The Weekly Florists' Review, 



479 



The Home Grounds of a Landscape Gardener. 



in the soil, laying the pots on their sides 

 so that no water reaches them. After 

 they are perfectly dry you can store the 

 bulbs in dry sand or any other dry ma- 

 terial, always keeping them in a "fairly 

 warm temperature, never less than 50 

 degrees, and start them up again in the 

 month of March or April. 



If grown in moderate sized pots, say 

 6, 7 or 8-lnch, there is no better way 

 than laying the pots on the sides under 

 a bench and letting them remain right 

 in the soil that they have grown in until 

 you want to start thera up again. 



THE ASTER BUG. 



In a recent issue of the Review you 

 pictured a field of asters grown by the 

 Harms Park Floral Co., of your city, 

 which were simply perfect. 



A crop of asters would bo worth sev- 

 eral hundred dollars a season to us in 

 our retail trade if we could grow them, 

 but we have never succeeded yet, al- 

 though we have made many attempts, 

 and this year our failure has been more 

 signal than ever. We get along very 

 nicely until we reach the blooming pe- 

 riod, when the aster bug steps in, and in 

 spite of slugshot and paris green that's 

 as far as we ever get. 



This year our troubles have been mul- 

 tiplied by their attacks on our field- 

 grown carnations. We grow about 2,000 

 Fisher and the same number of Scott for 

 summer bloom in the field. They usually 

 start to bloom about the first of July 

 and bloom till frost. They did all right 

 till about the beginning, or rather the 

 middle, of August, when the bugs began 

 on them, it seemed in preference to the 

 asters. We were between the devil and 

 the deep sea. Slugshot seemed useless and 

 paris green was cur only alternative. We 

 used it. The bugs disappeared for about 

 ten days. The plants were badly burned, 

 especially Fisher, and I notice today the 

 bugs are back again in force. 



Is there no remedy for these pests ? An 

 answer through the columns of the Re- 

 view would greatly oblige. 



Lebanon Greenhouses. 



Lebanon, Pa. 



[Can some reader give a remedy for 

 this pe.st. — Ed.] 



CARNATION NOTES. 



Mr. F. A. G. will find his questions 

 regarding stemrot in carnations fully 

 answered in my notes of last week, so I 

 will not repeat the same thing this 

 week. 



How Many Blooms ? 



"How many blooms should a well- 

 grown carnation plant produce during 

 the flowering season?" is hardly a fair 

 question. Carnations should not be 

 judged altogether by the number of 

 blooms each variety pioduces. A bet- 

 ter way to put it would be: "How much 

 ought each plant to earn in a season?' 

 Nearly every grower knows that he can- 

 not obtain the maximum of both qual- 

 ity and quantity from a plant at the 

 same time, and that while one variety 

 may produce nearly twice as many 

 blooms as another variety, in most cases 

 the difference in quality will be .so 

 much in favor of the shyer variety that 

 the earnings will be about the same. 

 Some of the newer varieties, however, 

 combine these two qualities to a great 

 extent as a result of cross fertilization, 

 and in a very few years we will have 

 varieties that will produce the very 

 highest quality blooms and as many as 

 any of our smaller flowered varieties of 

 today could ever be made to produce. 



Then again a variety may produce a 

 large number of blooms, but at a time 

 when there is little profit in them. Still 

 another thing to be taken into consid- 

 eration is how much room does each 

 plant occupy. A plant that grows (" 

 perfection in a space of 8x10 inches 



should not be expected to earn as much 

 as a plant that occupies a space 10x12 

 inches, or perhaps even more. So the 

 fairest way to put the question would 

 be: "How much should each square foot 

 of bench space earn in a season?" 



It is generally agreed that a house 

 built according to modern style and 

 costing about 50c per square foot of 

 ground covered should pay for itself in 

 two vears. That means that a house 

 ■20x100 feet costing .$1,000 and holding 

 as it does just about 2,000 plants, i 

 earn above cost of running about $500 

 each season. You can figure it down 

 to so much from each plant, if you like, 

 but there is so great a difi'erence between 

 the plants, even of the same variety, 

 that it will not be practical. Some will 

 run ahead while others will run behind. 

 Add to this the expense of producing 

 the plants, running the house through 

 the season and marketing the blooms, 

 etc., and you will be able to tell just 

 how much each plant on an average ' 

 should earn. 



The cost of running a house will vary 

 with difi'erent growers, so you must fig- 

 ure that for yourself. You may be a 

 much better manager than your neigh- 

 bor, or if you have ten houses you can 

 manage to run them more economically 

 than you can run five. You can never 

 figure just how many blooms it will 

 take to bring so much money, as you 

 can never tell just what they will bring. 



These results must not be expected, 

 though, unless you have good houses, 

 good soil, good plants to start with, a 

 good early start, and, in fact, you must 

 do things in a first-class way from start 

 to finish if you want to obtain first-class 

 results. Many employers who hire a 

 man to look after the growing end of the 

 business are unwilling to do their part 

 toward bringing about these conditions, 

 but expect the man to grow the very 

 highest quality of stock with perhaps 

 fourth-class facilities, and when the 

 stock does not grade up with their 

 neighbor's they blame the grower for it. 

 This is a great injustice, and often a 

 good grower's reputation gets a black 

 eye until the employer is found out. Of 

 course no first-class grower will remain 

 on such a place very long, as there are 

 plenty of good places where good men 

 are appreciated and treated right. 



A. F. J. Baur. 



GOLDEN GATE. 



I have a house of Golden Gate in good 

 condition and blooming to beat the band, 

 but they have a great deal of blind wood. 

 Would you allow them to dry out for a 

 few days and cut out the blind wood, 

 or allow it to stay on? J. M. 



The rose is so exceptionally free- 

 blooming that cutting the crop amounts 

 to a very sharp .system of pinning. Of 

 course pruning bccnnir- ur^. --ny if the 

 plants are grown .ni in i lir h.-nches a 

 second year. A.mekk ax Kose Co. 



Washington, D. C. 



If the Golden Gate roses were carried 

 over from last season it would be advis- 

 able to cut out some of the blind wood, 

 in fact, it ought to have been done before 

 this. 



If planted since June it is not advisar 

 ble to cut out the blind wood at this 

 time. I think it very essential for the 

 welfare of the plant and the future crop 

 of buds that the foliage be left on, 

 whether on blind or blooming wood. You 



