542 



The Weekly Florists' Review. 



MISCELLANEOUS 

 SEASONABLE HINTS. 



Bulbs. 



arriving; and alone; \v 

 rcissus. i suppose tlicre ; 



Tulips 

 them the 



some beginners in tlie business who 

 have not yet tried their hands at forcing 

 tulips. It is not such an important mat- 

 ter with us as it was 15 years ago. The 

 forcing of tulips and daffodils was then 

 a very important item and a good deal 

 iif monej' was made at it. I can very 

 well remember the time when it was 

 quite experimental with us and we had 

 to try a year or two before we were cer- 

 tain of success. Now with good quality 

 bulbs we know the conditions required so 

 well that there is no fear of failure. 



If you have imported your varieties 

 no need of telling you what sort to grow. 

 There may be some who have not yet 

 purchased their forcing tulips. There 

 is no doubt about the Due van Thol be- 

 ing the earliest to force, but as I have 

 often said, we have so many other flow- 

 ers now for the holiday season that 

 short stemmed tulips are really not es- 

 sential, and therefore I would dispense 

 with the Due van Thol varieties. For 

 scarlet, Waterloo (as often called Belle 

 Alliance) is inexpensive and very fine. 

 Vermillion Brilliant is the best of all 

 scarlet flowers and very early. For a 

 yellow, Chrysolora is still earlier than 

 Yellow Prince and deeper in color, but 

 Yellow Prince is grand, with a longer 

 stem and is best for general crop. 



For white the ever popular La Heine 

 is the best. Under some conditions this 

 variety often assumes a beautiful pink 

 shade. When first opening it is almost 

 pure white. White Pottebaker is a 

 magnificent white, but much more expen- 

 sive than the La Peine. For pink Rose 

 Gris de Lin is fine, but the most beau- 

 tiful of all is the Cottage Maid. Proser- 

 pine is one of the grandest of all tulips. 

 Its color is hard to describe; we will call 

 it a deep pink; a splendid forcer. 



The above are about all the colors that 

 you need and every one is perfectly 

 adapted for early forcing. If more va- 

 riety is needed, Kaiserskroon, red bor- 

 dered yellow, is a fine flower, but sheds 

 its petals badly. Duchess de Parma is 

 also a very large flower, orange yellow. 

 Joost von Vondel is a very fine 

 flower. It might be described as 

 a claret shaded with white. 



There are few double tulips that it 

 will pay to force. Couronne d'Or is a 

 fine deep orange. Imperator Rubrorum 

 is the best scarlet. Tournesol is a red 

 and yellow; a very showy flower and 

 worth growing for Easter. La Candeur 

 is a very cheap, large double white, but 

 do not try to force it before March. Mur- 

 illo is the best of all double tulips for 

 the florist. It opens white and then as- 

 sumes a most beautiful delicate pink of 

 a satiny texture. 



Before I tell you my method of hand- 

 ling tulips I wou'd just like to say, do 

 not be in any hurry to plant out of 

 doors. You are not likely to do it yet 

 for some time, but last fall we had some 

 valuable experience in this line. The 

 best tulips that I have ever seen in this 



country or any other were planted as 

 late as the cnil of November. In fact, 

 they were dibbled into almost mud, but 

 they came out in magnificent style. This 

 is the experience of other growers. When 

 you plant out of doors too early they I 

 are apt to be rather early in the spring 

 and do not last in bloom nearly as well 

 as those that are making roots in the 

 spring. So the end of October and No- 

 vember is plenty early enough to plant 

 tulips and hyacinths outside. 



Now, for forcing it is very necessary 

 that you get at least part of your bulbs 

 in at once, and there is no object in 

 delaying the boxing of any of them, be- 

 cause the better they are rooted 

 the easier they will force. For the I7th 

 time I will just allude to the flat or box 

 we use for forcing, and I have never 

 been able to improve on it. This flat 

 comes in useful for carrying plants or 

 for packing bedding plants in in the 

 spring. It is 2 ft. long, I ft. broad and 

 3 inches deep, all inside measure. The 

 ends are made of inch stuff and the bot- 

 tom and sides are three inch strips half 

 an inch thick. This just allows a small 

 space between each strip on the bottom 



It is a mistake to think that it i* 

 necessary to have a rich soil for tulips 

 or hyacinths. The Hollander has pro- 

 duced the embryo llower and all we do 

 is -to force it out with heat and mois- 

 ture, so any soil will do as long as it is 

 a good workable texture. The soil from 

 an old carnation bed would be ideal. 

 Light it should be for convenience sake. 



Boxing these tulips, hyacinths or nar- 

 cissus should be a very quick operation 

 and one that wants very little training. 

 We just fill the box even full, and where 

 a quantity is being done the man who 

 puts the bulbs in need not have that 

 part of the job to do. Then we squeeze 

 the bulb down until the top is even with 

 the top of the box and that makes the 

 soil of just the right solidity. A little 

 soil is needed then between the tops of 

 the bulbs and the operation is done. The 

 box I have described will hold about 72 

 La Heine or the smaller varieties and 

 GO of such varieties as Murillo, or 50 

 Von Sion. 



If you have a root house that is very 

 cold it may do as well for storage of 

 these bulbs as to have them out of doors, 

 but even in our severe climate I much 

 prefer to have them entirely out in the 

 open ground. We put some old boards 

 on an open space of ground and set the 

 boxes on the boards. We make beds of 

 about six ft. wide and as long as you 

 like and a space of six or seven ft. be- 

 tween another bed. The first and im- 

 portant thing is as soon as the boxes are 

 placed on the ground that they should 

 have a thorough watering. Make sure 

 that it goes down to the bottom of the 



Wreath of Roses, Valley and Orchids, by A. Gude & Bro., Washington, for the President's- 

 Funeral. Ordered by British Embassy. 



and is just what you want for drainage. 

 We get this stuff ripped out at a plan- 

 ing mill out of rough but sound lumber, 

 and I don't think the boxes cost us, mak- 

 ing and all, over six cents each. Of 

 course we make them ourselves. If you 

 have a few little boys, as I have had in 

 my time, passing through the age when 

 they are fond of using a hammer, they 

 will be delighted with the Job, 



box. We throw a small quantity, just a 

 sprinkling, of the buckwheat husks on 

 the surface of the soil. The only good 

 that does is that the soil with which 

 you cover the boxes breaks away easily 

 from the soil in the box when taking 

 them in. As soon as thoroughly watered 

 we dig the soil out between the beds and 

 throw on from two to thiee inches and 

 level over the whole surface. 



