MAV 



The Weekly Florists^ Review* 



693 



Liicatos.' 

 New York Stores at Easter. No. 6. 



commands and deserves any respect. 

 He is an educated gentleman and we 

 are glad of his friendsliip, but we 

 wish to tell him that we don't like 

 the way in which his man puts skirts 

 on his plants. Those 1849 flounces 

 don't look right today; they are ob- 

 solete; the less crinoline used 'round 

 a rose plant, like a girl, the better it 

 and she looks. I\ i^nA. 



CARNATIONS. 



Mr. E. Buettner. Park Ridge, HI., 

 believes in garden culture rather than 

 field culture for carnations and also in 

 watering the plants in the summer 

 time. Where he is located there is 

 about 12 inches of light black soil on 

 a heavy clay sub-soil. It dries very 

 hard and then come deep cracks that 

 admit a good deal of air to the soil, 

 and cultivation alone will not prevent 

 rapid evaporation. 



His plants are in beds, four rows of 

 plants to a bed, the rows 12 inches 

 apart and the plants 10 inches apart in 

 the rows. Cultivation is entirely by 

 hand. He has water mains all through 

 his carnation field and for watering in 

 dry weather he uses common lawn 

 sprinklers. He holds that it not wa- 

 tered in the field the plants would not 

 only suffer from dryness, but would be 

 eaten up Ijy red spider. 



The watering is done at night, a 

 man moving the sprinklers to another 

 section when one is thoroughly 

 soaked. The sprinkler he uses will 

 reach across two beds. He gets his 

 water fiom an artesian well and a 



steam pump is used to give the water 

 considerable force, so that it falls on 

 the ground as fine spray. When the 

 ground has dried sufficiently after a 

 watering, the crust is hoed off, and 

 when thoroughly dry another good 

 soaking is given. 



White Cloud is such a strong grow- 

 er with him that it is sometimes in- 

 clined to grow too large, and when 

 this is apparent he skips this variety 

 occasionally when watering, which 

 gives a sufficient check to keep it 

 within bounds. 



The soil he uses in the houses is 

 prepared as follows: In the fall he 

 plows virgin sod and scatters over it 

 air-slaked lime (just enough to whiten 

 it), to make it sweet. In the spring he 

 makes his compost heap of layers of 

 sod and cow manure, adding a little 

 bone meal to the manure. By this 

 time the lime has about ceased acting 

 and no harm is done to the bone. 

 When this soil is placed in the bench 

 he adds more bone. For later feeding 

 he uses liquid from sheep manure, and 

 to his tank of liquid, which contains 

 256 cubic feet, he occasionaTy adds a 

 6-inch potfull each of sulphate of am- 

 monia and muriate of potash, or ni- 

 trate of soda and sulphate of potash. 

 He relies upon the potash to give 

 strength of stem. He thinks the chem- 

 icals could be added to the soil in the 

 first place if done long enough before 

 the plants were put in to allow time 

 for the chemicals to first become thor- 

 oughly dissolved. He finds that it is 

 the chemical action that takes place 



while they are dissolving that works 

 injury to the plants. 



As to varieties. White Cloud has 

 been the best paying white with him 

 the past season. Hill has been a 

 steady and continuous bloomer, but 

 the stems rather weak in mid-winter. 

 He finds that Hill does best in a light 

 soil, while White Cloud like s a heavier 

 one. 



America has been larger and of bet- 

 ter form and color than Crane with 

 him, though Crane has the best stem 

 and produces most freely. The great 

 drawback to Crane with him has been 

 stem rot. 



Mary Wood is a grand flower and 

 would be the ideal white were the 

 llowers iiroduced more freely. 



With him .loost has been a good and 

 continuous bloomer, but the fiowers 

 cannot be classed as fancy. Some buy- 

 ers say that it goes to sleep quickly, 

 though others maintain that it is a 

 satisfactory keeper. He is inclined to 

 think that dealers would find all car- 

 nations better keepers if careful to 

 keep them away from draughts. 



He grows Bradt. but finds that it 

 sells readily in limited quantities only. 

 Melba has a fine color in winter, but 

 with him it has been a weak grower 

 and shy bloomer, \vellesley has been 

 discarded as valueless. He has grown 

 Scott up to this year, but will now 

 drop it. 



He would like to get a carnation 

 with the color and stem of .lubilee and 

 the form of Mary Wood or White 

 Cloud. 



He does not think that stem-rot is 

 the result of a superabundance of 

 moisture. In fact, he calls it dry-rot 

 instead of stem-rot. With a light soil 

 and only four or five inches of it in 

 the liench, he thinks the plants are 

 much more apt to have too little water 

 than too much. He keeps the soil on 

 the wet side rather than the dry side. 

 He has never watered his carnations 

 overhead. A dry atmosphere and 

 plenty of water at the roots is his 

 rule. 



He says the cuttings and plants sent 

 out by introducers of new varieties 

 are usually a disgrace to those who 

 send them out. And he sees no rea- 

 sonable excuse for such careless prop- 

 agation. He believes that the use- 

 fulness of many promising new sorts 

 is killed in this way. He notes a few 

 honorable exceptions and says he al- 

 ways has more faith in new varieties 

 sent out by certain firms because he 

 knows he will get stock that has some 

 value to start with. A reputation of 

 this sort is becoming more valuable 

 yearly. 



THE AMERICAN LOTUS. 



The American lotus ( Xelumbium 

 luteum) is one of America's floral 

 giants, with its golden blossoms S 

 inches and its glossy leaves 12 inches 

 in diameter. It is purely American, 

 no yellow lotus having been found in 

 any other part of the world, and no 



