552 



The Weekly Florists^ Review. 



OCTOBER 11. 1900. 



shoots from the a.sparagus, rejecting 

 any that are old and hard or that are 

 young and unripe. Make a cut under 

 each knot or eye. Take a piece of 

 wood half as thick as a match and 

 % of an inch long and push it into the 

 cut up to the eye. Place the shoots 

 in rows close together in the sweat 

 box and when the box is full put a 

 half inch layer of sand on top of them. 

 Give a thorough watering through a 

 fine rose on your sprinkling can. Have 

 the sweat box closed all around and 

 with the necessary heat from below. 

 It requires a heat of 80 degrees in the 

 box. 



Give a light syringing twice .a day 

 and a good watering every three or 

 four days. In three or four weeks 

 you will see little green tips coming 

 up. Now begin to give the sweat box 

 a little air and reduce the heat to 75 

 degrees. When the little tips are an 

 inch or two high they will have made 

 nice roots below. Prepare a soil com- 

 posed of loam, leaf mould, sand and a 

 little clay, sifting the Ingredients to- 

 gether through a fine sieve. Care- 

 fully lift the runners out of the sand 

 in the sweat box, cut the young shoots 

 from the old ones and plant in the 

 prepared soil above described. 



PAUL KOPANKA. 



GLADIOLI. 



But a few years ago will we have 

 to look back to recall in our mother's 

 garden the gladioli bed. with scarcely 

 any other than the old common red 

 varieties, with insignificant flowers, 

 which to her and to us were a source 

 of much pleasure and satisfaction. But 

 look at a modern gladioli garden of 

 to-day. Scarcely any color or combi- 

 nation of colors can be imagined 

 which are not displayed in this flower. 

 The size of the bloom has also been 

 Increased until it would seem almost 

 impossible to improve in this direc- 

 tion, and yet year after year this is ac- 

 complished. 



The constitution of the bulb, too, is 

 being strengthened, which is quite 

 necessary, owing to the diversified 

 soils into which it is transferred from 

 the originator. These characteristics, 

 the improvement of which are most 

 essential, are, in the hands of Mr. H. 

 H. Groff, of Simcoe. Ontario, being 

 strengthened to such an extent that in 

 his productions it is almost impossible 

 to find one single creation which is 

 not superior to its parents, and every 

 one, too, worthy of a name. The vari- 

 eties and combinations of colors of 

 superior fiowers, however, are becom- 

 ing so numerous that it is folly to 

 think of naming them, and I am quite 

 satisfied to be the possessor of a col- 

 lection, every one of which will evoke 

 the question, "What is its name?" 



I have long since learned that it is 

 just as cheap to grow the best glad- 

 ioli as to be satisfied with the old and 

 common varieties; therefore it has 

 been my constant aim to try and se- 



cure the best. If this principle were 

 followed by your readers I would 

 guarantee them in a short time none 

 of the old type of flowers would re- 

 main in their garden, the space being 

 considered too valuable for them to 

 occupy. ARTHUR COWEE. 



Berlin, N. Y. 



TREATMENT OF CARNATION 

 BLOOMS. 



In last week's issue of "another 

 paper," W. N. Rudd says, the advice 

 given in "another paper" recommend- 

 ing the temperature of 40 degrees, 

 after cutting, is wrong. He does not 

 beat about the bush at all or make 

 any allowance that the other party 

 may know what he is talking about, 

 too. If it is wrong, then I am afraid 

 more of us are wrong than right. 

 Having tried every possible way to 

 keep carnations, I find a temperature 

 of 40 to 43 degrees in a dry, sweet 

 cellar, without ice, the best. They 

 will keep there for a week, and look 

 better and larger than at first, but 

 they would not be fit to sell to a re- 

 tailer, for they would go to sleep 

 very soon after they were brought 

 into a warm room. 



I maintain that after carnation? 

 have been placed in water for 1.5 or 

 30 hours in a room where the tem- 

 perature is from 50 to 60 degrees, as 

 Mr. Rudd recommends, they are not 

 fit to place on the market to be sold 

 as fresh stock. I further maintain 

 that carnations stored in a sweet, 

 dry temperature of 40 to 43 degrees 

 for 12 hours, are fit to be shipped on 

 a two or three days' journey, and still 

 be in good condition for sale. Keep- 

 ing qualities being a very important 

 feature of the carnation, I would like 

 to hear the opinion of others, not 

 having seen the article referred to 

 by Mr. Rudd. M. 



PHILADELPHIA. 



The Market. 



The cut flower market during the 

 first week in October was fairly active. 

 The quality of the stock is not equal 

 to that of last season at the same time 

 and prices are lower than then. This 

 is easily explained by the week of 

 warm, rainy weather, with its effect 

 on both stock and demand. Last Oc- 

 tober brought killing frost during the 

 first week and brisk demand at good 

 prices set in at once. 



Beauties are about the same as 

 quoted last, except that as the supply 

 increases prices sag a little on dull 

 days. Brides and Maids bring $3. 

 many fair lots go at $1.50 and $2. 

 Kaiserins bring $3 to $5. Carnations 

 are rather scarce at 50 to 75 cents a 

 lOO; occasionally a few that bring 

 more are seen. Some good valley is 

 coming in, forced for the month's 

 weddings. 



The first chrysanthemums have 

 made their appearance, one week later 

 than last year. Very few early chrys- 

 anthemums are grown here now; they 

 are not wanted, except for an occa- 

 sional wedding or tea. It is safe to 

 say that they rarely pay a fair profit 

 near this city when flowered before 

 the latter part of this month; some 

 growers say they should not bloom be- 

 fore Thanksgiving. 



The extraordinary darkness of the 

 past week (only two half-days of sun- 

 shine), combined with the heat and 

 humidity, was very bad for roses. A 

 soft, weak growth was encouraged, 

 which makes a bad foundation for the 

 winter's work. Carnations and vio- 

 lets, on the other hand, lately lifted, 

 reveled in the moisture, making new 

 roots rapidly, with no drain on their 

 strength from the rays of the sun. 



The Carnation Growir. 



Philadelphia and Montgomery coun- 

 ties possess very few wholesale car- 

 nation growers now. The general 

 florist who retails most of his product 

 grows them still, and always will 

 grow them, but Lancaster, Chester 

 and Delaware counties produce the 

 bulk of our carnations. 



It is said that the reason for this 

 migration of the divine flower is that 

 the air is purer far from the smoke of 

 the city. It is probable, however, 

 that the cheaper taxes and labor have 

 more to do with the change. This 

 change has come with wonderful 

 rapidity. Five years ago nearly all 

 the large growers near town had car- 

 nations, some of them quite a num- 

 ber of houses. In most places they 

 appear to flourish. One by one they 

 have dropped carnations entirely, until 

 now there are only one or two places 

 where these plants are grown in their 

 old-time glory. 



It is an accepted axiom that unless 

 a grower does a good business in root- 

 ed cuttings, carnations do not pay 

 here. This, put into plain English, 

 means that the out-of-town growers 

 have driven their less distant breth- 

 ren out of the market. 



Delay of Bulb Imports. 



A great deal of annoyance has been 

 experienced this fall by those local 

 firms whose imports came through 

 the New York custom house. The 

 general appraisers of that city suSpect 

 undervaluation, and the delays in con- 

 sequence of their investigations have 

 been serious. It seems that all our 

 importers do not use the Hamburg- 

 American line of steamers sailing be- 

 tween this port and Hamburg. It is 

 much more satisfactory. 



Club Meeting. 



At the October meeting of the Flor- 

 ists' Club the old offcers were re- 

 elected to serve another year. They 

 were: W. K. Harris, Pres.; John 

 Westcott, 'Vice-Pres. ; Edwin Lons- 



