662 



The Weekly Florists' Review. 



APRIL 26. 1900. 



vine. The calendula or marigold will 

 give you its gay orange flowers during 

 the winter, but it is rather coarse and 

 common. Sow in August or lift 

 plants from open ground and plant 

 on bench in September. 



Pansies are always in demand in 

 winter, but difficult to bloom in dark 

 weather. Very good up to December 

 1st and from first of March on. Swain- 

 sona flowers profusely during winter. 

 Should be grown in pots or tubs where 

 roots are confined. 



I have not included such plants as 

 lilac or spiraea, which can only be 

 forced for one crop. 



Now, a,s before said, the detailed di- 

 rections for the cultivation of the 

 above, although in most cases very 

 simple and well known, would occupy 

 more time and space than I can af- 

 ford, and I respectfully refer "Young 

 Florist" to "Scott's Florists' Man- 

 ual." W. S. 



Herbaceous Plants. 

 Florists who grow heibacious iil.-ints 

 will be busy with order.> just i.ow. 

 There is no time uiore favorable than 

 the next ten days for transplanting 

 nearly all herbaceous planL". Most of 

 them divide with the greatest ease and 

 can be divided ruthlessly witli a sharp 

 spade. Although that lat-gs class of 

 plants known as herbaceous, of which 

 we can take the paeoui.i and phlox as 

 familiar types, are thought to be about 

 everlasting, yet they wear out in the 

 contest and they mist continually 

 spread and make more crown.s or there 

 would soon be no flowers, so they are 

 all benefited by lifting and dividing 

 every five or six years. 



You cannot make the ground too 

 deep or too rich for all this class of 

 plants and if the best results are 

 wanted give them room. An exception 

 to propagating by division is the beau- 

 tiful herbaceous pyrelhrum, P. hybrid- 

 um. They are perhaps the most useful 

 of all this class of plants to the florist 

 who has use tor the flowers. 'When 

 they have made a growth of two or 

 three inches, if strong plants they send 

 up . innumerable shoots. Rob each 

 plant of a few cuttings. They will 

 root in sand in a frame or house, but 

 a mild hotbed is the most favorable 

 place. Grow them along in 4-inch pots 

 till September, when you can plant 

 them out. They are very hardy, but 

 do not always live when pulled or cut 

 in pieces. They take up little room in 

 the garden and their beautiful flowers 

 are admired by all. 



Achillea The Pearl divides easily and 

 is always useful and lasts a long lime 

 in flower. The splendid hybrid del- 

 phiniums you can't be without. If it 

 is only to decorate your store windows 

 they are most desirable. There may 

 not be much money in these hardy 

 garden plants to the high toned store 

 florist, but they are most useful for a 



cheaper grade of business and every 

 florist who has an acre or two of land 

 should have a collection. They take 

 care of themselves and many of our 

 customers, particularly those who have 

 summer resorts, want just such plants 

 for their rural gardens. 



Easter Plants. 



I meant last week to say more in my 

 notes about a -few important Easter 

 plants that maybe you have left over. 

 We were disappointed in the sale both 

 of the Acacia armata and the metrosid- 

 eros. They may go in other cities. We 

 had well flowered plants of both and 

 they were grown one winter and sum- 

 mer here, and are much better than 

 the newly imported plants. When the 

 flowers are gone cut the shoots back to 

 within three or four inches of the pre- 

 vious year's growth. That is, all the 

 growth they made since last April 

 should be cut back to, within a few 

 inches. Place them in a house where 

 it is 55 to 60 degrees all night, and 

 syringe. They will soon break and 

 make young growth. About the mid- 

 dle of June we plunged them in a 

 frame in the broad sun and never let 

 them want for water. In .July we 

 mulched Ihem with some rotten cow 

 manure to which was added a third of 

 good sheep manure. To this summer 

 mulching, especially the sheep manure. 

 I attribute the fine, robust growth 

 they made. If they need a shift, when 

 you put them out in June is a goo.l 

 time. 



The best azaleas we had, particular- 

 ly the Dr. Moore, were plants that we 

 had carried over precisely the same as 

 described above. Mind, in the fuUe.-t 

 sun. no shade of any kind, they don't 

 want it. I mention Dr. Moore because 

 this variety is often a poor bloomer 

 the spring after being imported, but 

 when grown here a season it is a 

 grand variety, and its beautiful rosy 



pink is much more pleasing than the 

 great favorite. Mme. Van der Cruys- 

 sen. Edmond Vervaine, Prof. Wolters 

 and Beruhard Andreas alba were other 

 varieties that were very fine after a 

 year's growth with us. 



It the azaleas are large and in gco:l 

 health, shorten back last year's growth 

 about one-half. If the plants were 

 much abused and not very strong cit 

 them back still harder. The wood of 

 two years' growth will make any 

 amount of breaks. Encourage by syr- 

 inging and a genial heat a good 

 growth and they will do nicely in- 

 doors till you are over your bedding 

 plant rush, which is usually the mid- 

 dle of June. 



Sometimes one watering in twenty- 

 four hours is not enough in our b is- 

 tering sun and they must not be neg- 

 lected, nor must they be stood in a. 

 frame where during a wet spell they 

 would be standing in an inch or two 

 of water, tor that tor many hojrs 

 would be fatal. Thrip and red spider 

 trouble azaleas in hot weather, but a 

 daily syringing given to them hard and 

 horizontariy seem.s with us to entirely 

 keep down these pests. 



Pilogyne Soavs. 

 I notice in a catalogue the little 

 climber Pilogyne suavis. You don't 

 see it in every list, for it is not gener- 

 ally known. It is without a rival as a 

 summer climber, not going to the 

 length or height of a moon vine, but 

 tor a dense growth, rapidity, and a 

 beautiful veil of greenery there is no 

 climber its equal. For a trellis or any 

 position not over 7 or S feet high It is 

 the ideal vine. Cuttings struck in the 

 fall remain doimant and rusty look- 

 ing till February. Then they begin to 

 grow and if you are not careful they 

 will soon grow over everything within 

 3 feet of them. 



Cuttings rooted now will be mo.-e 

 than large enough by planting time. If 

 this sweet little climber was more eas- 

 ily managed in winter it would be uni- 

 versally grown. Its leaves have a slight 

 musk odor, but not enough to offend 

 the fastidious nose. Any portion of 

 the growth will root. 



Asparagus. 

 We never seem to have too many 

 small Asparagus plumosus and when 

 you can be sure of getting good seed. 

 Now is a good time to sow. The plants 

 sown now will make fine little stuff for 

 ferneries which are wanted in quant ty 

 in the fall. 



Lilies. 

 For some time our Lilium lane fo- 

 lium have been in a very cool house, 

 in fact retarded as much as possib'e. 

 They are now 5 or 6 inches high and 

 growing fast. Auratum we have not 

 grown this year as it has b en 

 very unsatisfactory of late and the 

 flower is too coarse and strong to be 

 used in any way except out of doors. 

 The album and rubrum or roseum are 

 beautiful flowers and are useful when 

 good flowers are scarce. They are lia- 

 ble to come in rather plentifully at 

 one time. You can give some of them 



