they are grown. 



Please bear in mind that I am only 

 giving you an account of the experi- 

 ences and observations of an experi- 

 menter, and that I have never been 

 engaged in the commercial culture of 

 the carnation. I cannot, therefore, pre- 

 sume to instruct, or advise any depart- 

 .•ure from your own practices, which 

 are the outcome of a life experience. 

 ■But I know that most gi-owere do more 

 or less experimenting on their own ac- 

 count, and possibly such may find 

 something of interest in this paper. 



In conclusion, I will say that, in 

 general, it is better to use a complete 

 fertilizer; that is, a fertilizer contain- 

 ing all of the three very important 

 plant food ingredients— nitrogeii, 

 phosphoric acid and potash. See to it 

 that these are all present. The quan- 

 tities to be applied can only be deter- 

 mined by direct experiment. Soils dif- 

 fer so greatly in their texture and 

 composition that the proper applica- 

 tion for any given soil or compost 

 might not be an economical dressing 

 for any other soil. Then, too, carna- 

 tions, like men, have racial character- 

 istics, and some varieties will need 

 more food than others. "Sleepinness," 

 or the cohering of the petals, is 

 thought by some growers to be caused 

 by too much nitrogen. This may be 

 entirely correct, but our experiments 

 have not, as yet, given us any very 

 clear indications regarding the cause 

 of this imperfection. 



AMONG PHILADELPHIA GROWERS. 



Joseph Heacock. 

 Joseph Heacock has a fine range of 

 60,000 square feet of glass at Wyncote, 

 heated by steam from a battery of four 

 boilers aggregating 220 horse power. 

 It is a decided convenience having the 

 four boilers all in the same stoke hole. 

 The place has always heretofore been 

 heated by three of the boilers, but this 

 winter the fourth one was necessary at 

 times. It is always well to have more 

 capacity than you think you will need. 

 Roses are largely grown here and 

 more than half of the rose houses are 

 devoted to American Beauty which 

 are in fine condition. But they did 

 not produce as continuously as usual. 

 They did well up to Christmas and 

 then many shoots came blind, though 

 they are now giving evidence of a 

 full cut later. 



He has been trying grafted Brides 

 and Maids and cannot so far see any 

 great advantage in the grafted stock, 

 but he will try a thousand more graft- 

 ed plants again next season before de- 

 ciding. 



Palms are a strong feature here and 

 there are numerous houses of the 

 usual trade varieties all in very fine 

 condition. His stock of kentias in all 

 sizes is very large but he has just 

 planted 42,000 seeds for future sup- 

 ply. Some extra large specimens 

 of Areca lutescens in 14-inch pots 

 were in splendid form. Referring to 

 the tendency to use kentias so much 

 more freely than the areca Mr. Hea- 

 cock thought there was something to 

 be said the other way as while a ken- 

 tia will stand longer than an areca, a 

 damaged areca can be brought into 

 condition again but an injured kentia 

 is worthless. 



Cocos Weddelliana was seen in quan- 

 tity and he grows them into speci- 

 mens of some little size, finding an 

 increasing call for the larger sizes. 



He is using the Lonsdale evaporat- 

 ing pans for vaporizing tobacco. He 

 has a few barrels of tobacco stems 

 soaking in water and draws off the 

 juice for use in the pans, adding a 

 quantity of the Rose Leaf extract an 

 occasion requires. He formerly used 

 Nikoteen and found it effective but of 

 late the preparation seems to have 

 deteriorated in strength and he has 

 abandoned it as ineffective. 



He says the palm grower has his 

 troubles as well as the grower of roses 

 and that while the rose grower risks 

 only one year's expense the palm 

 grower has to risk the cost of several 

 years' growing and the conditions of 

 supply and demand may have mate- 

 rially changed in the meantime. 



He grows a few cypripediums (in- 

 signe) and finds them profitable. He 

 now has all his plants potted in pure 

 sphagnum and finds they do much bet- 

 ter than when in soil. He is now dry- 

 ing them out and will keep cool till 

 about the middle of May when will 

 place them out in a frame and water 



freely, giving water three times a day. 

 He says they cannot be overwatered 

 in the sphagnum as it will absorb only 

 a certain amount of moisture. 



He has only one house of carnations, 

 the varieties being Victor and Flora 

 Hill. He will discard Hill and replace 

 with White Cloud. 



He is very favorably impressed with 

 the new rose Liberty and will plant a 

 house of it as soon as the variety is 

 disseminated. 



Edwin Lonsdale. 



American Beauty is now the only 

 rose grown by Mr. Lonsdale. This is 

 the place at which Mme. Gabriel Lui- 

 zet used to be so prominent as a spring 

 blooming hybrid, but it lost its hold 

 through the flowers lacking sufficient 

 stem to meet present day demands. 

 The same may be said of the Brunuer 

 which was also largely grown some 

 years ago. 



Begonias and crotons are much in 

 evidence, especially the latter. He be- 

 lieves there is quite a future for the 

 croton as a bedding plant. But they 

 should not be planted out before the 

 first week in June and should be hard- 

 ened oif during thfi mouth of May by 

 the free ventilation of the house in 

 which they are then growing. One 

 blunder often made is to plant them 

 too far apart in the bed. They will 

 not fill out space as a coleus or gera- 

 nium will and should be planted close- 

 ly to insure a good effect. 



Among the best varieties for bed- 

 ding are Rothschilds, Fasciatus, In- 

 terruptum, aurea maculata and Queen 

 Victoria. Carrierii is being tried and 

 he thinks this will prove a good bed- 

 der. He propagates by mossing the 

 stems of the old plants in the same 

 way rubbers are rooted. He has about 

 150 seedling crotons, among which are 

 many of very considerable promise. 



Cypripediums are grown in quan- 

 tity, mainly insigne, but he is devot- 

 ing more space to Lawrenceanum 

 which he finds produces as many or 

 more flowers from a given space as in- 

 signe, though it requires more heat. 

 Again the flowers do not come all in 

 one crop. There are always two crops 

 and sometimes three during the sea- 

 son. He has quite a number of seed- 

 ling cypripediums and derives much 

 pleasure from watching the develop- 

 ment of these "babies." 



BOSTON. 



The Market- 

 With perhaps the exception of car- 

 nations, the market this week has 

 maintained the even tenor of its way, 

 with its ups and downs, according to 

 supply and demand. Roses of the av- 

 erage grade have sold rather slow, with 

 extras going much better, while there 

 is hardly any sale for culls. From $4 

 to $6 are the prevailing prices, with 

 better grades bringing from $8 to 

 $12.50 per 100. These prices are for 

 Brides and Maids. Meteors have had 



