APRIL 26. 191J0, 



The Weekly Florists' Review 



663 



Thorley's Window. 



New York Stores at Easter. 



a little more heat and retard others 

 and bv that means have their season of 

 blooni last over two months. Greenfly 

 is terrible on the Japan lilies and fu- 

 migation must be faithfully attend- 

 ed to. 



Pelargoniums. 

 I have said very little about pelar- 

 goniums for a long time because 1 am 

 disgusted with them. After growing 

 a fine plant from a cutting in Septem- 

 ber to a 5-inch pot they are then 

 passed by and a zonal geranium is pre- 

 ferred. I don't blame the public for 

 the zonal geranium has many better 

 qualities. 



If you do grow the show pelargo- 

 niums this is the time of year they 

 will be opening their buds and now it 

 is that you must not let the Are out 

 and have a damp, cool atmosphere or 

 the petals will drop in one single 

 night. Keep a fire going even if you 

 have to give air. And frequent but 

 mild fumigation is most necessary or 

 else the story will be: "My Martha 

 Washington is covered with them a;r 

 nasty lice." WILLIAM SCOTT. 



Carnations. 



At a little adjourned session after the 

 last meeting of the Chicago Florists' 

 Club, President Hartshorne, W. N. 

 Rudci, P. M. Broadbeck and Walter 

 Retzer exchanged some interesting ex- 

 periences and the writer took the lib- 

 erty of making notes, 



Mr. Hartshorne said that be had a 

 house of carried over Bradts that had 

 been doing very much better than the 

 young plants. They had been replant- 

 ed in fresh soil, but kept under glass 

 all the time and they had produced 

 much more freely than the young 

 plants, the blooms being of extra qual- 

 ity, too. 



Referring to seedlings, he said that 

 from one pod he had recently taken 

 73 seeds, much the largest number he 

 had ever secured from one pod. He 

 wondered what had caused that pod to 

 produce so many seeds. Mr, Rudd said 

 his foreman had an idea that in cross- 

 fertilizing it increased the number of 

 seeds to thoroughly plaster the stigma 

 with pollen, Mr. Retzer thought the 

 amount of pollen would have little ef- 

 fect onlv it might be that ordinarily 

 there was much of the pollen that was 

 not at the exact degree of ripeness and 

 by using a good deal there was greater 

 certainty of having enough pollen 

 grains that were at the right stage ro 

 be effective. 



Mr Rudd said that he wa» growing 

 two carnation plants for every one 

 that he expected to bench, with the 

 intention of having a big batch from 

 which to select only the very best 

 plants. He obseived last season that 

 the plants that had been in extra good 

 shape when put on bench had paid a 

 vast sight better for the space occupied 

 and he was sure it would pay well to 

 grow enough to have all extra select 

 for benching even if he had to thiow 

 away the unused ones. 



Next year he will carry this idea 

 still further bv marking the best plants 

 and taking cuttings tiom them only. 

 He believed that the success of certain 

 well known growers <t extra high 

 grade flowers was largely due to care- 

 ful selection of the cuttings first and 

 the plants afterwards. 



The difference in the cut from the 

 extra select plants was very noticeable 

 at Christmas, when prices ruled the 

 highest. He felt it was a mistake to 

 rob the blooming plants of cuttings. 

 In the case of Maceo especially he felt 

 sure that everv cutting taken early m 



the season meant the loss of a bloom 

 later on. . 



Mr Hartshorne had noted that Mrs. 

 James Dean would stand much strong- 

 er feeding than other varieties and 

 told of how through an error a double 

 dose of nitrate of soda had been given 

 the results proving decidedly beneficial 

 instead of injurious, 



A general discussion on fertilizers 

 followed. Speaking of bone meal, Mr. 

 Rudd said he procured his bone as 

 finely ground as possible. He believed 

 that very finely ground bone at ?c!0 a 

 ton was 'cheaper than coarser bone at 

 J-^O When ground very finely the 

 plants got the benefit of the bone much 

 more qui.kly and he believed that 

 when the coarser bone was used the 

 bulk of its value remained in the soil 

 when it was thrown out at the end of 

 the season. . 



He thought the prejudice against 

 bone that had been dissolved by acid 

 was based on false conclusions. He 

 questioned whether the small amount 

 of acid in the bone did any barm and 

 attributed the injurious results some- 

 times noted to the fact that the bone 

 had been so finely divided by the acid 

 and its action was therefore so much 

 quicker when used in same amounts 

 as ground bone the plants suffered 

 from an overdose of the fertilizer. He 

 therefore believed in using less of the 

 dissolved bone for a given amount of 

 soil than of the ground bone, and less 

 of the finely ground bone than usually 

 used of that which was coarser. 



Mr. Broadbeck said he used his bone 

 in solution. He had a tar lined barrel 

 into which he would put two bushels 

 of bone, either coarse or fine, and he 

 would then put in two pounds of con- 

 centrated lye and a gallon of water. 

 The Ive would soon cut- the bone up 



