652 



The Weekly Florists' Review* 



NOVEMBER 16, 1S99. 



SMILAX. 



This useful climber and twinsr 

 seems to have been grown here com- 

 mercially long before its great use- 

 fulness was appreciated in Europe. 

 Though the more graceful looking as- 

 paragus has superseded it in our deco- 

 rations it is still a standard article 

 with all commercial florists, and in fu- 

 neral decorations there is no equal to 

 it. 



Seed should be sown in flats and 

 covered an eighth of an inch, in Feb- 

 ruary. Good fresh soil is now always 

 supplied. When two or three inches 

 high pot off into 2-inch pots and 

 keep in a temperature anywhere above 

 50 degrees. If you expect the best re- 

 sults from your newly planted bed 

 you ought by. middle of May to give 

 these little plants another shift into 

 a 3-inch. Getting strong plants to 

 plant out in June will give you an 

 extra crop over small, weak plants. 

 And although you often see them 

 standing under a bench in May and 

 June that is not ths way to produce 

 well rooted, strong plants. 



Make your Smilax bed in the center 

 of the house on the ground with seven 

 or eight feet of head room; and more 

 is better. If the floor of the house is 

 naturally dry you want no prepara- 

 tion, but make the bed seven or eight 

 inches above the surface and confined 

 with a brick or plank wall. 



I have tried several kinds of soil. 

 The worst smilax I ever grew was in 

 a light sand, and the best was in a 

 stiff loam, such a soil as roses like, 

 with the addition of one-fourth of rot- 

 ten cow manure. Plant at end of June 

 or very early in July. 



If you intend to renew the bed every 

 year, which I strongly advocate, then 

 plant ten inches between the rows and 

 six or seven inches between the plants. 

 Run a wire across ths bed just be- 

 hind the row of plants, and a corre- 

 sponding wire near the roof, and at 

 each plant run up a string of silkaline. 

 It is invisible when cut and saves you 

 much bother when using the smilax 

 because there is no need of pulling it 

 out. 



Keep down weeds from the start 

 and frequently teach the little growths 

 that they are to climb up the strings. 

 When once started they are no trouble, 

 and when a crop is cut and a new 

 growth is starting replace the strings 

 at once. We are guilty of neglect and 

 I have seen days of labor spent over 

 a smilax bed that was allowed to grow 

 without strings a few weeks and had 

 to be unravelled and started up the 

 strings much to the harm of the 

 growths. 



When growing fast smilax likes and 

 must have an abundance of water and 

 should be daily syringed to keep down 

 red spider. It should be also fumiga- 

 ted, but not heavily or it will turn the 

 tips of the leaves. Vaporizing with 

 tobacco extract would avoid that, but 

 with proper care we have no trouble 

 with the smoke. 



When a crop is fit to cut or your 

 business demands that you cut it, be- 



gin at one end and clear it as you go. 

 When the plant is denuded of its entire 

 growth, as it is when you cut the 

 strings, it does not want water till 

 it begins to send up more growth. I 

 have seen the roots rotted by a heavy 

 watering just after cutting off the 

 strings, and when the thick, fleshy 

 roots rot they raise a bad smell, very 

 similar to decayed Solanum tuberosum, 

 alias potato. 



When cutting the strings don't let 

 a crude hand ruthlessly chop off all 

 the growth. There may be several 

 strong young shoots a foot or eighteen 

 inches high that will quickly make 

 another string. 



By planting last of June you ought 

 to get four crops before planting time 

 again, and will if the temperature of 

 the house is kept never less than 60 

 degrees at night throughout the win- 

 ter, and if it is 65 degrees so much the 

 better; contrary to what would be the 

 case with most plants the warmer you 

 grow it the harder it is providing it is 

 matured when cut. Being naturally 

 a twiner among trees it likes the 

 shade, and is best shaded in summer 

 and early spring. 



I am sure it is wisast to plant every 

 year. You get more strings; they are 

 a more useful size, and easier man- 

 aged. After the second crop is cut, 

 about New Year's, the bed will be 

 greatly benefited by a top dressing of 

 an inch of loam and cow manure. 

 Their strong asparagus-like crown of 

 roots soon works to the surface and 

 need this mulching. The smilax is a 

 heavy feeder, so a strong soil, plenty 

 of water when growing, and a good 

 heat, suits it. 



METROSIDEROS. 



This is one of the many hard-wood- 

 ed evergreen shrubs that we get from 

 the Southern Pacific islands. The spe- 

 cies we import is M. robusta, and its 

 peculiar, terminal, densely flowered 

 spike is so like in form to a bottle 

 brush that the popular name is often 

 suggested by people who have never 

 heard it. It has been for many years 

 grown as a cool greenhouse plant, but 

 only within a dozen years have the 

 Europeans been sending us the little, 

 compact bushes that now arrive with 

 our azaleas. The Belgians grow it in 

 psat as they do most hard-wooded 

 plants, but it does very well in good 

 turfy loam with a fourth of leaf-mold. 

 It will root from the young growths 

 in early spring, which can be planted 

 out in good soil end of May. But with 

 tariff included we can get fine plants 

 landed here at a cost that it would be 



impossible to grow them as good for 

 the same money. 



You don't want a great many of 

 them; about one to every ten Azalea 

 indica you grow. Plants in 6-inch 

 pots, well flowered and fixed up with 

 a red ribbon, do look novel and at- 

 tractive, and a limited number find a 

 ready sale. 



When they arrive soak the ball and 

 then pot firmly and put in a house at 

 about 45 degrees. To bring them in 

 for Easter you must watch them and 

 gradually give them more heat, but 

 not suddenly. Freshly imported 

 plants if forced in much heat, as you 

 can an azalea, will shed their flowers. 



Plants unsold the first spring will 

 be much better and more satisfactory 

 the second year. End of April cut 

 them back to within an inch or two 

 of the old growth and put them into 

 a good heat and keep syringed. They 

 will make a bushy growth with a num- 

 ber of shoots. Early in June plunge 

 them out in the broad sun, well cov- 

 ering their pots, and in the hot weath- 

 er don't let them suffer for water. In 

 July or earlier mulch the surface of 

 the pots with an inch of half decom- 

 posed cow manure; this will add 

 greatly to their robustness. Bring in 

 before any danger of frost and keep 

 in a temperature of 45 degrees; warm- 

 er if you want them earlier than East- 

 er. These will be far better plants 

 and be much more satisfactory to the 

 purchaser than the newly imported. 



PRIMROSES. H ,„ 



Chinese, single mix, ready for 3-inch pots, $I.2-> 

 Obconica grandiflora, " 1.25 



Forbesi, ready for 3-inch pots 2.00 



150 Asparagus Sprengeri, 214-inch pots 4.00 



Pansy Plants, fine plants. 1000. $2.75 50 



Cash with order. 



JOS. H. CUNNINGHAM, Delaware, Ohio. 



Mention The Review when you write. 



Edward B. Jackson, 



Wholesale Florist. 



HARDY HERBACEOUS PLANTS ONLY. 



In any quantity for the least money. 



STAMFORD, CONN. 



Mention The Review when you wrfce. 



SHEEP MANURE. 



I have now on hand the cleanest and purest 

 Sheep Manure that can be bought in the market. 

 To be convinced send for price list aiid sample. 



J.L.ELLIOTT, - - 645 Canal St . Bethlehem, Pa. 



Long Distance Telephone. 

 Mention Th<* Ttevlpw when ynu write. 



HITCHINGS ■& CO:- ' 



233. MERCER ST., NEW YORK. 



GREENHOUSE BUILDERS 



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