The Weekly Florists' Review* 



23 



FROM OUR ENGLISH EXCHANGES. 



The Gardeners' Chronicle. 



Grafting Clematis: Clay will do to 

 cover the union if it be well made in 

 the ordinary manner. Bottom-heat of 

 70 to 75 degrees is essential, also a close 

 case, standing within a house having a 

 temperature of 60 degrees. 



Chrysanthemum: Dr. Griffiths gives 

 the following as the composition of 

 Chrysanthemums: Oxide of iron, 3.66; 

 potash, 16.23; soda, 10.39; lime, 26.28; 

 magnesia, 10.22; silica, 5.99; phosphoric 

 acid, 19.52; sulphuric acid, 4.65; chlor- 

 ine. 3.60; albuminoids, 2.92. 



Flowering the Second Time of Llly 

 OF THE Valley : As it is the three-year- 

 old buds that produce the llowers, and 

 these, and the second, and one year 

 growths must be made in the open 

 ground, either separately as crowns, or 

 altogether as clumps. The growth made 

 under glass by plants that have been 

 forced, whether retarded or non-retarded, 

 being too weak to afford good blooms. 



Phrynitjm Variegatum is treated 

 somewhat differently to the ordinary run 

 of plants. Here, it is given a thorough 

 rest similar to cannas. At this season 

 (March) the fleshy rhizomes are shaken 

 out of the soil and potted, or they are 

 placed in pans, according to the uses to 

 which the plants are to be put, placing 

 them in the stove. They soon begin to 

 grow, and should be afforded abundance 

 of light, in order to bring out the leaf 

 tints. 



Over-large Tree Fer.n.s: Sink their 

 roots into the floor of the bouse if you 

 can, and build a wall of bricks without 

 mortar around the stems a foot distant 

 from them to let air reach them, and 

 keep off any pressure from the earth. 

 If this cannot be done, ring the sfems, 

 and keep a quantity of sphagnum-moss 

 bound round them, and maintain this 

 and the stem in a moist state till roots 

 in quantity push forth, when the old- 

 rooted butt ends may be severed, and 

 the plants tubbed or potted. 



Irritating Properties of Primula 

 Obconica: There is a note in Knowl- 

 edge of Feb 1, 1901, p. 32, regarding 

 the irritation that Primula obconica 

 sometimes produces. It runs thus: "A 

 piece from the base of the leaf-stalk ap- 

 plied to the wrist by an elastic band for 

 two hours produced acute irritation, 

 with blisters and swelling of the arm. 

 Herr Nestler shows that it is the yellow- 

 ish-green matter in the glandular hairs 

 which possesses the poisonous proper- 

 ties." 



Dahlia Cuttings Rooting : You 

 should take slips with a heel, not hollow 

 shoots made like ordinary cuttings, as 

 these seldom can be got to strike. Put 

 each singly into thumb pots filled with 

 sandy loam coated with sand, and plunge 

 in bottom-heat of 80 degrees; keep close 

 and shade from bright sunshine. If in 

 a frame, leave a J-inch opening all night 

 at the back of the sash. In a propagat- 

 ing house no ventilation may be neces- 

 sary, unless the cuttings are placed in 

 a close case. 



Dendrobium Nobile : The usual prac- 

 tice is to retain the pseudo-bulbs that 

 have flowered for two or three years, 

 and then remove them. Those gardeners 

 who have very warm houses may cut off 

 after flowering all the pseudo-bulbs of 

 whatever age at the level of the compost, 

 and force a plant to make entirely new 

 pseudo-bulbs, of which most of the 

 stronger ones will flower abundantly 



the next year. Under ordinary condi- 

 tions the former is the better practice. 



Annual Dianthus: We have re- 

 ceived from Herr Ernst Benary, Erfurt, 

 a large and handsome colored plate show- 

 ing what are familiarly known as "single 

 and double pinks." There is a fine va- 

 riety here; some are white, others pink, 

 red, crimson, and there is a nearly black- 

 maroon blossom; yet others, again, show- 

 ing these same colors as streaks or 

 flakes, or edges on a white ground. The 

 picture suggests that our gardeners 

 might do worse this season than spare 

 a bed or border for a display of these 

 fine and much varied annual dianthus. 



Chlorosis in Plants: Recent re- 

 searches by Dr. Roux confirm the notion 

 that the yellow condition of the leaves 

 known as chlorosis is due to some defi- 

 ciency in the chemical constituents of 

 the soil. The liquid absorbed by the 

 roots has an excess of lime, and a defi- 

 ciency of potash and phosphorus. The 

 consequence is a stoppage of the work 

 done in the leaves, and of transpiration 

 ending in the degeneration and death of 

 the cells from starvation. 



Cineraria-leaves Injured: The work 

 of the larvae of a fly — Phytomyza nigri- 

 cornis. Nip the larvae between the 

 thumb-nail and the finger, or take them 

 out of the leaves with an awl or a needle, 

 if there are but few of them, badly in- 

 fested leaves being collected and burnt. 

 No substance can be applied to the leaves 

 to destroy the grubs that will not de- 

 stroy the former as well. Quassia-water 

 and soft-soap made according to the usu- 

 al formula might render the leaves dis- 

 tasteful to the fly, but as she does not 

 feed upon them it is not certain that 

 it would deter the deposition of eggs. 



I should like to mention my experi- 

 ence with the Rose Kaiserin Augusta 

 Victoria, and to ask whether it is a mat- 

 ter of common experience. It is this, 

 viz., that the buds, when picked in a 

 very firm and unopening form, open out 

 into a full flower in a way very unusual, 

 if not unknown, with most roses. I 

 picked out of doors a bud about half 

 an inch or less in length, and less than 

 a quarter of an inch in largest diameter, 

 and after three or four days in water 

 it opened out into a full blown and 

 well formed flower, though showing a 

 little center. 



Godetias: It may interest your read- 

 ers to hear of the wonderful keeping 

 properties of godetia. I plucked a large 

 branch of rose colored godetia in the 

 first week of October, and have it still 

 (February). It was placed in a tall jar 

 of water, the water changed every week. 

 There has rarely been a fire in the room 

 it is in, although there has been frost 

 several times. Every flower bud has 

 come out, and as the first flowers slowly 

 faded, after many weeks, they were 

 picked off. There are still eight blos- 

 .soms of a pale rosy hue, looking as fresh 

 as if plucked last week. Two pots of 

 the same, potted rather later, and kept 

 in the house, did fairly well till the 

 end of the year. 



Begonia Gloire de Lorraine : In our 

 conservatory there are at the present 

 time (Dec. 27) twenty-four large plants 

 of this showy variety, which were raised 

 from buds, with a leaf attached, last 

 April, and treated like cuttings of ver- 

 benas. The plants are now growing in 

 6-inch pots, and present masses of flow- 

 ers, measuring 18 inches in diameter. I 

 exarnined the plants last week for seed- 

 bearing blossoms, and found no fewer 



than seventeen of these, which I ferti- 

 lized with pollen taken from other vari- 

 eties of begonias. These occur almost 

 entirely at the ends of the racemes, and 

 are usually the last of the cluster. 



Gardenias Failing to Flower and 

 Dying Off: The plant sent had roots 

 that were thoroughly infested with eel- 

 worms. The creatures are imported 

 with the soil, and increase prodigiously 

 under the favorable conditions found in 

 a warm plant house. We are unaware 

 of any remedy that will kill them, that 

 will not likewise kill the plants. One 

 efficient safeguard is to stack the soil 

 two years before using it, keeping the 

 stack meanwhile quite free from herbage, 

 a sort of treatment that kills by starva- 

 tion. Small quantities of soil might be 

 rendered free of them by pouring boil- 

 ing water over it, or by desiccation (not 

 charring) on sheets of iron over a fire. 



Pruning Orchids : You must be very 

 careful about following the instructions 

 given by your friends, who advise you 

 to cut off orchid bulbs after they have 

 done flowering. Pruning in a reasonable 

 manner is beneficial, but to begin with, 

 you had better confine your practice to 

 the cutting away of damaged poi-tions, 

 or any of the small pseudo-bulbs which 

 you know to be useless. In most collec- 

 tions useless bulbs are left far too long 

 on the plants. They have to be sup- 

 ported by the forward and actively root- 

 ing part of the plant, the leading flower- 

 ing growth suffering in consequence. In 

 the case of dendrobiums, such as D. no- 

 bile, you can cut the portions removed 

 into lengths and place them like cuttings 

 in an orchid pan, and young plants will 

 lesult. 



Greenhouse Ventilators at the 

 Front: Plants kept in a house having 

 ventilation at the top only cannot h« 

 so well grown as where there is front 

 ventilation likewise. The latter is very 

 necessary in the summer months ; and, 

 on the whole, we prefer the air to be ad- 

 mitted below the staging, and the hot 

 water pipes so arranged that when nec- 

 essary the air may impinge on the heated 

 pipes on entering the house. The front 

 ventilation needs careful management in 

 cold, bright weather, or the plants will 

 be chilled, and thus enfeebled they fall 

 a prey to aphis. It is generally advisa- 

 ble to reduce the quantity, or entirely 

 shut out front air an hour or there- 

 abouts before finally closing the upper 

 sashes or air openings, and there are 

 early bright days in the spring months 

 when air should not be admitted at the 

 front of a house. 



The -'Societe Nationale d'Horticul- 

 ture de France": The last number of 

 the Journal of the Society contains a 

 brief epitome of the history of the Soci- 

 ety from its foundation in 1826 to the 

 present time. It has had many names, 

 but its organization has continued prac- 

 tically intact during the numerous polit- 

 ical vicissitudes to which it has been 

 subjected, and its labors were not sus- 

 pended even during the siege. When the 

 Germans withdrew and the Commune 

 was suppressed, the ravages of the war 

 were rapidly repaired by the energy of 

 the French horticulturists. The assist- 

 ance rendered on that occasion by Eng- 

 lish horticulturists is also acknowledged. 

 In 1860 the society took up its quarters 

 in a building which it had purchased out 

 of its funds, and where may be found 

 meeting rooms, committee rooms, and a 

 hall for large meetings and special ex- 

 hibitions. 



