440 



The Weekly Florists' Review^ 



MARCH 15, 1900. 



English ( they are just as much 

 Irish, because every bog in Ireland is 

 covered with 'em) primroses will sell 

 very well either in pans or baskets. 

 There's more money in them than in 

 most other things; get some of them — 

 you may have to pay from 10 to 15 

 cents for them, but you'll get It back 

 treble. 



Ericas ought to sell well, though 

 many of the varieties don't show up 

 enough for the price you must pay, 

 and the people ericas appeal to from a 

 sentimental point of view are few. 

 There are one or two varieties out this 

 year which are very beautiful, such as 

 Cavendishii, translucens and cupressi- 



ana; a few of them will enrich your 

 display and ought to sell. 



Calceolarias will be somewhat of a 

 novelty this year, and they are going 

 to make a big hit if properly handled. 

 The colors are magnificent and they 

 are a change from what the people 

 have been drugged with. 



This is too big a subject to deal with 

 in one week, and we'll continue it next. 

 Only just one word of caution: be care- 

 ful what you buy. don't begrudge a 

 grower his price for anything new or 

 good, for you can get a big price for 

 them. Where you are apt to lose mon- 

 ey is on trashy, small stock. Scour 

 your district for what's best in it and 

 be generous yet sensible. IVERA. 



Easter Crops. 



There will be nothing so interesting 

 to most of the growers, and the plant 

 men particularly, as the state of your 

 Easter crop. Easter Is a little later 

 than the average date and we must re- 

 member that the fifteen days of April 

 are worth as a forcing time nearly 

 double the same period in March. We 

 are sure even with the most unfavora- 

 ble spring to get some fine, warm 

 weather. 



You do not get your batches of 

 plants in at the right time without a 

 good deal of thought and labor. iVIove, 

 move, move, is the order of the day, 

 but with most all plants it is not safe 

 or wise to take a plant out of a night 

 temperature of, say, 60 degrees and 

 put it in one of 45 degrees, unless the 

 flowers are open or about to open. It 

 is an unnatural and chilling treatment 

 and hard on the plants. It is better 

 to let them open up if you find them 

 too early, and then put them in some 

 shaded house or shed where they will 

 keep in good order many days. 



It is not alone the ni^ht temperature 

 that will control the plants, but rather 

 the sun, which is increasing daily in 

 power and has the greatest effect on 

 opening up the flower.s. So you should 

 have at least one house where the 

 glass is shaded either by board or 

 cloth, or it you cannot do better, 

 whitewash the glass, and this house 

 will do for many thing.s. bring some 

 on fast enough and for storing others 

 that are fully out. Keep it shady and 

 air on all possible occasions, and it 

 will keep a lily or azalea for at least 

 two weeks after being well out. Boards 

 are much to be preferred to white- 



wash, because you need the house aft- 

 erwards and do not need the shade. 



At this date, March 13, we find the 

 early azaleas, among them the popular 

 Mme. Van der Cruyssen and the beau- 

 tiful Prof. Walters, just showing color. 

 They will come along all right in this 

 cool house while Empress de Brazil 

 and later flowering kinds may need a 

 bright house and a nigni temperature 

 of 60 degrees. 



By keeping the Cytlsus racemosus 

 very cool it is only just showing flower 

 and will be all right in the cool shaded 

 house. 



The lilies are of first importance, 

 both on account of the quantity we 

 grow and their popularity. Those 

 showing buds distinctly can with a 

 strong heat be got out. but I would 

 prefer to see the buds at this date two 

 inches long. There is not likely to be 

 an oversupply. The Harrisii with us 

 is fairly healthy, but the Bermuda 

 longiflorum which looked so promising 

 up to New Year's have taken a terrible 

 tumble and it is consoling to know 

 that "we are not the only one." They 

 have not gone off here and there a 

 plant, but hundreds in a batch. They 

 look as if they had had a bath of scald- 

 ing water. 



Japan longiflorum are free of dis- 

 ease and will be largely depended on 

 as the late Easter has given them a 

 good chance to he in. Easter is not 

 the only time you see a lily, so those 

 witlio\it hope put aside and let them 

 come on gradually. 



The Crimson Ramblers will want 

 your brightest and warmest house. 

 Make sure of their being in time. They 

 will keep a long time should they be 

 too early. Ours were nursery stock, a 



year ago cut down and potted and 

 grown all summer under glass, where 

 they made good canes and were 

 ripened off in the fall. By this method 

 you do not get quite so large a plant 

 as those lifted from the field last fall, 

 but they are easier to force and are 

 covered with flowers and just now 

 need plenty of liquid as the pots are 

 necessarily one mass of roots. Old 

 plants that were forced last year and 

 did not flower and again forced this 

 year I don't believe in. 



The Acacia armata that is not at all 

 satisfactory the first winter after im- 

 porting makes if cut down and grown 

 in pots over summer a beautiful plant. 

 They are just showing a few of their 

 globular yellow flowers and will come 

 along nicely in our "cold storage." 



You cannot do anything with the 

 spiraea (astilbe) but give it room, an 

 abundance of water and keep the to- 

 bacco smoke away. But as you are 

 possibly now using aphis punk no care 

 is needed. It is too cl.^ap a plant to 

 put much labor on, but if you can set 

 each spiraea in an 8-inch saucer and 

 keep the saucers supplied with weak 

 liquid manure you will have a spiraea 

 as it should be grown. 



Marie Legraye. the white lilac, and 

 the Azalea mollis both want about 

 four weeks under glass. Last year the 

 mollis sold well decorated with crepe 

 and ribbon to match the beautiful or- 

 ange tints. 



I might add here that any of these 

 deciduous shrubs that you are forcing 

 are greatly benefited by a frequent 

 syringing till the flowers show color. 

 We are forcing a few" dozen plants of 

 the ,Iapan maples for decorations; 

 they will be an acquisition. 



Last year I gave you some rather 

 misleading advice about violets in 

 pots. I said lift thein two or three 

 weeks before Easter. I was wrong, at 

 least we found it so. Unless you have 

 violets most particularly well flowered 

 don't bother with them at all, but it 

 you have, as we expect to have, plants 

 that will go into a 5-inch pot, with 25 

 to 35 flowers, then mark them three 

 weeks before Easter, .so that they «re 

 not picked, but don't lift them till a 

 day or so before they are wanted for 

 sale; they will be jusl as satisfactory 

 to your customers and far more at- 

 tractive than those you attempted to 

 establish. The same with the pansies. 

 Mark a lot of your best plants two 

 weeks before Easter, but don't lift 

 them for pans till the last moment. 



I cannot say much to you about 

 bulbous stuff just now. except to re- 

 mind you that the 15th of .\pril is very 

 near their natural flowering time and 

 but a few days will be needed under 

 glass, so don't make the mistake of 

 bringing them in too early. Ten to 

 fourteen days will be plenty for hya- 

 cinths and daffodils, fifteen or sixteen 

 days for sin.gle tulips, and perhaps 

 twenty days for Murillo and other 

 double tuli))s. But watch the weath- 

 er; one bright, warm day will do more 

 to open a tulip than a week of dark 

 weather with fire heat alone, 



A fancy paper man called today for 



