APRIL : 



1S99. 



The Weekly Florists' Review. 



547 



heavy planting out, which with us is 

 not much before the end of May, but 

 many things can be put into cold- 

 frames; even geraniupis that are well 

 advanced in growth will do finely in a 

 cold-frame, and you have the advan- 

 tage of being able to lift the sashes 

 off for two weeks before planting 

 time, which hardens them off and fits 

 them well for enduring the blazing sun 

 ■when planted out. Feverfews, agerat- 

 ums, carnations, and all our summer 

 annuals, are better in the cold-frame 

 than in the greenhouse. 



Avoid Shading. 



Avoid as much as possible shade on 

 any of the houses. Ceasing to fire and 

 shading the houses is a combination 

 of conditions that is most unfavorable 

 for most of our soft-wooded plants, 

 and with Coleus, acalyphas and can- 

 nas, really tropical plants, it is mur- 

 der. A fire at night on cloudy or wet 

 days is many times the price of the 

 fuel in your pocket. Of late years we 

 have found it profitable to continue fir- 

 ing in all plant houses till near the 

 1st of June. (This does not include 

 carnation houses; quite the reverse; 

 except a violet house, they do without 

 fire heat the easiest of all.) 



Instead of shading your geraniums, 

 fuchsias, heliotrope and coleus, when 

 standing them over, and they need it a 

 time or two before market time, put 

 some material between the pots; it 

 stops evaporation from the sides of the 

 pots and for other reasons it is a great 

 help to the plants. Notice a bench so 

 treated compared with one without it 

 and which wants water twice a day; 

 you will gain a third in stoutness and 

 size of plant. Any material will help, 

 but there is nothing equal to refuse 

 hops from a brewery; the odor may be 

 disagreeable (even if familiar) for a 

 few days, but will soon pass away, and 

 there is something arising from it that 

 is plant food to the leaf. These refuse 

 hops are by no means waste, for when 

 well rotted they are a most excellent 

 substitute for the best kind of leaf 

 mould. Many plants thrive finely when 

 there is a fourth of spent hops added 

 to the loam. 



Smilaz. 



I suppose you renew your smilax bed 

 every year. If you don't, you ought 

 to. It has been quite scarce lately. 

 Asparagus of various kinds and maid- 

 en hair ferns have their exalted posi- 

 tions, but the old smilax will always 

 be wanted. The plebeian wire fram« 

 will always want to be encircled by it, 

 and there are other uses. Messrs. Gold- 

 ring Bros, told me last year that they 

 not only agreed with me in planting 

 every year, but planted for every crop. 

 That's too much of an up-to-date sys- 

 tem, but every July, as near the first 

 as possible, plant a fresh bed in a 

 heavy loam 5 or 6 inches deep, with a 

 fourth of decayed animal manure, 7 or 

 8 feet of head room, a temperature Of 

 not less than 60 degrees at night, and 

 you will cut four crops in the twelve 



months, and much better strings than 

 from an old bed. But you won't have 

 these nice well-furnished-from-the- 

 bottom strings unless you have good 

 3-inch plants ready by July. You per- 

 haps have noticed that smilax when 

 about two months from the seed box 

 makes a small spindling growth of a 

 few inches; the next growth is strong 

 and will make strings, so the young 

 plant should be ready to make those 

 strong growths when put in the bed, 

 and you will then soon get the first 

 crop; but you won't get this kind of 

 plant if you keep the little pots under 

 a cool bench. Select just as many 

 plants as your bed requires, no more 

 or less, and get them into o-inch pots 

 and treat them decently. It's no use 

 having a few hundred to spare because 

 a neighbor may want them. If you 

 asked him |2 per hundred he would 

 tell you Messrs. Rasum & Shipem ad- 

 vertised them at $7. .50 per thousand, so 

 don't encumber your valuable benches 

 with what is not going to be profitable. 

 The knowledge of what to throw away 

 comes next in ability to knowing how, 

 when and what to grow. 



Chrysanthemums. 



There is one thing now taking up 

 considerable room wim us, and that is 

 old plants and flats of stock chrysan- 

 themums. The last batch of cuttings 

 can now be taken off and the old stock 

 thrown out. Later batches can be ob- 

 tained from the young plants in abun- 

 dance. The mum is a very free, easy 

 thing to propagate when the houses 

 are cool and your sand warm, but 

 when the conditions are reversed they 

 hang fire and wilt easily on warm 

 days, even if they are shaded. This 

 wilting is overcome and rooting 

 hastened by a regular and copious wa- 

 tering; a good soaking twice a day is 

 not too much. Wm. Scott. 



NEW YORK. 



The Bridgeman Failure. 



The principal topic for discussion 

 'mong the florists of these parts at 

 present is the Bridgeman Company's 

 failure, that concern having made an 

 assignment to Walter F. Sheridan 

 April 20, with liabilities somewhere 

 around $20,000, assets supposed to be 

 about $14,000. Most of the leading 

 wholesalers are in the pie. Mr. 

 Bridgeman, the reputed head of the 

 firm, was formerly with Thorley. Two 

 years ago the Bridgeman Company 

 opened the store at 34th street and 

 Broadway. The failure comes in the 

 nature of a surprise inasmuch as it 

 was reported that Mr. Bridgeman had 

 but recently won a law suit against 

 Thorley for $30,000. These large nuts. 

 of unlimited and indiscriminate cred- 

 its are hard to crack. 



The Market. 



Mildew is becoming the chief feat- 

 ure of a lot of the rose stock coming 

 in, but it's often so at the end of the 

 season; the returns barely pay for 



water, much less the coal. Still it has 

 been worse, and then again your com- 

 mission man must stand for bad debts, 

 and as "Willie Plumb used to say, 

 "What's the odds so long as you're 

 happy." The prices this week were 

 Maids, Brides and Meteors, 1 to 5, 

 Jacques 3 to S, specials 8 to 15, Beau- 

 ties 2 to 5, specials 5 to 20, Carnots 1 

 to 3, Valley Vi, to 2, Violets 15 to 35 

 per 100, Smilax 25, Asparagus plumo- 

 sus 30 to 50, gardenias 8 to 10, pansies 

 15 per 100, Swainsona 25 per bunch. 



Smilax is very scarce and at a time 

 too when it is most wanted; the total 

 failure of the southern smilax crop 

 greatly inconveniences those who 

 have decorations on hand. Sickly 

 looking Harrisiis are to be seen al- 

 most everywhere and the price is "get 

 what little you can." That cross be- 

 tween longiflorum and Brownii will 

 never be popular here unless it is 

 grown better than those sent in this 

 spring; the flowers are too flabby and 

 ungainly. 



Various Items. 



The plant markets and auction 

 rooms are all in full blast and seem 

 to be doing a rushing business. Some 

 day we might get up another Covent 

 Garden here which would enable us 

 to do more. 



Tulips and other bulbous stock are 

 in bloom in the parks, but shrubs 

 seem to be backward somewhat. 



Delraonico's, at 26th street and Fifth 

 ave., famous in the annals of Ameri- 

 can floral art, is closed. It was the 

 demand for flowers occasioned by the 

 exacting fashions and good taste of 

 this grand old house that first started 

 and afterwards encouraged the flor- 

 ist's business here. The cream of the 

 flowers grown around New York up 

 to 10 or 12 years ago eventually found 

 their way into Delmonico's. There are 

 very few "old timers" who do not 

 remember the red and blue rooms and 

 the old banquet hall. 



Theo. J. Lang has moved into his 

 new store at 670 Sixth ave. It is very 

 prettily arranged and decorated, is in 

 a better location than the old store, 

 and Theodore's acquaintance who is 

 not a friend is too small to be an 

 enemy. 



C. W. Ward of the Cottage Gardens, 

 Queens, L. I., is away on a trip to De- 

 troit, Mich. 



William R. Smith, of Washington, 

 D. C, the "Grand Old Man of Horti- 

 culture," is visiting our city, some tell 

 us for the purpose of adding to his 

 famous collection of "Bobbie Burns' " 

 tuneful lays; whether it be so or not 

 we are all glad to find him 'mongst us 

 again and hope he will be with us 

 "many a time and oft." 



A large collection of Japanese plants 

 belonging to Yamanaka & Co., of 

 Dorchester, Mass., and Japan, were 

 auctioned off at 238 Fifth ave., April 

 20, 21 and 22. It was claimed that 

 the stock had been grown for three 

 years at Dorchester and romantic le- 

 gends of royal gardens, etc., centu- 



