APRIL 6, 1899. 



The Weekly Florists' Review^ 



473 



Inside Lath Shading in Position. 



them with care in October and get 

 them established before you give them 

 any heat. Rhododendrons, even grand 

 ones, sold very slowly. I have done 

 with them; they are too bullfy, drop 

 too quickly and are outclassed by the 

 azalea. There are several plants that 

 can be brought forward as a moderate 

 priced Easter plant that the public has 

 not yet had a surfeit of, and of which 

 I hope to speak in time to help those 

 who may not think of them. 



Poinsettias. 



Start your pointettias now. They 

 should be as dry and almost as ripe 

 as a dude's cane. Shorten them back 

 to the firm wood, shake out and start 

 in heat. In seven or eight weeks you 

 will get cuttings and continue to have 

 batches of cuttings till August. 



Seasonable Work. 



The early Easter has been one bless- 

 ing. It has given us room early in 

 the season, and we need it badly. 

 There are cannas to pot from the 

 flats, coleus to shift for large plants 

 for vases and boxes. Leave nothing 

 starving for root room. Above all im- 

 portant plants are your zonale gerani- 

 ums. Our selling size is 4-inch. When 

 you shift them don't use too much fer- 

 tilizer of any kind and pot firm. 

 Solid potting induces flower, not 

 lea^^s, and it is flowers with a sturdy 



growth you want, and that flower is 

 wanted about May 20th. 



WM. SCOTT. 



SHADING. 



Some time since a correspondent re- 

 marked upon the necessity of a first- 

 class method of shading. I submit 

 the following for trial. It has been 

 in use here two seasons in our gen- 

 eral plant house and has proven satis- 

 factory. The house is 22x75 feet, 

 even span, running north and south, 

 roof one-third pitch. It so happens 

 in this case that three rows of shades 

 make a perfect fit. The great ad- 

 vantage of this method over any 

 "film" or wash shading is that every 

 plant may receive direct sunlight part 

 of the time. The following, taken 

 from the 13th Annual Report, with 

 accompanying cuts, explains the 

 method: 



Lath Shading for Glass Houses. 



A method of shading glass houses 

 that permits the work to be readily 

 done from the inside, that makes it 

 possible to put on or take off the 

 shading at any time, and to change 

 the shading from one part of the 

 house to another at will, is desirable 

 in the ordinary commercial green- 

 house and especially so for houses in- 



tended for experimental work. A 

 plan has been devised in the green- 

 house of this Station, that accom- 

 plishes these ends in a cheap and- 

 satisfactory manner. It is simply an 

 application to the greenhouse of a 

 screen made of lath, similar to, but 

 cheaper than, the screens commonly 

 used for cold frames and hot-beds. 

 The accompanying half-tone illustra- 

 tion shows the lath screens as th6y 

 appear in position. 



These screens are supported from 

 the sash-bars by simple wood buttons, 

 screwed to their lower edge. The other 

 cut shows one of the screens. It con- 

 sists of 12 ordinary lath, nailed with 

 3d. wire nails, to cross pieces which 

 are also of lath, the nails being 

 clinched. In our greenhouse the 

 sash bars are a fraction over 13 inches 

 apart in the clear, and the screens 

 are made 28 inches wide. The laths 

 are placed three-fourths inch apart, 

 except at the center, where a space 

 two and a half inches wide is left for 

 the sash-bar. The screen is put up 

 with the cross pieces toward the 

 ground, which brings the lower side 

 of the lath on a level with the lower 

 edge of the sash-bar, so that when 

 the button is placed at right angles to 

 the sash-bar, it supports the screen. 

 In our greenhouse, the pitch of the 

 roof is such that the screens require 



