694 



The Weekly Florists' Review* 



MAT 3, MOO. 



other variety is found in America. It 

 is met occasionally most all over the 

 TnitocI States, but is most frequent 

 from Kentucky southward. 



Great fields of it were under cultiva- 

 tion by tlie Indians on tlie middle 

 waters of tlie Tennessee and Cumber- 

 land rivers at tlie time of settlement 

 by the whites. Old settlers now living 

 in tnose sections can remember when 

 the Indians, after having been driven 

 out, would come Ijack and gather ail 

 the seed they could carry away. The 

 seeds were used largely by them for 

 beads, and also as an article of food, 

 under the name "yonker-pins." They 

 were also called "TO-year acorns," be- 

 cause it was thnught they required 70 

 years in which to germinate. It is evi- 

 dent that some of the trUies used the 

 root also as food, while some portion 

 of the plant, known only to the In- 

 dian, was used as a medicine. The 

 Indian's arrow was modeled almost 

 exactly after the long flower spikes, 

 his canoe was a crude imitation of the 

 petals, and his war club was a repre- 

 sentation of the large seed pod. So, 

 while the sacred lotus of the Nile has 

 had its worshipers and the sacred 

 lotus of the Ganges its votaries, the 

 sacred lotus of the Mississippi has had 

 at least its admirers. 



In all respects, except color, it is 

 identical with the Oriental nelum- 

 biums. When it first opens the petals 

 are a bright lemon yellow, growing 

 paler each day until almost white. It 

 approaches the Egyptian lotus in size, 

 but is somewhat more globular. Un- 

 der cultivation it behaves similar to 

 N. album grandiflorum, becoming 

 more "dwarfed" and flowering more 

 freely in limite* quarters. 



It submits to more rough handling 

 than any lotus, and a smaller percent- 

 age of the roots die when transplant- 

 ed. Last spring we threw some sur- 

 plus tubers into a cement tank in 

 which there was no soil. They at 

 once started growth and produced an 

 abundance of foliage, with consider- 

 able flowers, while floating in the clear 

 water. I have never noticed this of 

 any of the other lotuses. They usual- 

 ly throw out a few puny leaves and 

 then decay. 



Yellow is the rarest color- in water 

 lilies, and this, being the only yellow 

 lotus, holds a place that cannot he 

 filled by a substitute. 



GEO. B. MOULDER. 



THRIPS. 



Mr. K. liucttncr. Park Ridge. 111., 

 says that the English insecticide XL 

 All is certainly effective in combating 

 the thrips. but that it is altogether too 

 expensive to be used regularly. 



It cost him about .?.5 to fumigate a 

 house 18x12.'), and as it should be done 

 at least once a week, it runs into 

 money rapidly. He had this insecti- 

 cide analyzed and found that a large 

 part of it was chemically pure nico- 

 tine. This is a very expensive ingre- 

 dient and probably the manufacturer 

 could not afford to sell the prepara- 



tion at much less than the price he 

 asks. 



Where thrips have got a firm hold 

 and are doing serious damage he he- 

 lieves it would pay to use XL All a 

 few times to get them under control, 

 and they can then be kept down by 

 Nikoteen applied regularly and per- 

 sistently. He evaporates the Nikoteen 

 by the hot iron method. He finds the 

 Nikoteen just as effective as the to- 

 bacco extract and cleaner to use. He 

 would like, though, to learn of some 

 method whereby the fumes of tobacco 

 or nicotine may be kept in the atmos- 

 phere all the time, without the objec- 

 tionable plan of strewing tobacco 

 stems around and frequently renewing 

 them. The tobacco extract and Niko- 

 teen are effective only when evapo- 

 rated by considerable heat. What is 

 wanted is something that will be ef- 

 fective when difi:used by the heat of 

 the steam or hot water pipe, as is 

 sulphur in the rose houses. 



In fumigating with the Nikoteen for 

 thrips he always uses it two nights in 

 succession. One application seems to 

 merely benumb the insects, but the 

 second one following closely behind 

 the first carries the effect to the kill- 

 ing point. But there are always some 

 that escape, and the fumigation must 

 be kept up regularly every week. The 

 thrips with him confine their attacks 

 almost entirely to his American Beau- 

 ty roses. 



Mr. Buettner tried the Persian in- 

 sect powder as recommended some 

 time ago and doesn't care to try it 

 again. It had practically no effect on 

 the thrips. but did have a very bad 

 effect on the roses. They looked after- 

 _ward as though they had been heavily 

 over-fumigated with burned tobacco 

 stems. 



PHILADELPHIA ROSE NOTES. 



It is very interesting to note the 

 changes in the methods used in culti- 

 vating the rose under y.lass commer- 

 cially. 



Our grandfathers used to grow them 

 in solid beds in even span houses, 

 producing many fine roses, as they 

 were then considered, in fa'l and in 

 spring, but not very many in ivinter. 

 We have gone through a .^rreat va 

 riety of changes, both in tlie houses 

 and in their arrangement iudoors. 

 Now. curiously enough, some of our 

 growers are drifting back to the old 

 methods, or something very like them. 



Tlirce of the prettiest houses around 

 Germantown today are solid beds. 

 Two belong to Joseph Bevis. situated 

 at his new place on the Limekiln pike. 

 Each house is 150x20 feet, contain? 

 three beds each, 5 feet wide, and four 

 walks. One house is planted in B iilfs- 

 maid, the other in Bride. The plants 

 are in splendid condition, with plenty 

 of stout, heavy canes bearing large 

 buds. These houses produced the first 

 prize winners at the spring show of 

 the Pennsylvania Horticultural Soci- 

 ety. 



The third house belongs to Charles 



E. Meehan, Slocum and Musgrove 

 streets. It is planted with Kaiserin 

 and La France. It is a so-called sum- 

 mer house, just producing its first 

 crop, and the quantity of buds in sight 

 is worth a visit to see. The general 

 plan of the house is somewhat similar 

 to the other, the walks being next the 

 sides. 



These houses certainly produce 

 splendid results, skilfully managed, 

 and will well repay careful study. 



G. R. OWER. 



MIGNONETTE. 



The photograph of the three pots of 

 mignonette was taken a few days be- 

 fore Easter. You might merely say 

 that when you meet with success why 

 deviate from the method that gained 

 success, but these mignonette were not 

 the all round success that we expected. 

 The whole batch of about 200 was fine. 

 The 2-ft. rule suspended over the cen- 

 ter one will give the size better than 

 any description and they were green to 

 the bottom. They were not tied out 

 in the least. The string that encircled 

 them was merely cut, allowing them to 

 fall loosely apart. 



They were handsome, but they did 

 not appeal to the many, as we had to 

 ask $1.50 to $2.50 each. As I remarked 

 in a previous issue, the people of most 

 refined taste wanted one, but that 

 class is far outnumbered by those who 

 want a showy plant, and we had about 

 fifty left. These are not a total lo3S, 

 as there is a dollar's worth of flowers 

 or more on each. 



Why I do not call them an unquali- 

 fied success is because they were too 

 large, and to make them profitable we 

 had to ask a rather high figure. Had 

 they been half the size, equally well 

 flowered and in 5-inch pots, they would 

 have sold by the hundreds at 75 cents 

 each, and that is what we shall aim 

 to have another year. 



The plants pictured were sown in a 

 5-inch pot early in August and several 

 plants thinned out to the three strong- 

 est. We intended to flower them In 

 that pot, but they grew so strongly 

 that we had to shift them in November 

 into 7 and S-inch. They were pinched 

 in October and again in .January. Dur- 

 ing the whole time they were on a 

 bench very near the glass, very light 

 and very cool, often not over 3S de- 

 grees during cold weather. 



My plan after this will be to sow in 

 5-inch pots in September, making the 

 soil very solid. It cannot be too firm, 

 and the colder they are, in reason, 

 during the dark days of winter the 

 stouter and stronger they will be. 



It may nut be generally known what 

 a flne plant for the house the mignon- 

 ette is. One of these in the office of 

 Director Taylor, Ellicott Square, has 

 kept in perfection for four weeks, and 

 since that time it has been gazed at 

 by all the civilized and semi-civilized 

 nationalities of the world and heard 

 many variations of lingo, but still re- 

 tains its freshness and sweetness. 



WM. SCOTT. 



