Jllv 18, 1901. 



The Weekly Florists^ Review, 



199 



MISCELLANEOUS 

 SEASONABLE HINTS. 



Chrysanthemums. 



I was asked today my opinion on the 

 cheapness of maatica as a glazing ma- 

 terial and of that my views will be 

 found in another column. And that re- 

 minded me that it is very necessary that 

 the glass should be put into all houses 

 without delay. There is sure to be 

 some broken unless you butt the glass. 

 Tn that case there is seldom any broken 

 glass. Wherever chrysanthemums are 

 planted out it is very essential that the 

 iiouse be made tight as soon as possible. 

 You have to give air all you possibly 

 can for the sake of the chrysanthemums, 

 l>ut you ought to have facilities to shut 

 i( np close for the sake of fumigation. 



r don't know that the black ai)his is 

 any more troublesome now than it has 

 ln'cn in' years past. I think perhaps it 

 is not so bad, but it is a great scourge 

 and gives us lots of trouble. There are 

 several ways of keeping it under. Some 

 use tine tobacco dust sprinkled on the 

 jilants liberally, and it is well to do it 

 after a syringing. This is effective 

 enough but gives the plants a dirty ap- 

 pearance. Another is to syringe them 

 with tobacco water; either the rose leaf 

 extract of tobacco diluted in one to 75 

 parts of water, or the Nikoteen, which 

 is strong enough when diluted one to 

 200 parts of water. But neither of 

 these methods is so effective or so clean- 

 ly done as fumigating. Tliree succes- 

 sive fumigations, not over strong, will 

 kill all the black aphis: at least for 

 Iwo or three weeks, and when once killed 

 a regular weekly smoking will keep them 

 clown. 



The best friend we have to keep down 

 I he black aphis is the larva of the Lady 

 l!ug. The quantity they eat is pro- 

 digious. To prove this, chrysanthe- 

 mums that are planted out as we used 

 to do years ago would be covered with 

 the black aphis were it not for the little 

 T.ady Bug, so if you have any in your 

 neighborhood bring them in and foster 

 their growth. I don't think that fumi- 

 gating hurts the bugs as much as the 

 tobacco water or the dry tobacco dust. 

 When chrysanthemums are making their 

 strongest growth they should be liber- 

 ally supplied with water. It should be 

 unnecessary to say that should you have 

 any shading on your hoijse of any kind 

 left over from your plant growing busi- 

 ness, be sure and get it off. Chrysanthe- 

 mums want no shade of any kind. 



Watering. 



Wc arc having at present a very hot, 

 ilry time and a good deal of the suc- 

 cess of the flower beds will depend on 

 their wise and intelligent eare. If you 

 have planted any tuberous rooted be- 

 gonias give them an abundance of wa- 

 ter, but don't water them as you would 

 a bed of cannas. Let the hose run be- 

 tween them, thoroughly watering the 

 roots, lint not splashing the leaves or 

 Howers. 



Tn a very dry time there are scarcely 

 any plants but what arc benofilcd by the 



watering. The great trouble is that a 

 watering often means nothing but a 

 sprinkling of the surface. When you 

 do water, give them a thorough soak- 

 ing and hoe the next day. Dahlias par- 

 ticularly will want a frequent and thor- 

 ough watering and should be mulched 

 with two inches of manure. Next to 

 watering the greatest help to keep your 

 bed in good order is to keep all flowers, 

 when they are past their best, picked off. 

 Remember that going to seed is the most 

 exhausting function of the plant. Not 

 only should all flowers that are past 

 their prime be picked off for tidiness' 

 sake, but to keep up vigor in the plant. 

 This applies to geraniums as much as 

 anything. 



Now is a very trying time for the 

 azaleas, acacias, metrosideros and other 

 hardwood plants that are plunged out 

 of doors. They will dry out oftener than 

 once a day and as they are growing they 

 should never want for water. In a week 

 or two, or even now, it will help them 

 very much to slightly stir up the sur- 

 face of the soil, then make a mulch of 

 rot.ten manure with about half sheep 



are entirely in place, and if you do plant 

 them take care of them. There is a 

 great mistake made in the shape that 

 hedges are too often kept. You see them 

 as brnad, or even broader at the top 

 than at the bottom, keeping the sun and 

 rains from the lower parts, which be- 

 come bare and unsightly and then the 

 hedge is simply an abomination and 

 makes so many people disgusted with 

 any hedge. They must be conical ; broad 

 at the base and tapering to the top. This 

 is hard to do with a hedge that has been 

 long neglected, but a good deal can be 

 done towards that end. Don't be impa- 

 tient to get a height to your hedge too 

 soon. It must go slow. Fill up the 

 lower parts before you attain height. 

 The shears may do on hedges that have 

 reached all the size you want, but I 

 much prefer the pruning knife at all 

 times, particularly on young hedges. The 

 shears make a Norway spruce, hemlock 

 or arbor vitse hedge look like a poor man 

 who has just done time. 



William Scott. 



SPANISH IRIS. 



The accompanying photograph of a 

 bed of Spanish iris is one of a dozen 

 which flowered recently at the Pan- 

 American. About one-third of the bulbs 

 failed to flower. This we believe was 

 entirely because they were planted so 

 very late. The bulbs not arriving in this 

 country they were not planted in the 

 ground until very near the end of Novem- 

 ber and a very hard frost occurred short- 



Be4 of Spanish Iris at the Pan-American Exposition. 



manure to which has been added a lib- 

 eral amount of" bone dust, and put an 

 inch of this on the surface. This will 

 prevent them from drying out and will 

 greatly benefit the plants. 



Hedges. 



If any of your customers ask you to 

 prune their hedges just now or shorten 

 back their evergreens, do it. It is a 

 good time. It is a mistake to think 

 that this should only be done in the 

 early spring. They have made theiir 

 growth and now can be trimmed back 

 more or less as taste dictates. I am not 

 an advocate of hedges, but there are 

 places such as line fences where they 



ly afterwards. We believe they should 

 be planted if possible by the middle of 

 October, when they will get well rooted 

 before hard winter sets in. They made 

 a beautiful display. Tlie colors were 

 white, yellow and blue. 



There is no handsomer spring flower. 

 The bulbs are very inexpensive and quite 

 small, not larger than a crocus bulb. 

 They are beautiful in form, fantastic and 

 orchid like in shape, and the colors de- 

 sirable. It seems to me that large quan- 

 tities of these should be planted by all 

 commercial florists who do a cut flower 

 business, being much prettier for cut 

 flowers than either tulips or hyacinths. 

 They are absolutely hardy as was proven 



