572 



The Weekly Florists' Review* 



lid of st.H-k an.l .icps arc allowed to 

 go oii(. ilaiiy a grower is now shipping 

 rose gcraiiiuiii to the market that is 

 too rougli t(i use with even dahlias. 

 Clean grecnlunise grown stock is what is 

 wanted and preparations slunild now lie 

 made to supply the certain (Irinaiid Iruni 

 November to jiay. 



It seems a great pifv lli;i( wr ^n ^ci 

 little of the 'liner varicli.- .1 .,.-,,,. ^ 

 in the east; they ar.' brnutilul i1..u,ls 

 and (juitc a lot el)uld lie umiI >,,uld lluy 

 be had. So far dahlias have been a 

 failure this season in New York ; grow. 

 ers seem to have liut the poorest vari- 

 eties herealx>uts, at least Philadelphia 

 is supplying New York with the best 

 dahlias at present. There is a market 

 here for good whites and cactus sorts. 



If you can get any gnnd p. it- of 

 mignonette in during the win in liny 

 will sell; need not be the Mj cal.iKiLiy 

 kinds, just the old sweet variilii-. tliat 

 we can make up enticing mignonette 

 baskets with. Jasminnm graeillimum 

 flowers will be fine with red roses. A 

 spray in any box of flowers, or for 

 finger bowls later on, and don't forget 



piciously upon it and be seared away 

 from a more liberal or steady purchase. 



Orchids can never be used or rated as 

 common Mowers; they are too l)eautifully 

 erratic for tint; they will not tolerate 

 iDugh o-.i'je, and 'tis'a, pity to see them 

 arrayed aj;ainst gladiolus or dahlias. 

 Tliev would lie more appreciated by the 

 best cla^^-es were tliey kept, a little stead- 

 ier on the mark<(. i'n |.- lannot always 

 be regulated, we kihux, l.nl if you can- 

 not get 2.5 cents wlmlrsalr lor them keep 

 them oil' the market. 



Some very beautiful window displays 

 are now being made with CatUeya labi- 

 ata, and Oncidium varicosum, arranged 

 in sepaniio »in.lM«, of course. Thorley 

 had 50(1 c:itil.\,i- III his window one day 

 last week, and ..llirr tip-top florists 

 showed nioM cieditable creations in bas- 

 ket or other designs of them. \Vc have 

 just seen some pot-grmvn bushes of Crat- 

 aegus pyracantha full of brilliant berries, 

 and I 111- llhoulit (« rnrred to us how use- 

 ful iliiv w.iiikl 111- r. mid they be got so at 

 ( liii>tni:i-; lliiy would needs be protect- 

 ed a.^aiii.-^t, bird>, but they're pretty and 

 might be worth going for. 



Specimen Spikes of Candytuh grown by Wm. Sim, Cliftondale, Mass. 



it, Rhynchospermum jasminioides is the 

 next best thing, but its foliage is too 

 clumsy and usually unclean. 



If you can get a few pots of the best 

 colored caladiunis (they don't cost much, 

 or you might hire them), you can make 

 quite a showing with them in your win- 

 dow; they are very attractive when used 

 in conjunction with fine ferns. 



Just at jirescnt there seems to be an 

 immense quantity of cattleya blooms on 

 the market ; some have been sold, we are 

 told, for as low as $12 per 100 — more's 

 the pity if it is tnje. It would be better 

 for the future of this class of flowers 

 if a steady price were maintained on 

 them; they should not be wholesaled for 

 less than 2.5 cents, and they should never 

 reach 75 cents. It seems bad policy to 

 be compelled to charge your customer $1 

 or $1.25 for a cattleya one month and sell 

 him a much finer cattleya the very next 

 month for 50 cents; the supply and de- 

 mand sort of excuse may go with some, 

 but the regular buyer is apt to look sus- 



Because small plants of Cycas revoluta 

 seem to be plentiful is no reason to de- 

 spise them; they are mighty useful 

 things to have in a store or greenhouse 

 where funeral work is made up; you can 

 use them in most designs, be they stand- 

 ing or flat, and whilst the prepared 

 leaves (and most of them are truly aw- 

 ful) supplied by dealers may be a neces- 

 sity to most in a close call, the real 

 things are the best, and you can spend 

 your money 'more foolishly than in buy- 

 ing a ]ikint or two for cutting purposes. 



S|.c:ikinL' of ouKing up plants for fun- 

 eral w,uK 1,'iuiuds us that there is too 

 iiini-li antipathy toward cutting up such 

 as Cocos '\Yeddeliana, phoenix, etc., for 

 use in funeral work. It is often, the 

 case that you have defective plants 

 around you that you could get value out 

 of were you to use their leaves in large 

 designs ; often a leaf will add dollars to 

 the value of a design where it isn't 

 worth cents for aught else. 



Salvia is beautiful at present; get a 



good l]ig va^e ful for your window. 



Some growers are ottering 4 and 5-inch 

 pot stock of that hardest of all ferns, 

 Crytoraium falcatnm ; it is nothing for 

 temporal y decorative purposes, but it is 

 invaluable for "pocket work" in con- 

 servatories or in plac-cs where it is diflS- 

 cult to keep plants; it is fine for vase or 

 window box work and you can afford to 

 be well acquainted with it. 



Keep your eye on where you can get 

 plenty of nice "small Cocos Weddeliana, 

 crolo',,-. Di.M irii,, ^,:i,ili-. krnlias, Pan- 

 danu- \rii,l,ii i,M,,_Mi-l .N|irMi,, Dra- 



cacn;. (,ihI-,|1 ,i \> ^.Mnlrl i,, ii;i, Abu- 



tiloii> ^a\il/ii :i)id s.iu\. .1.- I'.onn and 

 other graceful or high coloreil stock; you 

 will need them for fern dishes or bas- 

 ket work. A day spent out in the nurs- 

 eries or among general plant growers is 

 time well spent, providing you make note 

 of tilings, and if you don't always see 

 what you want, give the grower some 

 idea of what is likely to sell well. There 

 are majiy eases where growers have lots 

 of valuable stock that could be used to 

 advantage were grower and retailer on 

 closer visiting relations. 



He is a foolish buyer who will place 

 too much dependence on size of pot when 

 buying plants; size of pot may be all 

 very good when you want to fit basket or 

 vase, but quality in plant comes before 

 size of pot all the time. Put quite a few 

 of your azaleas in the iizalea pot this 

 year; they are better to trim, and small 

 size plants are going to be useful for 

 many purposes. The future tendency in 

 decorative work is a greater use of flow- 

 ering plants, of which fine colored aza- 

 leas will form no little part. 



If you happen to get a chance to do any- 

 decorating for some of the affairs to be 

 tendered Sir Thomas Lipton there will 

 be no harm in suggesting the use of 

 shamrocks; you will find them offered in 

 the classified advs. of The Review. We 

 often read that section to get ideas; it is 

 always most interesting. IvERA. 



CARNATION NOTES. 



Snails. 



Replying to the inquiry of W. S. C, 

 who says snails are feeding on his car- 

 nation flowers, we have never found a 

 iicttcr way of getting rid of snails than 

 to latcli tliem by hand and destroy them. 

 They usually do their mischief at night 

 and with the aid of a lantern there is 

 no trouble in catching them. Have your 

 fireman go through the carnation houses 

 and catch them during these mild nights 

 when not much steam is needed, and if he 

 is faithful it will not take him long 

 to rid the place of the pest. We do not 

 ■ like to use poisonous insecticides on 

 plants that are in full crop, as more or 

 less is sure to get onto and stick to the 

 blooms when they are sent onto the mar- 

 ket, and it might possibly in some way 

 prove what some people say about poi- 

 sonous insecticides being used by the 

 flori-N anil tin- '.^icat danger they think 

 thcio i- ill li.i lulling them. Such reports 

 do 1 111 liii-iiir-- :i great deal of harm 

 and MO luii-t \<r MTV careful to give no 

 ground for them. Of course all open 

 blooms would be picked before applying 

 the insecticide, but while a crop is on 

 there are always a lot of partially de- 

 veloped blooms which would catch a lot 

 of it and retain it until they are mar- 

 keted. 



We know of nothing that snails are 

 more fond of than they are of the young. 



