MARCH 23, 1SS9. 



The Weekly Florists' Review. 



407 



plants get up to glass trim off lower 

 foliage and bend or layer plants down 

 and start top upward again; in this 

 way I have kept plants growing and 

 fruiting until I commenced to pick 

 from plants outside in July. 



I find rose house temperature about 

 right for tomatoes. To set the fruit: 

 "When the flower is fully developed I 

 take hold of the stem (close up back 

 of the flower) between the finger and 

 thumb of one hand, and with a finger 

 and thumb of the other band I take 

 hold of one of the ray petals and care- 

 fully pull outward, removing the 

 whole of the petals from the fruit 

 (generally the whole of the petals 

 come off easily together) ; by remov- 

 ing the petals in this way it brings up 

 the pollen to the end of the pistil and 

 fecundation takes place. Be very care- 

 ful not to break the pistil or your 

 labor is lost on that flower. I find this 

 the quickest and simplest way it can 



be done. By a littie practice one can 

 go over a large number of plants in a 

 very short time. Plants should be 

 gone over every second day. a bright 

 day is better than a cloudy day as then 

 the pollen is free and the set wiir be 

 sure. I have practiced this method 

 for seven or eight years with unvaried 

 success. U. 



No. 35. Carnation support. My sup- 

 port, which I have found very satis- 

 factory, is suggestive of the inverted 

 V of chicken netting, only it has the 

 advantage of enabling me to reach in 

 anywhere among the plants, and does 

 .away with the necessity for additional 



string support at the tup. Tu make the 

 support take No. 10 galvanized wire, 

 cut into suitable lengths, straighten 

 the pieces, turn each one around a 

 headless nail so as to make a ring in 

 the center, then make four more 

 rings, two on each side, two about 

 seven inches from the center and two 

 about 14 inches. Now bend the whole 

 into the form of an inverted V with 

 the rings on the inside. Three of 

 these, one at each end and one in the 

 middle, will be enough to carry your 

 support across a G-foot bench. Then 

 run horizontal wires through the 

 rings, bending them at each end so as 

 to hold the whole business steady, 

 there being five horizontal wires to 

 each set of standards, one at the top 

 and two on each side. To keep the 

 carnations from hanging over into the 

 walk and to give additional firmness 

 to the supporters, run two No. 16 

 wires the whole length of the house 



on both sides of the bench, secured 

 by frame at each end of house. These 

 supports can be made by the help 

 on the place at odd moments when 

 not otherwise employed and the ex- 

 pense is slight. V. 



No. 36. Stretching Wires. To 

 stretch the top wires when staking 

 roses generally requires at least two 

 men. Being left alone one time I 

 found I could do the work quite as fast 

 without help by a simple expedient. 

 I stretched the wire as well as I could, 

 leaving the loop at each end about two 

 feet long. Then inserting one spike 

 in the end of the loop nearest the 

 single wire and holding it to keep the 

 wire from turning, with another spike 

 in the middle of the loop I twisted the 

 loop uptil it drew as taut as I wished 

 and with very little effort, and made 

 a very good job. W. 



CHRYSANTHEMUMS. 



Exhibition Versus Commercial Varieties. 



There is today quite a long list of 

 varieties that, while they are invalua- 

 ble to the exhibitor, cannot for va- 

 rious reasons be grown profitably by 

 the purely commercial grower. Prob- 

 ably the chief reason for this is the 

 fact that the blooms of many fine va- 

 rieties are soft and easily damaged, 

 consequently cannot stand thehandling 

 that flowers in large cities are neces- 

 sarily subjected to. After passing 

 through the hands of the commission 

 agent and retailer they cannot be de- 

 livered to the customer in that pink 

 of condition demanded by the critical 

 flower buyer of today. In cases where 

 the florist both grows and retails his 

 own flowers this objection should not 

 be of such moment as the flowers do 

 not get so much handling and such 

 florists should certainly try to grow 

 as many high class varieties as possi- 

 ble. 



We hear a good deal today about 

 the lack of variety in all kinds of 

 flowers and truth to say with good rea- 

 son, yet how many growers try to get 

 out of the rut? Good customers ap- 

 preciate a change and I believe would 

 cheerfully pay a dollar a dozen more 

 for a good mum that is entirely new 

 to them if only for a change from 

 the deadly sameness of the eternal 

 Robinson, Bonnaffpn or Jones that 

 confront them day by day in the sea- 

 son and perhaps varied by being 

 changed to Bonnaffon, Jones and Rob- 



inson. Each of these varieties are ex- 

 cellent, but it is easy to get too much 

 of even a good t^ing and I believe 

 there would be considerably less talk 

 of a glut in mums iC there were more 

 variety to select from. 



To some people it may seem hardly 

 the time now to talk of the flowers 

 thus early in the season, but just now 

 the grower is making his plans and 

 working up his stock for planting and 

 while so doing the most important 

 point, the disposition of the future 

 crop, should not be lost sight of. The 

 Japanese section, which attracts so 

 much attention at exhibitions, con- 

 tains thei very finest types for artistic 

 decorations, but many of them cannot 

 be obtained in quantity when needed 

 because owing to the interlacing pet- 

 als they are much more diflicult to 

 ship in good condition. The private 

 gardener is rapidly forcing the com- 

 mercial man to the wall in the exhibi- 

 tion room and the probabilities are this 

 condition of things will increase, be- 

 cause the gardener has capital back 

 of him to draw on when the other fel- 

 low has to go into his own pocket. 

 Another good reason also is the fact 

 that the gardener has got a choice of 

 twenty or thirty varieties from which 

 to select his flowers, often more, 

 against the florist's eight or nine old- 

 er kinds. 



Of course many of the finest exhibi- 

 tion kinds are indispensable to both 

 men. Golden Wedding being a case in 

 point, and many others would be if 

 their merits were more fully known. 

 Plants of standard varieties are cheap 



