JUNE 2, 1898. 



The Weekly Florists' Review. 



the head room do not cut them back, 

 but just simply rub out the bud and 

 take up the best of the shoots that 

 will appear beneath it. In the case of 

 V. Morel, it is better if a sucker ap- 

 pears, to cut away the old plant and 

 take up the sucker in its place. This 

 variety is very troublesome on account 

 of its habit of throwing buds, but it is 

 nevertheless indispensable for many 

 purposes. C. TOTTY. 



ASPLENIUM BULBIFERUM. 



The spleenworts, as the asplenium 

 genus has been termed (from the sup- 

 posed medicinal value that ancient 

 practitioners believed them to possess), 

 form one of the largest fern groups in 

 cultivation, over 300 species having 

 been described, though it is rather 

 doubtful if this whole number is at 

 the present time in cultivation. 



As may be expected in so large a 

 genus the aspleniums are very widely 

 distributed, and in consequence we find 

 among them species requiring warm 

 house treatment, others that need com- 

 paratively little heat, and a few that 

 are quite hardy in our northern and 

 eastern states, there being more than 

 half a dozen species that are native 

 here. 



The subject of our illustration, A. 

 bulbiferum, belongs to the second di- 

 vision, or those that require only 

 moderate heat, and though in com- 

 merce for many years is by no means 

 so plentiful as its merits would justi- 

 fy. A. bulbiferum is an evergreen 

 fern from New Zealand, the home of 

 many of our finest ferns, and has fine- 

 ly divided fronds of nearly triangu- 

 lar outline, these fronds reaching a 

 length of nearly two feet in a good 

 specimen, and being nearly one foot in 

 breadth at the widest part. The plant 

 has a gracefully drooping habit, this 

 being accentuated by the weight of the 

 numerous tiny young plants that fre- 

 quently form on the upper side of the 

 fronds. 



This proliferous habit is found in 

 several of the aspleniums, but is p3r- 

 haps most marked in the species un- 

 der consideration, the fronds often be- 

 ing studded over with young plants 

 that are just showing their first leaf. 

 This peculiarity is often taken advan- 

 tage of iu the propagation of A. bul- 

 biferum, a common method being to 

 bend over these proliferous fronds and 

 then peg them down on the surface of 

 a flat filled with light sandy soil, and 

 the latter being kept moist soon in- 

 duces the young plants to form roots, 

 after which they may be readily de- 

 tached from the parent frond. This 

 operation is, of course, carried out in 

 a shaded fern house where the atmos- 

 pheric conditions are favorable for the 

 establishment of these young plants. 



The aspleniums in general produca 

 spores quite freely, and A. bulbiferum 

 is no exception to the rule, but as th? 

 spores are somewhat slow in germina- 

 tion, the process above described is 

 probably more often used. No special 

 treatment is called for in growing this 

 fern, and young plants grow nicely in 



company with Adiantum cuneatum 

 and Pteris serrulata, though possibly 

 enjoying a little more shade than Is 

 absolutely necessary for those species. 

 W. H. TAPLIN. 



PLANT NOTES. 



Mr. J. F. Kidwell, the well known 

 Chicago florist, does a general busi- 

 ness covering nearly all lines except 

 hardy stuff. In geraniums ftlr. Kid- 

 well has cut his list down to the old 

 Gen. Grant, S. A. Nutt and La Favor- 

 ite. He is growing several varieties of 

 the ivy-leaved section and finds a 



lata cristata variegata and Cyrtomium 

 falcatum. Other varieties are grown, 

 but these comprise the bulk of the 

 stock. He considers Cyrtomium falca- 

 tum one of the very best ferns for 

 ferneries, etc. A long and narrow 

 fernery in the shape of a window box 

 filled with ferns and with a Cocos 

 Weddeliana in the center, noted at the 

 time of our visit, was a very beautiful 

 object. It was filled with $2 worth of 

 ferns at wholesale rates and the cocos 

 was valued at 50 cents. This box sold 

 at retail at from $4 to $5. Mr. Kidwell 

 does not himself use all the ferns he 



Asplenium Bulbiferum. 



steadily increasing demand for them. 



A pretty sight at his place just now 

 is a bench of pot carnations of the 

 variety Garfield, all in good bloom. 

 Mr. Kidwell finds Garfield much the 

 best variety as a pot plant or for bed- 

 ding. He has tried a number of other 

 sorts, but finds none of them equal to 

 Garfield for these purposes. He used 

 to make large sales of fuchsias every 

 year, selling in the neighborhood of 

 2,000 annually, but the call has so fall- 

 en off that this year he will not have 

 more than 250. He also notes less call 

 for pelargoniums. 



He thinks that Asparagus Sprengerii 

 is an excellent thing; the principal 

 call is for specimens of some size to 

 use as house plants. He grows both A. 

 plumosus nanus and A. tenuissimus, 

 but entirely for sprays to use in floral 

 arrangements. With him the aspar- 

 agus has entirely taken the place of 

 adiantums, and he is inclined to like 

 tenuissimus rather better than plumo- 

 sus. 



He grows ferns very largely, grow- 

 ing from 50,000 to 60,000 plants this 

 year. The leading varieties are: 

 Pteris cretica albo-lineata, P. serru- 



grows, selling about half of his pro- 

 duction to other florists. 



He is growing quite a quantity of 

 Cyperus alternifolius and finds good- 

 sized plants of this very useful in dec- 

 orations. They also sell well as pot 

 plants. Another plant which he often 

 uses in decorations, and which he 

 finds the people like mixed in with 

 palms and decorative plants, is Gre- 

 villea robusta gi-own into good speci- 

 mens in from 6 to 8-inch pots. These 

 are also sometimes used for the cen- 

 ters of vases, but do not give very 

 good satisfaction when used this way. 



He is trying some of the newer can- 

 nas, but his stand-bys are Mme. Cro- 

 zy, Charles Henderson, Florence 

 Vaughan and Alphonse Bouvier. He 

 grows Egandale, but finds that the 

 dark-foliaged varieties do not sell 

 very well. 



He gi-ows a large lot of plants for 

 Easter sales and was very fortunate 

 with his lilies last season, losing only 

 about 10 per cent, of the plants from 

 disease, and he secured his bulbs from 

 four different parties. He arranges to 

 have lilies nearly all the year around, 

 as they are exceedingly useful in 



