46 



The Weekly Florists' Review. 



JUNE 15, 1S93. 



them in rows 10 inches one way and 

 14.4 the other, which aggregate about 

 1 foot. We grow them with 6, S and 

 10 shoots. The only varieties we grew 

 were Willie Garrett and Storm King. 

 It these plants are planted out, say the 

 first of September, they should begin 

 blooming about the middle of January, 

 perhaps a little earlier. You can, how- 

 ever, regulate them and hold them 

 back or bring them forward according 

 as 3'ou want them by withholding wa- 

 ter and lowering temperature, but care 

 should be taken that they do not get 

 too dry. Of course, dahlias will do 

 better with not too high temperature, 

 say of 45 to 50 degrees at night; it 

 matters little what the temperature is 

 in the day time, providing it is sun 

 heat and not fire heat and ventila- 

 tion. 



We have been cutting flowers for 

 the past two months from Storm King 

 and Willie Garrett; stems 2V. to 3% 

 feet long and the flowers 3 to 4 inches 

 in diameter. In cutting your flowers 

 cut the branches clear down to the 

 plants, then it is better to allow the 

 top shoots to grow two eyes from each 

 shoot where it has been cut off and 

 disbud the lower ones and the upper 

 eyes of shoots will of course be strong- 

 er. We propose planting several thou- 

 sand dahlias this coming year, as from 

 our experience we find that they are 

 more profitable than carnations, as 

 we can cut as many flowers during the 

 season and we get about five times as 

 much for the flowers. Of course, to 

 get good prices first-class stock must 

 be grown. There is only one white 

 that I would recommend for profitable 



growing, namely, Storm King; John 

 Walker is fairly good. In fact, it is a 

 somewhat finer flower, but it is a very 

 slow grower and a shy bloomer and is 

 not profitable for growing under glass. 



In pink, A. D. Livoni we have found 

 to be the best; in white, Storm King; 

 yellow. Queen of Yellows; red, Willie 

 Garrett. In growing dahlias for Eas- 

 ter it is more profitable to plant roots 

 in the benches which have been occu- 

 pied by chrysanthemums, as in that 

 way you oan get your full crop for 

 Easter. Of course the benches which 

 you have forced for Christmas would 

 be kept right on blooming, but Easter 

 would be a little too late for them. The 

 next main crop coming earlier would 

 probably be a third crop about Easter. 

 It will thus be seen that from 18 to 30 

 dahlias can be grown on one plant 

 during the season, and we never have 

 sold dahlias at less than $10 per 100, 

 while at Christmas and Easter fine 

 specimens will bring 25 to 50 cents 

 each wholesale. The Cactus dahlia 

 would be very fine for forcing, making 

 magnificent flowers; loose, fluffy and 

 delicate, but they are not hardy 

 enough. They bruise so readily that 

 after a long shipment they would be 

 practically worthless. Some of our 

 decorative varieties are very fine. 



For general purposes, however, a 

 Show or Fancy dahlia, preferably a 

 Show dahlia, on account of being solid 

 color, bright, perfectly full to the cen- 

 ter, but rather loose, is greatly pre- 

 ferred, for they will last when cut from 

 one to two weeks, while the Cactus 

 dahlias will last for only as many 

 days. W. P. PEACOCK. 



Callas. 



I was asked the other day as to the 

 best method of carrying calla lilies 

 through the summer. This is a rather 

 old-fashioned subject, but it is evi- 

 dently new to some one. 



The young offsets that were taken off 

 the old bulbs and started growing in 

 2%-inch pots during winter should 

 now be shifted into 5-inch pots and 

 plunged out-of-doors in the broad sun 

 and copiously watered during summer. 

 They will make fine, sturdy flowering 

 plants for next winter, and usually 

 these young plants flower quite early 

 in the fall. Old plants that have 

 flowered all winter in 6 or 7-inch pots 

 we lay on their sides out of doors and 

 let them go perfectly dry, shaking off 



the soil in early September and start- 

 ing again in 5-inch pots. If you have 

 plenty of room pot into tae 7 or 8-inch 

 that you intend to grow them in all 

 winter; it win save labor. 



Some 20 years ago, when the rich- 

 ardia was more esteemed both as a 

 conservatory plant and as a cut flower, 

 we planted out a number of strong 

 plants that had been grown all winter 

 in 6-inch pots, planting in a strong, 

 deep soil. They made gigantic plants, 

 with leaves five feet high, and during 

 the winter they gave us many flowers, 

 sometimes three or four at one time. 

 They needed a 10-inch pot. It is very 

 easy to have these large calla plants, 

 but is it desirable? You will have to 

 decide this question yourself. With us 

 it is not desirable to have such large 



plants; it is flowers only that we 

 want. 



Decorative Plants for the Lawn. 



There is a marked increase this year 

 in the demand for large palms for 

 summer decoration and you must, if 

 a retailer, be in line to supply the de- 

 mand. Palms for decoration of halls 

 and churches are not much asked for 

 during the summer, and sometimes a 

 good price can be obtained as the rent- 

 al of plants for the four summer 

 months. I would not advise the loan- 

 ing of good palms to any "summer 

 resort," or where the "public" has ac- 

 cess, but there are certain customers 

 who are willing to pay almost the 

 value of the plants for use of them 

 for the summer and where they would 

 be largely under your eye. A sale is 

 always to be preferred, but where you 

 cannot sell, and to accommodate a 

 good customer, a loan of a handsome 

 palm for the summer is seldom un- 

 satisfactory. 



Burning is the chief danger, and 

 burning is the result of dryness at the 

 root. For a lawn, or on a veranda, 

 the palms look better if in a larger 

 jar or pot than we grow them in, and 

 without shifting them permanently if 

 our ordinary 10 or 12-inch pot is 

 placed inside a larger fancy jar and 

 the space between is packed with 

 green moss, the whole affair will not 

 only look better but it will be most 

 beneficial as a preventive of the soil 

 getting parched. 



The largest class of commercial 

 lorists are those who grow and re- 

 tail their produce, and all these men 

 and women should put on a good 

 front. I don't mean this in the same 

 sense as the slang of the street, which 

 means "cheek" or "gall," but I mean 

 a good attractive appearance. If you 

 are catering to the public direct show 

 them the goods you have. It is far 

 better advertising than newspapers or 

 •irculars. What can look better or at- 

 tract more notice from people of good 

 taste than some fine specimen palms, 

 pandanus or ficus? 



In a warm shaded house during 

 summer is the place to run these 

 plants up quickly with an unnatural 

 tender growth which may render them 

 fit to sell to a brother florist but very 

 much unfits them for future use as 

 decorative plants or for moulding 

 them into specimens for outside use. 

 Get them outside, not bunched to- 

 gether, but stand them singly over your 

 lawn or whatever is the forefront of 

 your premises. If partially shaded by 

 trees so much the better but that is 

 not really essential. From actual ex- 

 perience the past few years with the 

 following plants stood in the broad 

 sun I have had nothing but the best 

 results, and it has been the means of 

 forming fine plants which never would 

 have been of the same texture and 

 symmetry if kept continuously under 

 glass: Pandanus utilis, Araucaria ex- 

 celsa (best shaded), Latania borbon- 

 ica, all the phoenix. Kentias Belmo- 

 reana and Forsteriana. and all the 



