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The Weekly Florists' Review. 



SEPTEMBER 21, [8?9 



COLD-FRAMES. 



(.From the Florists' Manual, by William Scott.] 



What we call a cold-frame (low 

 walls of wood or brick supporting 

 some glazed sash) is a miniature 

 greenhouse without any artificial heat. 

 .Every grower should know the great 

 value of them and how much they add 

 to his capacity for raising many plants 

 and temporarily increase the area of 

 his glass. There are times, especially 

 with the man who raises bedding 

 plants, when his place is fearfully con- 

 gested and the addition of another 

 thousand feet of bench room is the 

 greatest relief. 



Cold-frames are used for many pur- 

 poses. In the fall and winter for pan- 

 sies, to store away hybrid perpetual 

 roses, to winter pot carnations that 

 are wanted for next summer's bloom, 

 to winter many herbaceous plants that 

 have been raised from seed the pre- 

 vious August, to protect Roman hya- 

 cinths, and also the Dutch hyacinths 

 are as well under glass where they 

 don't get so wet, and the severe frost 

 does not crack the pots. 



Some of our common little vase 

 plants we winter in cold-frames, viz.: 

 the sedums, lysimachia (money vine) 

 and the variegated glechoma. In the 

 spring these frames are of still great- 

 er use; not only do they relieve our 

 crowded benches, but many plants do 

 far better in them than in a green- 

 house. In the frames you have per- 

 fect light, an abundance of air, and 

 on fine warm clays the sashes can be 

 removed when full exposure to sun- 

 light and air can be given. 



Carnation growers can put their 

 young plants into the cold-frames 

 about April the first and a few weeks 

 in them will condition the plants for 

 the open field much better than a 

 lofty hot house. By the middle of 

 April all the annuals in flats or plant- 

 ed can go into the cold-frames, and 

 many of our bedding plants will be 

 greatly benefited by a few weeks in 

 the cold-frames. It is a far better 

 place for geraniums than a shaded 

 house without fire heat. 



In the summer, without the sash, we 

 find great use for the frames for 

 plunging out our azaleas, acacias, 

 hardy roses and many plants that are 

 kept in pots during summer. Boards 

 fastened up to keep your plunging ma- 

 terial in place may do as well, but the 

 frame is all ready to hand. 



I had forgotten one very important 

 use and that is for the longiflorum 

 lilies in the fall. Both the Bermuda 

 and the Japan grown are potted and 

 placed in the cold-frames, and in case 

 of very heavy rains are rnuch better 

 covered with the sash. Those you keep 

 for Easter and later flowering must 

 be kept in the frame till New Year's 

 or later, and there is where your cold- 

 frame will come in right, in fact is a 

 necessity. 



The ground on which these frames 

 are stood should never be in a place 

 where surface water will stand, even 

 if only during heavy rains. If it is not 

 a naturally dry position make provi- 



sion to carry off the rains from the 

 surrounding surface. Where a large 

 lot of sash is used for this purpose 

 some of the frames at least can be per- 

 manent. By that I mean they can be 

 built of cedar or cypress posts (4x4 is 

 a good size) driven into the ground 

 every 8 feet for the back and front 

 line of the frame, which can be any 

 desired length. I have one of 30 sash 

 in length devoted to violets. Where 

 they are built to fixed posts in this 

 way it is best to use 2-inch plank for 

 the walls. Where the frame is mov- 

 able and is made in length to fit three 

 or four sash, one inch lumber will do. 

 The sashes are made of various sizes, 

 but it is wrong to have them an awk- 

 ward size; 6 feet long by 3 feet 6 

 inches wide is large enough, and some 

 prefer 3 feet wide. 



For a great majority of our frames, 

 whether permanent or portable, the 

 height at back is 18 inches and the 

 front 12 inches, giving the sash a slope 

 of 6 inches to the sun; that is plenty. 

 For a few larger plants we have some 

 frames that are 2 feet at back and 18 

 inches in front. I prefer the cypress 

 sash, butting the glass. Always use 

 double thick glass; these sash get a 

 good deal of handling and occasionally 

 one blows off in a gale. They run 

 risks of breakage far more than a 

 fixed roof; they are moved repeatedly 

 to ventilate and are raised to enable 

 you to water, so the double thick glass 

 will save the extra price in glass in 

 one year. 



Always have a rafter for every sash 

 to rest on and slide on. They are 

 very simply made by nailing a piece 

 of pine 2x1 on to another piece of pine 

 4x1, and have a hook and eye for 

 every sash, to keep them from blow- 

 ing off in a storm. There are always 

 enough spare sash in the dark winter 

 days so that you can overhaul the 

 whole lot, mend them where needed 

 and give them a coat of paint. And 

 then when you put on the sash over a 

 young batch of carnations there won't 

 be a glass out in each sash, which you 

 often see decorated with a piece of 

 board, and which blows off to make a 

 hole in the next sash, to chill or drown 

 out the plants beneath, to disseminate 

 profanity and vex all around. Some 

 men may take all the little accidents 

 that ensue from neglect quite placidly, 

 but depend upon it when they do they 

 are sluggish, good natured fellows that 

 won't get far ahead. 



A hail storm that knocks out all 

 your glass is no cause to get irritable. 

 The writer has been through it and 

 knows how it feels. It can't be help- 

 ed, no power could hinder it, and 

 therefore you should be cheerful and 

 clean up and find out the best place 

 to buy glass as quick as possible. But 

 these so-called accidents which are 

 purely neglect are what vex a man. 



A good part of your frames should be 

 made to take four sash, because they 

 are what are used on the hotbeds. 

 You seldom need those deeper than 18 

 inches by 1 foot and the ends should 

 be fastened to a 2x4 post in the four 

 corners. All sash should have a strip 



of iron running across the middle on 

 the underside, to which each bar 

 should be fastened with a screw. It 

 helps greatly to strengthen the sash 

 and keep it from winding. The strip 

 of iron can be %x& inch. In summer 

 when of little use see that the sash 

 are laid or stood on timbers, off the 

 ground, not winding, and that a door 

 or some such thing be stood up and 

 tacked to the last one covering the 

 glass, so that your sons or sons' 

 friends when showing you how they 

 can curve a ball will be satisfied to 

 break the windows in your barn and 

 not go through three or four depths of 

 sash. 



POINSETTIAS. 



A subscriber wants to know "how to 

 grow poinsettias for Christmas 

 flowers." This has been well exploited 

 in these columns several times. I will 

 say now that any further propagation 

 would not be advisable. The plants 

 you have should get their last shift not 

 later than the end of this month. Give 

 them the lightest bench you have and 

 never let them get a chill. Sixty is as 

 low as they should ever be at any 

 time. They want watering freely, but 

 it should always pass through quickly. 

 We grow poinsettias largely to sell 

 in pots. If flowers only are wanted 

 then bed the plants out in five or six 

 inches of good rich loam where there 

 is four or five feet of head room. You 

 will get larger flowers and more per- 

 fect foliage when planted out. 

 Green fly troubles the poinsettia, but 

 i smoke does no harm to the plant. 

 , Mealy bug is ver/y often seen among 

 . the true flowers at base of bracts, but 

 if syringed whenever you water they 

 won't make any headway. 



For fuller details of their culture 

 refer to the "Florists' Manual." which 

 I promise you will soon be complete. 

 It is hard work, but we are getting 

 there very fast now. We started off 

 slowly and made poor running for a 

 long time as there was no other com- 

 petitor to urge us on. But now we 

 have entered the home stretch and the 

 winning post is plainly in sight, and 

 we trust when unsaddled there will be 

 a big feed of oats awaiting us. . 



WM. SCOTT. 



THE FALL ARMY WORM. 



Chicago and vicinity has been over- 

 run by the "fall army worm" or "grass 

 worm" tLaphygma frugiperda). The 

 moth lays its eggs most anywhere. 

 even on stone walls, and Mr. Oswald 

 Uhlig, gardener for R. W. Rathborne, 

 brings us, among other curiosities, an 

 old horseshoe upon which eggs had 

 been thickly deposited. 



In some cases the moths have laid 

 their eggs on plants in the green- 

 houses and growers are apprehensive 

 as to future results. 



Prof. L. O. Howard, government en- 

 tomologist. Washington, writes us: "I 

 do not believe that the hydrocyanic 

 gas treatment will destroy the eggs on 

 greenhouse plants. It is altogether 



