696 



The Weekly Florists' Review. 



MAY 



1900. 



Ion of water. The result is that the 

 foliage has qiiile enveloped the 4>.a- 

 inch pots with a mass of flower, whiuh 

 l)rightens up the show-house consid- 

 erably. 



POT-BOUND ANTHrRHMS.—Man.v 

 plants continue to flower abundantly, 

 though they are pot-bound, if supplied 

 With moisture and other requirements. 

 We have found no plant do better 

 tlian Authurium Schorzcrianum, and 

 its varieties. We have some old plants 

 in capital health, full of vigor, which 

 have not been shifted for some ten or 

 a dozen years, but each season they 

 have flowered profu.stiy from Febru- 

 ary until August. They have been 

 given a stirface di-essing with bone- 

 meal and fibei'y peat before flowering 

 each year. Some vai'ieaes of cypri- 

 pediums and cymbidiums have also 

 succeeded with us under similar treat- 

 ment. They may be watered liberally 

 under such conditions without fear of 

 doing damage to the roots, but neg- 

 lect of same is most injurious. 



A LESSON ON AFPORDINU 

 WATER. — The "Answers" column has 

 recently shown that the cyclamen is 

 proving troublesome at this season. 

 The following notes from a recent pa- 

 per by Wehmer suggest one cause of 

 trouble. Plants of cyclamen were ob- 

 served to die oft' after the leaves, and 

 even flower stalks had fallen over and 

 withered. Closer examination showed 

 that this was preceded Ijy the bases of 

 the stalks of apparently healthy leaves 

 becoming swollen, soft and discol- 

 ored; a few days later the leaf fell 

 over and withered. In the diseased 

 leaf-bases a fungus was found in act- 

 ive growth: it was one of the Botrytis 

 forms, many of which have l)een de- 

 scribed and illustrated in this paper. 

 Observation suggested that careless 

 watering was to blame for the pres- 

 ence of the fungus: Experiments 

 were therefore made by pouring water 

 into the flower pots till the space 

 above the soil was flooded and the 

 leaf-bases stood in water. The water 

 gradually drained away, Init several 

 plants so treated showed the above 

 symptoms and became more or less 

 diseased. Other plants watered slow- 

 ly, so that the water passed at once 

 into the soil, remained healthy. The 

 explanation is that the Botrytis fun- 

 gus is exti'emely common, especially 

 under glass: for instance, one is al- 

 most sure to find it on withering 

 leaves or flowers of petunia or pelar- 

 .goniuni. When the pots are flooded in 

 watering, the spores are floated up and 

 into the space inside the broad leaf- 

 bases; there they germinate, and prob- 

 ably pierce the skin of the leaf or 

 flower-stalk. The fungus spreads rap- 

 idly, and in a few days renders the 

 leaf-base soft, so that the leaf falls 

 over by its own weight, and lies on 

 the soil withering. The same experi- 

 ments were carried out on Primula 

 sinensis with similar results. The cy- 

 clamen and primula have both what 

 are known as radical leaves, that is, 

 the leaves are not borne on stems ap- 



pearing above ground, but rise from 

 underground root-stocks: thus the 

 leaf-bases are on a level with the sur- 

 face of the :soil. Many plants w.th 

 this habit of growth are reared in our 

 houses; a walk around any green- 

 house will sugges; other examples. 

 The lesson is that with plants of th's 

 habit (indeed with plants of any kind 

 in pots), water should not be pourerl 

 on faster than the soil can absorb it: 

 there shouhl never be a pool of water 

 in the pot. even for a few minutes; 

 this is one of the elementary rules of 

 watering given by every writer, yet we 

 venture to think it is often broken. 

 There are many reasons for this s m- 

 ple rule other than the reason con- 

 nected with the prevention of disease 

 described above, but we omit these. If 

 the soil in the pot is what it ought to 

 be, and if watering is regularly car- 

 ried out, there should never be any 

 difficulty about the soil al)£orl)ing the 

 water fast enough, even where the 

 stock of plants is large and time pre- 

 cious. 



BUFFALO. 



Business Conditions. 



Theie is no item of news this week 

 that stands out very prominently. 

 Everybody seems fairly busy and 

 plant men much more so. Business 

 has kept up very finely. Two large 

 weddings of last week created quite a 

 little stir. A contract one was well 

 done by Neubeck & Myers, where 

 "Louie" had a chance to get in some 

 of his best strokes, and did it well. 

 The other was a grand North street 

 affair and of the "go as you please" 

 order, and W. J. Palmer & Son went 

 as they pleased and greatly pleased 

 their patrons. 



I looked in at the store of the latter 

 a few diys ago and saw a grand lot of 

 roses and carnations, entirely their 

 own product. When you keep a first- 

 class store and every detail is carried 

 out to perfection, even to a soft white 

 paper wrapping round the box con- 

 taining one dozen Bridesmaids, and 

 then tied with a narrow pink ribbon, 

 you can get, or they get, almost dou- 

 ble the price for tlie same quality 

 flowers that are sold in some slovenly 

 shops. 



The Future. 



How we do grow in artistic environ- 

 ments and attachments! At the rate 

 we have evoluted for the past twenty- 

 five years, what will another quarter 

 century bring forth? Progress is in- 

 evitable; there is no such thing as 

 standing still, for in life there is no 

 rest. Pictures of the future may seem 

 ridiculous to .some, but reasonable to 

 others Perhaps in twenty-five years 

 our iiatrons will alight from their 

 autos and walk over Turkish iar])ets 

 to luxurious couches, where college- 

 bred men or Circassian girls will take 

 their orders. Fountains of perfumed 

 water and goldfish sporting in the 

 basins. Sliowers of violets will fall 



from the ceiling and the strains of 

 the .softest music will float around 

 them. The proprietor will not dreiini 

 of touching his wares except to hand 

 an exquisite flower to his friend and 

 patron or pass a, compliment. His 

 time otherwise will be largely taken 

 up dictating verses to accomp.iny each 

 variety of flower and paying his bills. 

 Perhaps the greatest change will be 

 in the delivery department. No such 

 plebeian thing as a delivery boy on a 

 bicycle in 1925. The delivery boys will 

 lie attired as cupid and very probaldy 

 fly, but the great medium for distri- 

 bution will be by pneumatic tube, 

 which will convey parcels quickly to 

 stations in every part of the city. 

 Where the automobile must be used 

 there will be coachman and footman, 

 neither of whom will ever stir from 

 the box, but the footman in the rear 

 will handle the parcels. They will 

 wear breeches and stockings, gold lace 

 and powdered hair, and all the lead- 

 ing florists will have a distinctive liv- 

 ery, which they will guard by patent 

 rights against infringement. Mr. Sai- 

 vin's will be green and gold; Mr. 

 .Jhorley's maroon and yellow; Mr. 

 Flushman's, black, with polka dots; 

 Mr. Lift's, blue, with yellow facings; 

 Mr. Kalmer's, grey, with cherry 

 stripes, and so on. All this will come 

 to pass assuredly if you will give us 

 time, but in the meantime we are 

 more than likely to be all swallowed 

 up by the department stores. 



Various Items. 



Mr. Z mnierman and Mr. Scott a'e 

 not solely employed handing out car- 

 nations. They eich have half a score 

 of men grading, seeding and planting 

 on our beautful streets. 



It is very pleasant news to tell you 

 that our popular wliolesale man. W. F, 

 Kastlng, was on Monday appointed by 

 the mayor a park commissioner. The 

 position is entirely honorary, but it 

 brings honor and dignity with it, and 

 whenever there is a vacancy there is 

 keen rivalry among our best citizens 

 for the position. The board has ha<l 

 for years a very clever botanist and 

 honored citizen, David I'\ Day, but 

 never what may be called a horticul- 

 turist, and in addition to Mr. Kasting 

 the board can still bear another of 

 horticultural knowledge. 



They noiv spend tliousands of dol- 

 lars removing trees which should be 

 chopped down and destroyed. If the 

 able .lames Braik was superintendent 

 instead of assistant, things wo\ild be 

 different, but with all these handicaps 

 we have a glorious park, and much of 

 it is due to the great ability, enthusi- 

 asm and honesty of the lamented Wm. 

 .McMillan. W. S. 



NEW YORK. 

 Nothing very special to record here. 

 There has been quite a number of 

 weddings the past week: it appears 

 that many superstitious people are yet 

 alive, and they imagine it unlucky to 

 be married in May. consequently there 



