184 



The Weekly Florists' Review. 



JULY 21. 1898. 



News Items. 



Recent visitors were Mr. Roach, rep- 

 resenting J. B. Rice & Co.; Mr. Goep- 

 pinger, representing Andre Leroy & 

 Co.; N. Sluis iV Son. of Sliiis & Groot, 

 Germany: H. M. Wall, of Brooklyn; L. 

 L. Frazner, of the Brett Lithograph 

 Co., New York, all of whom report 

 good business. 



We do not hear of many who con- 

 template going to the Omaha conven- 

 tion. Brother Shaw's eloquent descrip- 

 tions are more enticing than an .S- 

 inch mum at Thanksgiving or a vase 

 of long stemmed Beauties at holidays, 

 and as business is and will be si ick for 

 several weeks, the boys .should hur:-y 

 up and get in the tail end of the band 

 wagon from Milwaukee, as the poet 

 Laureate Floriate (J. A. S.) sugge.st?. 

 X. V. z. 



SLINGERLANDS, N. Y. 



Goldring Bros, are making conside"- 

 able changes in their plant by discon- 

 tinuing the cultivation of palms and 

 terns for the trade and devoting the 

 houses to roses and carnations, which 

 are already grown extensively, but not 

 in sufficient quantity to meet the home 

 demand, so that now the idea is to 

 glow continuous crops, which, with 

 with their extensive range of glass, it 

 is easy to do, as Fred Goldring re- 

 marked that it brought some return 

 right along, instead of having to wait 

 months before getting anything from 

 the houses. 



I notice Perle does well planted on 

 side benches of the Beauty houses, of 

 which there are four. Separate houses 

 are grown of Bride and Bridesmaid. 

 Kaiserin is a most popular rose and 

 maintains the splendid reputation it 

 has secured for itself both as a summer 

 and an all season rose. The shaded 

 ends of the houses are partitioned off 

 and used for ferns such as adiantums 

 for cutting, also for eucharis. of which 

 there are several beds which have pro- 

 duced four crops during the year, each 

 crop coming in at the festive seasons. 



At time of my visit a heavy crop of 

 weeds was being lifted from the violet 

 beds. The plants were completely hid- 

 den, and I thought should have been 

 weeded earlier, but Fred says he be- 

 lieves it has benefited the young 

 plants in affording them shading. I 

 am inclined to take as gospel any- 

 thing he tells me regarding the culti- 

 vation of this chaste flower when he 

 can show by actual figures a record of 

 over 200.000 blooms picked during this 

 season just closed from four houses, 

 each 100 feet long, with two beds in 

 each house, each bed 4 feet wide. 



Jupiter Pluvius was very generous 

 early in the season. A visit from him 

 would be appreciated now, as ground 

 is very dry and stock planted out needs 

 rain, yet violets, carnations and asters 

 are thriving; stocky stuff. In asters. 

 Queen of the Market and Vick's 

 Branching are earliest, whilst Semple's 



are best for second cutting. Among 

 carnations I noted a red Scott, the va- 

 riety named Saratoga and a white 

 seedling particularly good. 



A desideratum is the hardy sweet 

 pea Lathyrus alba, in that it is at its 

 best early and late. The heat affects 

 it, but it comes up nobly in the fall. 

 The spike is large and pure white, with 

 some fragrance. It is propagated best 

 from cuttings. Almost an acre of sweet 

 peas Is grown from seed for retail 

 trade. Extra Early Blanche Ferry 

 commenced to bloom when 6 inches 

 tall and Blanche Ferry ordinary stock 

 is unequaled by any other variety for 

 attractiveness. Countess of Radnor is 

 a grand lavender and sells at sight. 

 Emily Henderson, white, and Firefly, 

 scarlet, are the leaders. Of course 

 there are a host of others, which are 

 first class for a collection. A fine com- 

 panion to the Lathyrus is the hardy 

 white phlox. Pearl, very free and fra- 

 grant, and white flowers are always 

 useful. Cosmos Dawn is .keeping up 

 its good name. 



One large house is devoted entirely 

 to boarders, and as pret'.y a lot of 

 Kentias are growing in another house 

 as one could wish to >ee. W. M. 



OGDENSBURG, N. Y. 



When at Mrs. Thos. Lawrence's re- 

 cently I could not help admiring the 

 capital arrangement she has for heat- 

 ing, and with thermostat accompani- 

 ment. To me it seemed rather super- 

 fluous, but was informed that the ther- 

 mometer went down to 40 degrees be- 

 low, with a strong westerly wind blow- 

 ing, once or twice last winter, and no 

 trouble was experienc?d. One would 

 hardly think this possible, visiting at 

 this season, w-hen everything around 

 this well kept place is full of life, 

 grand plants of Clematis Ja::kmannii, 

 ten years old, a mass of bloom. In ad- 

 dition to the range of glass which will 

 be added to during the summer, there 

 are about six acres devoted to trees 

 and small fruits. 



Mi-s. Lawrence is ably assisted in the 

 business by her son. She sends out 

 quite an attractive catalogue for ama- 

 teurs. W. M. 



WASHINGTON. 



The growers are becoming se.-i ju.ily 

 alarmed about their carnation crops, 

 as the high temperatures continue 

 without accompanying showers to 

 moisten the much parched earth. 



Mr. Wni. R. Smith, superintendent of 

 th Botanical Gardens, has been seri- 

 ously ill with hemorrhages, but is re- 

 ported as improving. 



Mr. J. L. Loose and wife sailed last 

 week for Antwerp, the trip to be one 

 of business and pleasure. Before sail- 

 ing he closed one of his stores for the 

 summer. 



Several stores have followed suit and 

 have closed for the summer season. 

 W. H, K. 



CUCUMBERS. 



Your worthy correspondent. Wm. 

 Scott, in his article on cucumbers, is 

 under the impression that the cucum- 

 ber must be fertilized. If W. S. wanted 

 to grow them for seed then by all 

 means fertilize, but if to cut them for 

 market then don't fertilize; he will 

 then get a far greater percentage in a 

 given time than otherwise, as the seed 

 forming in the cucumber draws the vi- 

 tality of the plant; by not fertilizing 

 you get a good straight cucumber; it 

 also sells and eats much better than 

 one with the seed in. H. SWIFT. 



Though I am not a professor I .igree 

 with Mr. Fancourt that the hours spent 

 in fertilizing the flowers could have 

 been utilized to better advantage. Cu- 

 cumbers not fertilized make much 

 more even and uniform fruits and will 

 not have the big swelling at the end. 

 If Mr. Scott intends to grow cucumbers 

 again I would advise him to spend a 

 few minutes twice a week in picking 

 off the male flowers from the vines. 

 This will prevent fertilization and will 

 much improve the quality of \^e fruit. 



This is not theory, but a conclusion 

 reached from personal experience in 

 one of the largest fruit growing es- 

 tablishments in England. Here we 

 were ordered to keep all male flowers 

 off the vines except in one house, 

 where fertilizing was done to secure 

 seed, and these seed bearing fruits of 

 the Telegrpph had the same shape as 

 those seen in the picture of Mr. Scott's 

 vines. GUNNAR TEILMANN. 



Marion, Ind. 



DETROIT, MICH. 



Mr. Stephen Taplin was the only 

 florist who suffered loss from the hail- 

 storm July 3. The storm struck his 

 place with full force, some of the 

 houses on the side facing the storm 

 having nearly all the glass broken, 

 while the loss on others was from one- 

 third to two-thirdo. Factories, stores 

 and private houses lost heavily in 

 broken skylights and windows, but no 

 other florists happened to be in the 

 path of the storm. Many shrubs and 

 young trees suffered badly. 



BURLINGTON, VT. 



John Wilson is busy putting in new 

 benches and planting, so as to be fin- 

 ished by convention time. H''. with 

 others, Is waiting for the announce- 

 ment of a cheap rate. Let it come 

 along. 



• WASHINGTON. D. C— Mr. and Mrs. 

 J. Louis Loose sailed on the American 

 line steamer Kensington July 13 for 

 an European tour. They will return 

 in September. 



A CHANCE for the young men in 

 the trade. See our prize competition 

 on another page. 



