Jaxlarv 2, 1902. 



The Weekly Florists' Review. 



183 



MISCELLANEOUS 

 SEASONABLE HINTS. 



EasUr. 



Remember the date of Easter this 

 year is early — March 30 — and that 

 "briglit week, or sometimes two or three 

 — that we get in April in many years 

 will be out of your readi. 



Crimson Ramblers. 



Crimson Rambler roses that have been 

 grown in pots all summer and well rip- 

 ened this fall will force very nicely in 

 time if brought in at once. It should be 

 needless to say that they want no prun- 

 ing or scarcely any. Nothing but the 

 very weakest; shoots should be cut away 

 and not those if they are well ripened 

 because these little sprays near the pot 

 give you a nice lot of leaves and there 

 is where they are better than the lifted 

 plants which are too often naked and 

 bare near the base of the plant. Some- 

 times the last foot or less of the long 

 shoots are not ripe; if so, cut them off, 

 you have plenty of growth left. 



It often seems that these plants that 

 have made such a good growth in 7, 8 

 or 9-inch pots, would have very much 

 filled up the space with roots; so they 

 have, but there is no need of shifting 

 them. Dig out an inch of the surface 

 of the old soil and replace with two 

 inches of cow manure, and not too old or 

 decayed stuff at that. These well root- 

 ed plants will endure and be benefited 

 by any amount of feeding. All you have 

 tried to do this past summer has been 

 to produce long, strong canes (hope you 

 have done it ) . 



Now when you start them is the time 

 to tie them or before they have made 

 any growth that can be broken off in 

 the handling. Four or five stakes .3 feet 

 long round the edge of the pots and the 

 strong canes tied 'round spirally will 

 make a handsome plant, but you can tie 

 them into fan shape or any way you 

 wish. Give them 45 degrees at night 

 for two or three weeks and a syringing 

 twice a daj-. If Crimson Ramblers never 

 have to be given more than 5.5 degrees 

 at night they are a much better color 

 than with a higher temperature. 



American Beauties. 



I have often recommended, and prop- 

 erly, the American Beauty as the finest 

 of Easter pot roses. It discounts all 

 of them if properly handled. Let us 

 hope }'ou have some lifted from a bench 

 in November and neither allowed to 

 freeze hard or get very dry. These 

 plants were in an entirely different con- 

 dition from a frost-ripened hybrid per- 

 petual. If cut down to within six inches 

 of the pot and started going now in a 

 cool, light house, they should make fine 

 blooming plants by Easter, and if never 

 over 50 degrees at night so much the 

 better. When these cut down pot grown 

 American Beauties first break you would 

 think from tiheir breaks that whait growth 

 was coming would be feeble blind shoots, 

 but it never is the case. As they make 

 roots the growth develops into a strong 

 growth, with a fine bud. 



Hybrid Perpetuals. 



Hybrid Perpetual roses must be 

 started at once. If they were potted 

 at once from the field, say the middle of 

 November, and kept in a well protected 

 cold frame or a house a little above 

 freezing, that would be ideal treatment, 

 but this is not always convenient and 

 plants that have been lifted from the 

 field and protected from severe frost 

 and their roots kept moist will force 

 very well for Easter if potted up at 

 once.- They must have a cool house be- 

 cause they have no working roots. The 

 top and bottom growths progress to- 

 gether, and when there are good work- 

 ing roots the plants will want a higher 

 temperature. 



If by any chance you should 

 not have yet cut them down, 

 don't cut them too low. If I may 

 be allowed to refer to those rose beds 

 in the Pan-American which, without 



in fiower at the desired time, but there 

 is much more difliculty with the Japan 

 ■Mown bulbs, although not any serious 

 Uouble with them. The bulbs arrived in 

 good time this year and if potted at 

 once when received and brought in about 

 Dec. 1, should now have a growth of 

 six to nine inches. It is merely a mat- 

 ter of heat. You can make no mistake 

 by giving them a steady night tempera- 

 ture of 60 degrees for the next month. 



Don't neglect your fumigating, or if 

 you have steam, your steady application 

 of some of the tobacco extracts evapo- 

 rated in some. The aphis that ap- 

 pears on the developed leaves is easily 

 killed; it is those that are deep down 

 in the crown of leaves that are doing 

 the mischief, and to kill them vaporiz- 

 ing or fumigation is of little use. Give 

 the crown of every plant a spraying 

 with either the Rose Leaf Extract di- 

 luted 75 to 1, or the Nikoteen, 300 to 

 1. The latter is a very strong decoction 

 or concoction, as I proved very recently. 

 While experimenting on some violets I 

 used it diluted 200 to 1 and it hurt; 

 but as we all know, violet foliage is 

 -very s easily injured. 



Tie up your lilies, or rather stake 

 them, before they are a foot high. It 

 is much better to cut off six inches of 

 your stake if it should be too long than 

 "to let them flop over and get "shaky at 

 the neck." 



Christinas Plant Arrangement by Mr. E. Wienhober, Chicago. 



doubt were the best in every way ever 

 seen on this continent, they were cut 

 down to witliin tliree inches of the 

 ground, but they had roots and vigor 

 to make every eye a strong growth and 

 fiower, while these artificially grown 

 plants have no such vigor, and if cut 

 too low will only give blind shoots, so 

 cut them down not lower than eight or 

 nine inches above the bud or graft. 



Lilies. 



After all there is no crop giving us 

 more thought than the Liliuni longi- 

 florum. Those who grow the Bermuda 

 will have little trouble in getting them 



Rhododendrons. 



Rhododendrons should now be brought 

 into a moderately warm house. They 

 dilTcr much in the varieties as to the 

 time they want to bring them out. They 

 are a true evergreen and want plenty 

 of syringing till the flower is open. 



Spirea. 



Some growers profess to force a Spirea 

 Japoniea in six weeks. Perhaps they 

 can. I would much prefer twelve weeks. 

 This does not seem a very profitable 

 plant nowadays, yet it is one of- those 

 pretty plants that the retailer cannot 

 do without. Pot them up at once. For 



