568 



The Weekly Florists* Review. 



MAT 4, 1893. 



a little surprised that this simple con- 

 trivance should have received a prize, 

 but it is useful, cheap and effective, 

 and while what Mr. Ewing says may 

 be true, that he has used the same de- 

 vice for twenty years, I still claim it 

 was original with me, as I never saw 

 or heard of one being used until 1 

 had them made. 



It is true, as Mr. iJwing says, that 

 the inventive genius displayed 

 throughout was not of a very high or- 

 der; but one must recollect that a de- 

 vice that possessed any real value 

 would be patented by its owner and 

 thus be barred from competition. I do 

 not think it is true that the florist 

 trade is at all backward in inventing 



and adopting improved methods and 

 labor-saving machinery, as the records 

 of the patent office will show and com- 

 parison of present conditions with the 

 past will fully demonstrate. 



The Review, in my opinion, has done 

 a good service in giving to the trade 

 the simple devices that were present- 

 ed in competition. It was certainly 

 not intended to show off the inventive 

 faculty of the profession. To do that 

 patented and patentable inventions 

 should not be excluded. But to in- 

 clude such would simply give them a 

 free advertisement and that would be 

 foreign to the intention or design of 

 any paper. W. R. SHELMIRE. 



Primulas. 



If you want any good early and 

 large primulas for November and De- 

 cember sales, you should sow the seed 

 not later than the middle of May. The 

 Ohinese primulas do not like heat, 

 or a close, stuffy place, at any time, 

 and there is no better place to sow 

 the seed, or at least to place the pan 

 as soon as they are up, than the 

 frame, and this is the best place in 

 which to summer over the plants. 



Hydrangeas. 



At this time of the year we are apt 

 to neglect many things that are over- 

 looked in the rush of business. As 

 soon as the young hydrangeas are 

 large enough to shift into a 4-inch pot 

 they should have their tops pinched 

 out and be plunged in a frame where 

 protection from late frosts can be 

 given if necessary; and never let them 

 get crowded; a good, sturdy, stout 

 growth should be encouraged from the 

 start. 



Keep the large hydrangeas, that are 

 flowering or about to flower, well 

 syringed. A few years ago we al- 

 lowed a lot of fine plants to get cov- 

 ered with red spider just because 

 syringing was neglected. This little 

 pest attacks the flowers sooner than it 

 does the leaves. The man whose duty 

 it was to water these hydrangeas was 

 much to blame, but where is the 

 workman that will notice all these 

 little things? The boss must keep his 

 eyes open all the time, and if he 

 scrutinizes all of his possessions at 

 least once a day his workmen will 

 absorb a little of his activity and "get 

 a move on." 



Poinsettias. 



Someone wrote the other day that 

 cuttings of poinsettia from the old 

 plants that had been started and 

 placed outside made better plants 

 than cuttings grown inside. Whoever 

 wrote it was perfectly right. It is, of 

 course, too early to put the old plants 

 out yet; the first of June is time 

 enough, but the cuttings that are 

 made outside are short-jointed, hard- 

 er-wooded and will root better and 

 make better plants. 



April 1, or about that, is our date 

 for starting up the old plants, but 

 even if not yet done it is time enough, 

 as cuttings made in June and July 

 will make the very best pot plants. 

 When you have obtained all the cut- 

 tings you need from the old plants, 

 and you have a bench to spare, you 

 can plant them and they will give you 

 good flowers and a lot of them. Grown 

 in pots, these old plants are sure to 

 lose their leaves. A poinsettia will 

 flourish in a lower temperature if 

 planted out than it will if grown in 

 pots. But the largest sale with us is 

 for those in pots, and so we must 

 grow them that way. 



Asparagus Sprengeri. 



I noticed this winter an increased 

 and continuous demand for Asparagus 

 Sprengeri. If you are not supplied 

 with young plants, you should get 

 some and be prepared, as soon as 

 space permits, to plant a good many 

 in boxes for next winter's use. A 

 hanging basket is handsome, but not 

 a convenient or economical way of 

 growing it. 



Perhaps a box at the end of a house, 

 a few feet from the ground, will be 



found a good place, but where a quan- 

 tity is wanted it is better to occupy 

 the middle of a house, where no pipes 

 are in the way. You can have the 

 boxes the length of the space between 

 the paths, say six or seven feet. These 

 boxes should be eight or nine inches 

 wide and seven inches deep, and the 

 plants placed fifteen to eighteen 

 inches apart. Raise the boxes by some 

 means two or three feet from the 

 ground and place them three feet 

 apart; the fine sprays will then have 

 a chance to grow and droop down 

 without getting mussed up by the 

 soil or sand, as they do when grown 

 on a bench; and by this method you 

 give the sprays room for perfect de- 

 velopment. 



Asters. 



If you have a bench of carnations 

 that is not paying or that has seen its 

 best days, plant it with asters. I 

 recommended sowing some of Semple's 

 varieties in February. There is al- 

 ways a demand for good asters when 

 they first come in, and those grown 

 under glass are pure and clean and 

 fine flowers. 



No more manure or fertilizer should 

 be added to the soil in the bench, for 

 these asters grow very strongly, and 

 plenty of syringing should be given 

 daily or you will get red spider, or, 

 what is worse, thrips. My experience 

 is that no side bench will do for these 

 asters; they will want at least three 

 feet of head-room. 



To allow plants to become infested 

 with red spider is the least excusable 

 of the florist's failings. Rust on car- 

 nations is excusable, and it can be 

 eradicated only by a year or two of 

 care in airing, watering and supply- 

 ing conditions least favorable to the 

 growth of the fungus. But when fly 

 can be killed by tobacco smoke and 

 red spider by cold water, it is an evi- 

 dence of willful neglect when plants 

 suffer from their attacks. 



In the old days when a brass 

 syringe was used for spraying it was 

 right down hard work, but now, when 

 all syringing can be done by the skill- 

 ful manipulation of a three-quarter- 

 inch hose, it is simply a pleasure, and 

 as pleasant for the rural gardener to 

 wield a hose as for Sousa to jerk the 

 baton. WM. SCOTT. 



HEATING. 



Mr. E. Buettner, Park Ridge, 111., 

 uses a steam pump for watering, and 

 is now putting in a 30 horse-power 

 horizontal boiler to take the place of 

 the 15 horse-power upright he had 

 been using. It is believed that the 

 boiler of larger capacity will be as 

 economical to run as the smaller one, 

 as steam can be kept up in it with a 

 low flre, while in the smaller one a 

 sharp flre was necessary. And he re- 

 lies upon his steam boiler for extra 

 heat when needed in any of the 

 houses. 



His general heating is by hot water, 

 but he has a steam main run through 

 his shed with leads to each house, and 

 it is a quick job to put a run of steam 



