May yii. IDUl. 



The Weekly Florists' Review* 



MISCELLANEOUS 

 SEASONABLE HINTS. 



Fuchsias. 

 In this busy time there is likely to be 

 a neglect of reserving some good stock 

 for yourself. It is all sell now and every 

 effort and energy is used .to fill orders. 

 Some stock is easily picked up later in 

 the season but others must be bought for 

 'good money and if the season is past 

 .money won't buy it. Put by one or two 

 good large plants of the varieties of fuch- 

 ,siaa that you intend to grow another 

 year. You can't get satisfactory cuttings 

 early in the winter from weak, unripened 

 wood. Take the good, big fuchsia plants 

 and plunge them out of doors in the 

 shade or where they will get only the 

 morning sun. These by fall will make 

 good, firm wood, which, if handled right- 

 ly, will give the best of cuttings next 

 December. We don't grow many fuch- 

 (sias now but we once did and thousands 

 are sold in our markets. 



Hydrangeas. 



The young hydrangeas that were pro- 

 pagated this winter should not be let 

 run up in the greenhouse. They should 

 have the leader pinched out and be 

 plunged out of doors- in 4.-in. pots and 

 when you get more time and they have 

 more roots they will want a G-in. pot. 

 Those intended for Easter are best grown 

 in pots, but those for later flowering can 

 be planted out in good, deep soil and they 

 lift easily. There has been a good de- 

 mand for large Hydrangea Otaksa this 

 spring, and they do make a fine and orna- 

 mental mass for the lawn, but they are 

 worth a good deal, for it costs consider- 

 able to grow them up to a large size (say 

 four to six feet spread) and it is worth 

 something to store them. 



A cool, light, half glazed shed where 

 there is little artificial heat or just 

 enough only to keep the frost out is the 

 ideal place and it is getting now a neces- 

 sity for many of us to have such a 

 house. An ordinary greenhouse is too 

 valuable space to store these large plants 

 and here is the place for sweet bays, ole- 

 ander and agaves and other unwieldy 

 things that only want to be stored and 

 not grown. It is a digression from the 

 subject, but this storehouse is something 

 we need and the best plan to build it I 

 will leave for a future date. To produce 

 these large tubs of hydrangeas you should 

 begin now. You will likely have some 

 plants in 6 or 7-in. pots that have not 

 flowered abundantly and have not sold. 

 Two or three of these planted in a butter 

 tub or half barrel now and partly short- 

 ened back and given every encouragement 

 to grow will make fine, large tubs for 

 next year. 



Geraniums. 



Of all the plants that it is important 

 for you to plant out in abundance for 

 cuttings this fall is the plebeian but pop- 

 ular geranium. My experience is you 

 cannot buy in this broad land such plants 

 as you can propagate for yourself. They 

 put in the cuttings too thick or they use 

 stumps of hard wood. The big geranium 



grower is trying to get quantity before 

 quality, so plant out plenty of the lead- 

 ing bedding varieties and get them into 

 the ground at once so that they will 

 give you lots of cuttings next September. 

 There are manj' varieties of zonal ge- 

 raniums and some are local favorites in 

 dift'erent localities. Grow what grows 

 well in your locality and pleases your 

 patrons. There is one semi-double pink 

 that we bought this spring and should 

 have bought last year. It is a grand 

 variet}'. Its color and habit and bloom 

 are splendid and I think it one of the 

 greatest acquisitions to our rather lim- 

 ited number of good bedders. It is the 

 beautiful light pink "Jean Viaud." We 

 find "Alphonse Riccard" for light scar- 

 let; "S. A. Nutt." dark scarlet; "Beaute 

 Poitevine," salmon; "Frances Perkins," 

 pink, are the most valuable of all. 



now. You will have a test of their 

 growth and a good stock for next spring. 

 Many other plants are of less importance 

 and more easily and rapidly propagated, 

 but a few of everything should be taken 

 care of for it will save much annoyance. 



Avoid This. 



In the constant picking out of plants, 

 particularly the geranlum.s, which will go 

 on for the next two weeks I have often 

 exercised or with ditBculty suppressed 

 several installments of profanity because 

 the men if they want 50 S. A. Nutt 

 geraniums for an order will take the 

 best and leave a few plants standing all 

 forlorn by themselves to dry out and be 

 knocked over with the hose; in fact to 

 be neglected. The excuse is "I had no 

 time." Now it does not take 10 seconds 

 to bunch up the few plants that you con- 

 sidered not quite good enough for the 

 order. It makes the house tidy, gives 

 you a bench to spread out crowded plants 

 and saves lots of time in watering. I 

 mentioned geraniums but it applies to all 

 plants. Untidiness and disorder bring 

 fret and worry to your already busy 

 mind, so insist that batches of plants 

 are kept up compact and you will save 

 your plants, and money besides. 



William Scott. 



Magnolia Soulangeana. 



Cannas. 



Cannas are another most important 

 plant that should be planted out on your 

 own place in large quantities. Just see 

 how scarce they are today with all the 

 thousands that the big firms raise. ■ With 

 these it is not necessary to take your 

 best plants. Small plants if put out in 

 good soil will make a big clump of 

 roots by lifting time. It is likely you 

 want to add a few new cannas to your 

 collection: if so endeavor to buv tlicm 



MAGNOLIA SOULANGEANA. 



This pretty hybrid magnolia has dem- 

 onstrated its ability to endure our siroc- 

 cos and our blizzards and deserves to be 

 much more generally planted. It is most 

 effective when planted in front of a 

 clump of evergreens. In fact, all shrubs 

 or trees that produce their flowers in ad- 

 vance of the foliage should be planted 

 with a background of coniferse. 



The specimen illustrated is in Hum- 

 boldt Park, Chicago, and it blooms about 



