96 



The Weekly Florists' Review. 



JUNE 29, 1S99. 



to children who attended the exhibi- 

 tion. These proved quite popular, over 

 400 of them being given out. The 

 plants were of varieties calculated to 

 do the best with the children, grown 

 to the bush form. A special scale of 

 points for judging these plants at the 

 November exhibition has been de- 

 vised which will do the children more 

 justice than the ordinary scale. 



The sweet pea exhibition will proba- 

 bly be held about July 19 and a very 

 I 



complete showing of this popular flow- 

 er is assured. 



The "Society's Exhibit" will consist 

 of all varieties that can be procured in 

 the market and will no doubt be the 

 means of largely increasing the inter- 

 est in this exhibition. The different 

 varieties that make up this collection 

 were distributed to members and sweet 

 pea "cranks" without the fold, and 

 very favorable reports are coming in 

 from them. R. 



Watering Carnations. 



We are just entering a long dull 

 spell so far as business is concerned, 

 but with no let up to the work. In 

 conversation with a brother florist a 

 few days ago we commented on the 

 dry weather. He remarked that it was 

 hard on carnations but he "sprinkled 

 them every night." He knew too much 

 for me to correct him so I let it go, 

 but what he was doing was exactly 

 wrong. Sprinkling every night is an 

 excellent way to kill them. It produces 

 stem-rot, and other afflictions. It 

 seems terrible to see the little plants 

 blistering in the sun from day to day, 

 but if you stir the ground frequently, 

 at least once a week, they pass through 

 the ordeal all right. I would not say 

 that during a long drought, and with 

 the means of soaking the bed six 

 inches deep at hand, a watering would 

 not be of great benefit; and as soon 

 after watering as the ground is fit, 

 hoe. But this daily sprinkling is ten 

 times worse than nothing. 



Watering Flower Beds. 



You should give your customers 

 good advice about the flower beds. In 

 dry weather a good soaking once a 

 week is good for geraniums and coleus, 

 while the cannas and caladiums can 

 scarcely have too much water. Dahlias 

 are grown quite a little now and are 

 seldom given the generous treatment 

 they need to give you a good growth 

 and plenty of flowers. They should be 

 mulched on the surface with manure 

 and twice a week given a good water- 

 ing. 



Acacias — Metrosideros. 



I am much pleased with the appear- 

 ance of our plants of Mimosa (Acacia) 

 paradoxa and the metrosideros. Cut 

 back hard they have made fine bushy 

 plants and will be three times the 

 plant they were when imported last 

 fall. They have not been shifted 



from the pots they were in last winter 

 and it is an advantage to keep them in 

 a moderate sized pot. Soon they will 

 be greatly benefited by a mulching of 

 half rotted cow manure with a 6-inch 

 pot of bone flour added to a wheelbar- 

 row load of the manure. 



Azaleas. 

 The azaleas also, after their hard cut 

 back in April and May, have made a 

 fine growth. Keep the plunging mate- 

 rial well up around the pots, to pre- 

 vent their drying out, and mulch an 

 inch or so on the surface with the 

 manure described above. 



Palms. 

 In heavily shaded palm houses with- 

 out fire heat it remains cool and often 

 damp, and not at all congenial condi- 

 tions to induce a healthy, quick 

 growth on young palms. A little fire 

 heat— just a little— with the ventilat- 

 ors open at all times, and a nice circu- 

 lation of air, will make a remarkable 

 difference in the growth of palms, 

 ferns and orchids. 



Baskets for Winter. 

 We are often asked regarding the 

 use of baskets in winter decorations. 

 There is nothing to approach Aspara- 

 gus Sprengeri for that purpose. It has 

 just the needed graceful droop, hiding 

 completely the basket in which it is 

 growing. For a basket for this pur- 

 pose there is nothing so light or suit- 

 able as a wire one lined with green 

 moss. The heavy feeding roots of the 

 plant will delight in the green moss, 

 and a dip, or even syringing, will 

 quickly reach the roots. For any par- 

 ticular purpose you can have baskets 

 any size you like, but for selling or for 

 decorating a 10-inch basket is large 

 enough. Three plants of A. Sprengeri 

 put into a 10-inch basket in July will 

 make by November baskets 30 inches 

 across. Use rather heavy soil with a 

 fourth or fifth of manure, and don't 



hang the basket in a very shady 

 house; rather a light house is best. 



Smilax. 

 Early in July is the time to renew 

 your smilax beds. There is no doubt 

 at all that to plant annually is more 

 satisfactory in every way than keep- 

 ing the old bed over. There ought to 

 be head room of 7 or 8 feet. Any old 

 house is good enough for smilax, but 

 old houses are not always easily kept 

 warm, and smilax is not profitable un- 

 less you can keep up a steady tem- 

 perature of 60 degrees in the cold 

 weather. It makes no difference 

 whether there are boards under the 

 beds or they are on the ground. Six 

 inches of soil is enough, and let the 

 soil be a heavy loam with a fourth of 

 manure. I plant eight inches between 

 plants and ten inches between rows. 



Chrysanthemums. 

 If you are a plant man, you will 

 hardly have got cleaned up and ready 

 for chrysanthemums ere this, and they 

 will do very well planted in early 

 July. Our experience is that the large 

 9 and 10-inch flowers for which we 

 ought to get $3 and $4 a dozen are 

 largely a thing of the past, at least it 

 is so with us, unless it be for some 

 special occasion, and a very limited 

 supply of these will suffice; if you 

 have none at all, you won't suffer 

 much. Chrysanthemums are still 

 wanted, but very properly the flower- 

 buying public object to paying big 

 prices for these monstrosities. 



The grower now, as well as the 

 raiser, must look for color, form and 

 habit and drop size. To speak can- 

 didly, we found last year that $1-50 

 and $2 per dozen was what our cus- 

 tomers wanted to pay, so we must 

 raise a good many mums to the square 

 foot, and raise them economically. I 

 shall always consider they are profit- 

 able so long as they sell at all, and 

 that they always will, for they are 

 beautiful. Some of us who grow poin- 

 settias, azaleas and lilies for Christ- 

 mas and Easter would have quite an 

 area of empty bench space at times 

 were it not for the chrysanthemums. 

 I have had occasion to plant one 

 bed of mums in a foot of soil for a 

 number of years simply because the 

 soil was there, and I did not go to the 

 trouble of building a bench, merely 

 renewing 4 or 5 inches of the surface 

 annually. Never have they been as 

 satisfactory as those growing in 4 

 inches of soil, and I think 3 inches 

 will grow them well enough. Let the 

 soil be fresh and rather heavy, not 

 overdone with manure — about a sixth 

 — and about a 4-inch pot of bone flour 

 to every square yard of bench. We 

 were once advised to place an inch of 

 cow manure at the bottom of the 

 bench, but did not find it a good plan. 

 In a week or so after planting, press 

 the soil down firmly all over the bed; 

 this will induce a dwarfer, stronger 

 growth. 



As a medium, low priced flower is 

 the order of the day, you should grow 

 dwarf varieties, for they require only 



