478 



The Weekly Florists^ Review. 



Septbmbbb 19, 1901. 



are thrushes of various kinds, robins, 

 orioles, rose breasted grosbeaks, summer 

 warblers, wrens and catbirds. Bluejays 

 are plentiful the year round, and if they 

 behaved as well as they looked, would be 

 very welcome. Occasionally a scarlet 

 tanager is seen and a pair of cardinal 

 grosbeaks spent one whole year in the 

 vicinity, but they have not been seen 

 this summer. 



The grounds- shown in the illustrations 

 have a frontage of 300 feet, with a depth 

 oi perhaps 150 feet, back of which are 

 the stable, the kitchen garden and the 

 toboggan slide. 



CATERPILLARS ON MUMS. 



Can any of the readers of the Review 

 tell me how to exterminate caterpillars 

 on chrysanthemums? They are what I 

 suppose to be the larvae of the 

 brown-tailed moth, which has been 

 very numerous in this section this sum- 

 mer. When small they are of a whitish 

 color and as they grow they get red. 



"A fellow-feeling makes us wondrous 

 kind." 



The only cure I can suggest is Paris 

 green when hand-picking is of no avail. 

 We used paris green this year in the 

 proportion of a small tablespoonful to a 

 pail of water, and by this means poi- 

 soned a great many caterpillars. Got 

 them down, in f:ut. sn Diat the rest were 

 got rid of liy li;iii.l pi.kinL'. 



I have liaihll.a in- rxtensively for 



a number ni vein.-., hut 1 never saw so 

 many caterpillars before, of all descrip- 

 tions and sizes. 



The chief point to observe in the use 

 of paris green is to see that it is evenly 

 distributed and not applied strong on 

 one place and weak on another. It will 

 burn the foliage if too strong. Apply it 

 all over the foliage so that when the 

 caterpillar feeds he has to eat some paris 

 green also. We found we had to use it 

 very weak earlier in the summer, or it 

 would burn the foliage, but the foliage is 

 harder now and should stand it better. 



Possibly, also, the paris green varies 



The Home Grounds of a Landscape Gardener. 



brown and black and covered with hairs 

 about a quarter of an inch long. The 

 caterpillar gets to be about 2 to 2* inches 

 long. 



Until three weeks ago my plants were 

 unalTected, but since then the caterpil- 

 lars have bred by the thousands. I have 

 had five men at work continuously pick- 

 ing them off and destroying them, and 

 yet we cannot get the best of them. I 

 have used hellebore, slugshot, kerosene 

 emulsion and fumigation, but without 

 any appearance of killing any of thera. 

 My plants are grown on solid beds, the 

 houses before p'anting were thoroughly 

 cleaned and fresh soil used. I have one 

 house 300 feet Ions and two 200 feet, 

 with about 40,000 plants. S. 



I am very sorr}' for your correspond- 

 ent, who has been and still is infested 

 with this pest. 



some in strength. Jlr. S. could use a 

 teaspoonful first in four gallons of water 

 and if no harm resulted to the foliage 

 apply a little stronger. Brian Boru. 



CHRYSANTHEMUM NOTES. 



The Bods. 



Buds are appearing everywhere, and 

 they should be taken at as early a stage 

 as possible. It is very wrong to leave 

 the surrounding buds and shoots on the 

 plants a day longer than is necessary 

 to see that the central bud is perfect. 

 Concentration is the watchword, and all 

 the energies of the plant should be cen- 

 tered on the bud. Side shoots and suck- 

 ers should be removed as soon as possi- 

 ble, and the plants will need going over 

 several times a week to keep these down. 

 It is wonderful the number of side shoots 



a plant will make after the bud is 

 taken, and further upward growth as a 

 natural result is impossible. Day after 

 day you can run over the same bench 

 and still find shoots. 



The suckers must be kept cut out until 

 the bud is half-way developed. Some 

 varieties produce a great many more 

 suckers than others, Bonnatfon being 

 with us one of the worst in this respect. 



Insect Pests. 



Grasshoppers are now most abundant 

 and it is just now that they do the most 

 damage, because if they eat the side out 

 of a bud there is nothing further to be 

 done but cut the shoot right away. The 

 only way to catch them that I know is 

 hand-picking in the early morning, when 

 they are partially paralyzed after a cool 

 night, before the sun has a chance to 

 warm them into active life again. 



When you see the young leaves drawn 

 together over the bud, if you examine 

 closely you will always find a small 

 caterpillar concealed therein. He will 

 invariably eat the bud if left undis- 

 turbed. 



The army worm is very destructive to 

 the buds some years. So far he has not 

 put in an appearance with us. He will 

 be found in a hole in the ground directly 

 at the base of the plant in the day time, 

 and at night, or some time when no one 

 is around, he will climb up and bore a 

 hole clean through the bud. One of these 

 worms will cut every petal out of a 

 fully developed flower in a single night. 



Early Varieties. 



The buds on early varieties are swell- 

 ing rapidly, and the earliest ones, like 

 Montemort and Fitzwygram, will soon be 

 showing color. Syringing these varieties 

 overhead should now be stopped ; syring- 

 ing any variety should not be practiced, 

 in fact, as soon" as the bud bursts through 

 the husky coverings, because if the water 

 lays in the center of the bud, it is al- 

 most certain to cause the bud to rot. 

 This is particularly true in the ease of 

 crown buds, which hang for a long while 

 before developing. 



Tliere is a difference of several weeks 

 in the time required by the crown bud 

 to develop over the time required by the 

 terminal, and this fact makes the crown 

 bud a harder bud to handle, as it re- 

 quires more careful treatment. B. B. 



CALADIUM BULBS. 



r. A. G. asks: "How should caladium 

 bulbs be treated and stored during win- 

 ter?" 



With many florists the caladium bulbs 

 are thought to be the common large leaf 

 caladium that we use for tropical garden- 

 ing, which is generally known as Cala- 

 dium eseulentum, but I suspect that the 

 inquirer refers to the fancy caladium. 



First of all, the common caladium (es- 

 eulentum) I have found keeps well un- 

 der a rose house bench. As soon as frost 

 has destroyed the leaves they should be 

 cut off about six inches above the root 

 and stored in a temperature of about 50 

 degrees, but a warm cellar will not do, 

 as they shrivel up. While wanting to be 

 perfectly dry they need the moisture that 

 is provided in a greenhouse. Don't lay 

 thera on an earth floor or the moisture 



'llic full' \ . i' Mi I Mii^. when thev begin 

 tn i:Mlr, ... I . fining at this date, 



i-lMHil,l i„ ..,,. I ,1,., .Iried off; that is, 

 nJMn 1.-- \.ji.i I 111. p a week will do 

 very well and in a month no water at 

 all. You can keep them for a few months 



