126 



The Weekly Florists' Review. 



JANUARY 4, 1900. 



good strong calyx. A free, continu- 

 ous bloomer and a strong grower, with 

 light green foliage. 



By Thomas Capers, Wellesley Hills, 

 Mass.: 



Conquest— Color white, a cross be- 

 tween Daybreak and Mrs. Fisher. 

 Very large and double flowers, meas- 

 uring three and one-half inches on an 

 average. Strongly fragrant, handsome 



grower, extraordinarily profuse in 

 bloom, never being off crop through- 

 out the season. 



The American Carnation Society. 

 Albert M. Herr, Sec, Lancaster, Pa. 



Premium list for Buffalo meeting 

 now ready. If not a member of the 

 society and you intend exhibiting, 

 send for it. 



Looking Ahead. 

 In some greenhouse establishments 

 there will by. this time be a transfor- 

 mation scene. Christmas demands 

 have cleared off benches, and stock 

 wanted later will now receive atten- 

 tion. As I have often remarked, a 

 florist must be a thinking man, at 

 least more than in some caUings, for 

 if he is going to be successful he must 

 be nearly always thinking and prepar- 

 ing a year or so ahead of time. 



You" will naturally want to perpetu- 

 ate or prepare a good stock of those 

 plants that were in most demand at 

 the past holidays, and although your 

 memory may be excellent, and you 

 a veteran at the business, it is far 

 safer to make a memorandum of the 

 quantities you had and how they sold, 

 as well as what you should have had. 

 There is one broad fact: A man who 

 keeps a store buys everything and is 

 under no expense for growing. He 

 makes a fair profit on all he handles. 

 But the man who has a greenhouse 

 and retails should endeavor to raise 

 all he possibly can and have it in the 

 best order when wanted. If he has 

 to buy much he makes little profit, for 

 he has had the expense of running the 

 greenhouses, which will more than 

 consume the profits on what he buys. 

 It is these considerations that com- 

 pel us to see the great advantages of 

 a division of labor. Growing or pro- 

 ducing and retailing are entirely dis- 

 tinct businesses. If you found a man 

 with the ability for both, it would 

 be impossible for him to practice both. 

 One would unfit him for the other. 

 And although there are perhaps thou- 

 sands trying to do this very thing, the 

 sooner this grand division of the busi- 

 ness occurs the better. 



Azaleas. 



Azaleas that have been used for 

 decorating or where not well enou.^h 

 flowered to sell can either be put In 

 a good warm house and encouraged 

 to grow (in which ease they will set 



their buds very early and can be 

 flowered early in the fall), or they can 

 be put in a cool house and can wait 

 till after Easter, when you will have 

 others to prune back and start grow- 

 ing. 



While on Azaleas, let me remind 

 you that your Easter plants shouM 

 now be in a very cool house. That 

 splendid old variety, Mme. van der 

 Cruyssen. is always diflicult to keep 

 back, but remember that anything 

 above freezing will do for the Indian 

 azaleas that you want to retard. 

 Cvtisus. 

 Cytisus (or genista, as it is often 

 called) also wants a very cool house. 

 or it will be too early for the middle of 

 April. 



Poinsettias. 

 Poinsettias have sold so well that 

 we are short of plants for next year's 

 stock. If grown in pots, and you have 

 any left, just lay them on their sides 

 under a dry, warm bench; the dryer 

 they get the better. Those grown on 

 benches for cutting is where most of 

 the stock will come from. They can 

 be lifted and their roots put into ilats 

 of dry soil and they will keep in any 

 dry, warm house or shed. Early Ap- 

 ril is quite early enough to start these 

 old plants growing. 



Bfgonia Gloire de Lorraine. 



It is not advisable to try and 



grow on poor plants of the beautiful 



Gloire de Lorraine begonias. C5ood 



plants can be propagated now; or, 



rather, propagated now they will 



; make fine plants a year hence. The 



European horticultural papers say 



1 they propagate thera both by cuttings 



of the stems and leaves, the leaves 



making the thriftiest plants. We will 



1 allow them to be the best authority, 



for our experience is yet limited with 



this most attractive of plants. 



Bulbs. 



We have practiced this winter as 



we preached, and brought in no tulips 



or Von Sions. Of late years there is 

 always a large percentage of loss with 

 these extra early attempts. After New 

 Year's any of the good tulips, such a» 

 La Reine, Waterloo, Yellow Prince, or 

 Rose Grisdelin, will force early and 

 surely as well as Von Sion narcissus, 

 providing, of course, that you boxed 

 them early enough to be now well 

 rooted, and that you give them a 

 top heat of 70 deg., with plenty of 

 moisture, and covered with cheese 

 cloth or some other shading. 



Don't attempt to force Dutch hya- 

 cinths till February. They are not in 

 any demand and not very satisfactory. 



Astilbe. 

 It will be time now to pot your 

 Astilbe japonica. Give the roots a good 

 soaking before you pot them and if 

 short of room they will do under the 

 bench for four or five weeks. 



Crimson Ramblers. 

 We have a number of Crimson 

 Rambler roses that were grown during 

 summer in 7 and 8-inch pots and 

 which made canes of 5 and 6 ft. The 

 wood is well ripened and as the roots 

 are not disturbed they will, I believe, 

 come into flower with 10 or 11 weeks 

 in the houses. But those lifted from 

 the ground in November should not be 

 exposed to very hard freezing at any 

 time and should be now in a very cool 

 house and coming along slowly. They 

 take a good fourteen weeks to bring 

 them in right. It takes some time to 

 get them well rooted; anything like 

 forcing would be fatal unless they 

 were rooted. 



With any plant of this kind, either 

 established or not, it is proper to be- 

 gin cool and let the heat increase 

 gradually. If you have to do three 

 weeks of strong forcing let it be the 

 last three weeks, for that is natural 

 and will do no harm. 



Hydrangeas. 

 Hydrangeas could have been put 

 into a cool house a month ago, but 

 nothing like forcing should have been 

 done up to this date. After they show 

 signs of starting keep them in a tem- 

 perature of .50 degrees. The last six 

 weeks before Easter they will stand GO 

 degrees at night without harm, but are 

 easily hurt in the early stages of their 

 growth. 



Various Plants. 

 There are several plants of which 

 you lifted several for stock and now 

 "you have time and opportunity to 

 propagate by putting in a batch of 

 cuttings and disposing of the old 

 plants, for the young stock will give 

 you plentv of cuttings. 1 refer to sal- 

 via, ageratum, acalypha, feverfew, lo- 

 belia, sweet alyssum, etc. 



Lilies, 

 The care of the Easter lilies will soon 

 be on you, and you cannot begin to 

 sort them over too soon. I no'fce at 

 present that the Bermuda longiflorum 

 will want at least 10 degrees higher 

 from now on to bring them in with the 



