ATGT'ST Hi, l:1(iO. 



The Weekly Florists' Review* 



301 



English Ivy on Trees. 



bouvardia. It has been neglected since 

 the great carnation rage, but it is a 

 beautiful, graceful flower. They are a 

 tropical plant and root after trans- 

 planting better in warm weather. If 

 they need pinching, do it at once, so 

 that they will be ready to make a 

 young growth when lifted. 



They want shade and constant syr- 

 inging for the first few days after 

 lifting, but when established want the 

 fullest light and a temperature not 

 lower than 60 degrees at any time. 

 You can get one good crop by keeping 

 them cool, but to be profitable they 

 must be warm. They want lots of 

 syringing at all times, for red spiders 

 are very fond of them. A sandy loam 

 is their soil. 



Pelargoniums. 



It is a long time since I have men- 

 tioned pelargoniums, simply because 

 they have been out of my sight. We 

 had to give them up, beautiful as they 

 are, and grow what paid better. The 

 end of this month is the best time to 

 propagate. The old plants are best 

 allowed to get rather on the dry side, 

 and they should be cut down hard. 



If you intend to keep the old plants 

 to grow on, then cut down to within 

 at least three or four inches of the 

 soil. Water the old plants very spar- 

 ingly, if any, for two or three weeks, 

 when they will have broken out with 

 many young growths on the stem. 



Then the soil can be shaken clean 

 away, the roots pruned back and 

 potted into a size smaller than they 

 were growing in. The tops which 

 were cut off root easily in the sand, 

 either the terminal growth or the next 

 few inches of growth below. 



Peter Henderson said, "If I could 

 grow only one kind of flower, it would 

 be the Show Pelargonium." As a boy 

 we also thought that a pelargonium 

 six feet in diameter and as even as 

 an umbrella, one mass of flowers, could 

 not be beaten for beauty, but they 

 want a good deal of growing, and 

 people want them at the same price 

 as a four-inch zonal geranium, so they 

 don't pay. Early well-flowered plants 

 for Easter is where they pay best for 

 this purpose. The one-year-old cut- 

 down plants are the thing. 



Perennials. 



The latter part of this mouth is a 

 good time to sow seeds of all peren- 

 nials. We did so last August, keeping 

 the young seedlings, which were trans- 

 planted into flats, in cold frames dur- 

 ing the winter, and very useful they 

 were both for selling to our customers 

 and planting in our own grounds. Any 

 perennials can now be sown. Good 

 florists' kinds are coreopsis, aquilegia, 

 hollyhock, delphinium, gaillardia, cam- 

 panula, etc. Sow antirrhinum; your 

 customers like them in their mixed 

 borders. WILLIAM SCOTT. 



ENGLISHirVY ON TREES. 



I have been interested in the corre- 

 spondence which has recently ap- 

 peared in your pages about "English 

 Ivy on Trees," and think the accom- 

 panying photograph may contain use- 

 ful suggestions in this connection. 



The use of evergreen ivy on large 

 tree trunks, particularly on deciduous 

 trees, is to be commended and may be 

 safely practiced without fear of injury 

 to any large tree unless, as has been 

 suggested, the ivy should overrun the 

 foliage of the tree, which is not very 

 likely to occur. 



It is often diflftcult to get ivy plants 

 established at the root of a large tree 

 and get it started to clinging to the 

 bark, because of the lack of moisture 

 in such positions. Make the soil very 

 rich where the vines are planted and 

 water liberally and wet the bark of the 

 tree frequently and train the growing 

 vines and secure them in position if 

 necessary. A little encouragement of 

 this kind for two or three seasons will 

 be well repaid by the effective results 

 produced after the plants are well 

 established. 



The two large buttonwood tress 

 shown in the illustration, or sycamore 

 as you call them in the west, have had 

 their trunks clothed with this thick, 

 rich covering of large leaved, ever- 

 green ivy for at least fifty years, and 

 it is not known how much longer. 

 The trees and ivy are growing and 

 flourishing, apparently enjoying each 

 other's company in the most familiar 

 congeniality. They are one of the 

 most attractive features of the qu;et 

 little village of Fallsington, Pa., espe- 

 cially while the trees are dormant, 

 and their naked white branches stand 

 out against the sky in striking co.i- 

 trast with the dense mass of verdure 

 shrouding their trunks. 



This is a very effective feature in 

 landscape ornamentation which should 

 be encouraged. 



SAMUEL C; MOON. 



.Morrisville, Pa. 



CULTIVATING FERNS ON BRICK. 



Since nature is the giver of all 

 that is beautiful, florists, perhaps, 

 more than any other class of men may 

 derive the greatest benefits by more 

 closely observing and applying her 

 laws. In many instances we fail to 

 gain the best results from the skilled 

 culture and scientific growing of 

 plants, because it savors too much 

 of the artificial and utterly disregards 

 the natural. Especially is this true 

 in the cultivation of terns, which the 

 increasing demand of late years has 

 made it necessary to devise a means 

 of propagation in a manner that will 

 insure the best development by the 

 most practical methods. 



A true lover of nature and close ob- 

 server, wandering in the dense for- 

 ests of a mountainous country, finds 

 the most delicate varieties of ferns 



