AUGUST 18, 1898. 



The Weekly Florists* Review. 



299 



Roman Hyacinths. 



If not already here they will soon 

 be arriving, and the paper y/hite nar- 

 cissus will soon follow. It i.*^ not prof- 

 itable to plant but a few now, and the 

 bulk of the bulbs will have to be kept 

 over for a month or two. It i.^ best to 

 unpack at once, keeping the bulbs in 

 boxes or flats, and not too many to- 

 gether. A cool, perfectly dry cellar 

 would be an ideal place to store the 

 bulbs till you wanted to box them. 



Once more let me say, don't put these 

 bulbs into unwieldy sized boxes of a 

 dozen different shapes and dimensions. 

 A box 2 feet long. 1 foot wide and 3 

 inches deep, inside measure, is large 

 and deep enough for the welfare of the 

 bulbs, and quite as heavy when full of 

 damp soil as any man wants to lug 

 around a greenhouse. Itomans plant- 

 ed now can, without any great forc- 

 ing, be had in flower by early Novem- 

 ber, and are usually then in good de- 

 mand. A box the size I have described 

 will hold ."Ml bulbs of Romans without 

 any crowding. 



When first planted give them a thor- 

 ough watering, and when it has soaked 

 in cover the flats with 3 inches of 

 sandy soil. If you can place the flats 

 in the shade of a building or fence, so 

 much the better, for they will need 

 less water, but wherever they are they 

 should, unless it is a very wet time, 

 receive a good soaking once a week. If 

 allowed to be dry they will make roots 

 slowly, and a longer time will elapse 

 before you can bring them in. 



The paper white narcissus require 

 just the same treatment, but they root 

 much quicker, and when you see their 

 green tops showing througn the 3 

 inches of covering you can bring them 

 in. I would say, however, that desir- 

 able as it may be to have a continuous 

 succession of these well-known flowers 

 it is at Christmas that the paper 

 white is most useful, and that seems 

 the time when they are at their best. 

 and to obtain them then requires much 

 less forcing, which greatly helps their 

 quality. The early part of September 

 is about the right time to put the 

 bulbs in the flats. 



Freezias. 



The bulbs I have seen arrive of these 

 are very flne. Some can be kept lor a 

 later planting, but half your lot may 

 as well be planted at once. They have 



not been very profitable with us for 

 several years, but it is a sweet little 

 fiower and the bulbs are now so inex- 

 pensive that a thousand or two are 

 worth growing for your own trade. 

 For cutting you can grow them in 

 flats, and it is well to have a number 

 in 4 or 5-inch pots, for they are often 

 asked for. 



To have a good looking pot. place 

 the bulbs 2 inches apart. They need 

 no covering of soil or other material 

 above the soil in which they are plant- 

 ed, as do hyacinths, tulips, etc., be- 

 cause they make leaf and root growth 

 at the same time, or nearly so. If you 

 put the boxes or pots in a frame out 

 of doors, a covering of half an inch of 

 leaf mould or spent hops will help to 

 keep the soil moist, but a bench in a 

 house that is shaded, with lots of ven- 

 tilation, will do very well to start them 

 and I believe that plants in a green- 

 house do invariably get more faithful 

 and regular attention than those in a 

 frame. 



I said a shaded house to start them, 

 because you would not have to be so 

 often watering them, but a.", soon as 

 they have made 2 inches ol growth 

 they want perfect light, plenty of air 

 and a cool temperature; then they 

 make a short, sturdy leaf growth with 

 their flowers above their foliage, which 

 is the only way a freezia should be 

 seen. 



Cinerarias and Calceolarias. 



A second sowing of cinerarias should 

 be made towards end of the month. 

 These will come in for Easter and 

 about the same time sow calceolarias. 

 Sow only the best strain and never at- 

 tempt to grow of either more in quan- 

 tity than your trade demands or than 

 you can take the best of care of. Both 

 are showy cheap plants, very orna- 

 mental if well grown, but an abomina- 

 tion if poorly grown. The early sown 

 cinerarias that will be now in 4-i'nch 

 pots would do finely in a frame shaded 

 only from the fiercest rays of the sun 

 from 10 a. m. to 4 p. m., about the 

 same as you would treat cyclamen, but 

 if that is not convenient a bench where 

 there is plenty of fresh air and the 

 glass slightly shaded is safest. Com- 

 mon plant as the cineraria is. there is 

 nothing more easily spoiled by neglect 

 or foolish watering. If allowed to get 

 wilting dry they lose their bottom and 

 largest leaves, and if overwatered they 



die, and when they die they are dead. 

 There is no resurrection for them. 

 Many plants may suffer by overwater- 

 ing, and recover, but when a cineraria 

 droops from being water soaked it is 

 good-by forever. 



Chrysanthemums. 

 If you put in a good batch of cut- 

 tings middle of July for pans and 

 benches that are near the glass, you 

 will soon be potting them off if you 

 have kept the bed thoroughly soaked. 

 For several seasons we put the rooted 

 cuttings from the propagating bench 

 at once into the pans, but foi.nd last 

 year a better plan was to pot them all 

 into 2-inch pots and when sufficiently 

 rooted in the little pots, select plants 

 of an equal growth and strength for 

 each pan. A 9 and 10-inch pan we 

 found the most salable size. Nothing 

 but dwarf varieties of good habit are 

 any good for this purpose. Ivory, Lin- 

 coln, Bergmaiin, Bonnaffion, Maud 

 Dean (rather too tall) and Nemesis are 

 good for this purpose. If you do not 

 sell these pans there is still a good 

 profit, for you will be sure to be glad 

 of a lot of compact grown, medium- 

 sized blooms that have cost you but 

 little time to grow and occupied only 

 a relatively small space. No shade for 

 mums anywhere after once rooted, 

 WM. SCOTT. 



AMONG PHILADELPHIA GROWERS. 



Wm. K. Harris. 



William K. Harris has an interest- 

 ing and economically run plant of 75,- 

 000 square feet of glass at Fifty-fifth 

 street and Springfield avenue. West 

 Philadelphia. Only fifteen men are re- 

 quired to handle the stock ot decora- 

 tive and flowering plants, chrysanthe- 

 mums, bulbs and a few carnations. 



A very flne shed, large and roomy, 

 extends the entire length ot the place, 

 the houses opening into it from each 

 side. Steam is used for heating, the 

 fuel being coke. The special feature 

 is the plate glass. There are two 

 houses built of this expensive com- 

 modity, one of French, the other of 

 American plate. The latter is the 

 cheaper and is considered fully equal 

 to the impoited in quality. It is pop- 

 ularly supposed this glass is used part- 

 ly as an advertisement. "The only flor- 

 ist who uses plate glass," said in a 

 tone of awe. But Mr. Mills, Mr. Har- 

 ris' foreman, denies the truth of this 

 impresssion. He sums up the merits 

 of plate glass in this way: It is very 

 durable, requiring a sledge hammer 

 to break it; it is very light; oranges 

 can be fruited to perfection in such a 

 house; it is very warm; on a raw 

 morning when an ordinary house of 

 double-thick glass can scarce be kept 

 at 60 degrees with half a dozen steam 

 pipes turned on, the plate glass house 

 stands at that temperature with but 

 two pipes and the air. moreover, has a 

 soft, balmy feeling peculiar to spring — 

 and plate glass. 



