26 



The Weekly Florists^ Revie^^. 



JUNE 9, 1S98. 



purposes, but notwithstanding this ob- 

 jection the fern in question is a very 



pretty one and by no means a difficult 

 subject to manage. W. H. TAPLIN. 



This is a uyiuy lime with 'lIu" ilorist. 

 who does a retail business, I'or while 

 he is spending all his energies to get 

 out his orders and not disappoint his 

 customers, there are likely to be many 

 future crops impaired fcr want of care- 

 ful attention. I have seen more than 

 one greenhouse man have his place a 

 perfect wilderness and a s'reat deal 

 worse by early June; the excuse was 

 "he had no time" to put things in 

 shape. A few practical thoughts oc- 

 cur to me just now, for they will be 

 practiced if it is "long after hours." 



As the bench room becomes vacant 

 you can bring the plants off the 

 shelves where you have had ivy gera- 

 niums, money vine and other droop- 

 ing plants. Your workman when or- 

 dered to go and get a liio Tower Eiffel 

 or Nutt or Mrs. Hayes gerauiums will 

 be sure to pick out the best plant.? 

 with a big truss of flowers and leave 

 many plants standing in solitary 

 groups or singly, drying out. It takes 

 but a little time to stand them up. 

 Hanging baskets, and you will have 

 lots of them till the middle rf June, 

 should be taken down and perched on 

 an inverted S or '.1-inch pot. Let no 

 straggling plants stand round; it not 

 only is bad treatment for the plants 

 but saves you much time in watering. 

 Trifling as this advice may appear, and 

 unnecessary as it should be, it is often 

 not observed or forgotten. No time 

 will be better spent than taking an 

 hour or two in doing such Y>'ork or 

 deputing to some hand the work I 

 have suggested. 



The Boston Fern. 

 Another reason why you should 

 clean up your benches and have some 

 of them to spare is so that you can de- 

 vote them to future crops as early as 

 possible. You should plant a large 

 space, according to your demands, to 

 Nephrolepis esaltata Bostoniensis. 

 The name of the plant is enough to 

 give it a serious complaint, .md why 

 the Bostoniensis should be Lacked on I 

 don't know: but neverthele.ss it is a 

 real good thing. If you don't have 

 young plants in 2 or 3-inch jiots buy 

 them and plant out in .5 inches of good 

 soil on a bench. It should be needless 

 to say that ferns, at least those which 

 we cultivate, thrive in a rather rich 



and light soil. A good mixture would 

 be two-thirds good loam and one-third 

 thoroughly decomposed hot bed 

 manure; if you do not have that pro- 

 cure some rotten spent hops. Plant 

 them about l.'^ inches apart, and before 

 you need the benches for lilies, mums 

 or late fall business your ferns will 

 have made fine plants. Lifting them 

 does not seem to make the slightest 

 difference to them, and of course they 

 continue to grow from the time you 

 lift them from the bench. There are 

 few ferns more useful than the 

 Nephrolepis tuberosa, and this is an 

 excellent plan to pursue with jt. Plant 

 out a few dozen and in the month of 

 December you will lift hundreds that 

 grow on during the winter and will 

 make fine plants in the spring. 



Look Out for Cuttings. 



Strange to say that as the bright sun 

 appears, and all the shading you can 

 put on, together with the ab;,euce of 

 heat, the cutting bed needs the most 

 watching. Copious watering must be 

 given daily and if perfect drainage to 

 the cutting is supplied then twice a 

 day is not too much. There is a good 

 deal of false reasoning about the pro- 

 pa.gating of our plants, which is mere- 

 ly the perpetuation of the same indivi- 

 dual and has no counterpart in the an- 

 imal kingdom except in the very low- 

 est animal organisms. The old idea 

 that heat caused the roots to 

 spring out is entirely errone- 

 ous. The leaf absorbs what is 

 useful and what normally goes 

 to the root, but being arrested at the 

 end of the cutting forms there its de- 



scending pieces, and if the leaves on 

 top are healthy and vigorous with na- 

 ture's vegetable absorbent, lOots will 

 appear in more or less time and you 

 have a new plant or rather the divi- 

 sion of the old one; so don't spare the 

 water on your cutting bed. Rspscially 

 is this true of cuttings like chrysan- 

 themums and poinsettias; water and a 

 moist state are their salvation. 



Violets. 



You have a correspondent for vio- 

 lets, Mr. Editor, who writes good ideas 

 in his line, but I have an idea about 

 violets in a cold frame that is worth 

 noting. About the 10th to l.'ith of 

 June plant out m frames several thou- 

 sand violets. (Marie Louise is the only 

 variety). Now I have made this a suc- 

 cess for several years and know where- 

 of I speak. To the confined florist who 

 has but a 24x16 yard this i,5 not pos- 

 sible, but to him that has room it is 

 most valuable advice. 



I would advise making the frames 

 first for several reasons. You know 

 the size of your sash in width and 

 make the bed any length you desire. 

 Plant good plants any time before the 

 2i)th of June and plant them 10 inches 

 apart. If they are rooted cuttings no 

 shade is needed and no protection of 

 any kind is necessary til! the end of 

 October; but that will largely depend 

 upon weather. You will pick violets 

 for Thanksgiving most abundantly, 

 and if the early fall is favorable you 

 will also have them for Christmas; 

 then with our ordinary winters there 

 will be an unprofitable season. But 

 what are they costing you? — nothing. 

 You will have a grand crop again for 

 Easter and your violets from cold 

 frames will be the violets of the late 

 spring months. Much could be done 

 to insure a continual crop even during 

 the dark and frozen days of winter, 

 but it would be too much trouble to 

 depend upon them for all vinter vio- 

 lets. 



The several reasons why they should 

 have a frame are that you know exact- 

 ly how to plant them. If when first 

 planting a hot and dry time should oc- 

 cur they are easily shaded. You will 

 not trample over them in building 

 your frames, and last but not least 

 you can put the sash on thera early 

 enough to insure a good Thanksgiving 

 crop. WM. SCOTT. 



CHRYSANTHEMUM NOTES. 



Boxes. 



Growing plants in boxes is one of the 

 most economical methods of growing 

 mums of which I know. The boxes 



we use have been described before in 

 tliese columns so I will not go into de- 

 tails. They are 4 feet long and G inches 

 deep. In these we grow ."i plants, tak- 

 ing 2 stems from each plant the flowers 

 being of Al quality. If quantity, more 



