380 



The Weekly Florists' Review. 



FEiiuiAitv 13, 1902. 



ball to supply the immediate wants; the 

 after-cultivation of the soil and water- 

 ing will take the remainder d<?ep enough 

 for the fresh roots to find it. 



The balls should be disturbed as little 

 as possible, merely rubbing off a little 

 of the surface. Plant just deep enough 

 to cover the ball, firming the soil equal- 

 ly well all around it. For the first ten 

 days the plants ought to be watered in- 

 dividually close around the ball. To 

 guard against the attacks of red spider 

 they ought to be syringed freely every 

 bright day. The surface should be cul- 

 tivated to a depth of an inch regularly 

 once a week. 



Stock coming out of a temperature of 

 56 degrees should not be subjected to 

 much of a change until root action is 

 well established. As this rose succeeds 

 best at a temperature of 62 degrees, the 

 rise should be gradual until this is 

 reached, allowing it to run up to 75 

 degrees on bright days. Give plenty of 

 ventilation on all favorable occasions. 

 Disbud, stake and tie up as soon as 

 necessary and they will Ijegin to show 

 some fine buds by the middle of May. 



Kibes. 



BENCHES. 



We would like to have a general ex- 

 pression of opinion on the much mooted 

 question as to whether or not there is 

 any advantage in raised or "step" 

 benches over those on a level, in an 

 equal span or three-quarter span facing 

 soutli. Anchorage Rose Co. 



Table benches about 33 inches in 

 height and all on the same level are 

 most suitable for even span houses 

 with a south aspect. In three-quarter 

 span houses where the north and south 

 walls are of the same height the same 

 style of bench is also best. 



There is some advantage to bo gained 

 in a three-quarter span house where the 

 north wall is higher than the south one, 

 by having the south bench the lowest, 

 and each bench towards the north raised 

 from 8 to 10 inclics higher than the 

 one to the south of it. The plants will 

 thus have less chance of being shaded 

 during the short .days when tlie sun is 

 low. This of course can only apply to 

 detached houses or to those situated on 

 a slope. None of the benches should 

 be sloped. • Kibes. 



CARNATIONS. 



Cultural Notes. 



By this time some of tliose earliest 

 potted cuttings may need topping, and 

 you should not neglect it until they 

 begin to bloom. There is no need of let- 

 ting a lot of growth go to waste and 

 the phint to waste its strength in pro- 

 ducing a lot of stem and perliaps a bud 

 that you will later on cut ofT and throw 

 away. Gi'owei s do not all agree as to 

 the proper time to top the young plant, 

 and so you must in a measure use your 

 own judgment after weighing the vari- 

 ous opinions of others. Some growers 

 prefer to pull out the heart when the 

 plant is quite small, while others like to 

 let the plant almost show the bud, while 

 still others, ourselves included, prefer 

 to catch them just between these two 

 points. When we see the joints length- 

 ening out so that we can see the stem 

 between the joints, then is when we take 

 off the top, not by cutting with a knife, 



but by snapping it at a joint. You should 

 leave several joints above the ground, 

 so there will be enough eyes to break 

 from without making the shoots start 

 too close to the soil, which will in a 

 wet season cause the grass to rot and 

 often bring on stemrot. 



There is a great difference in varieties, 

 too, and each should be pinclied according 

 to its habit. For instance, Mrs. Bradt, 

 White Cloud and such growth should be 

 pinched tolerably low, and every time a 

 shoot makes two or three joints it should 

 be pinched again until a compact bush 

 is formed. But such varieties as Flora 

 Hill, Mrs. Joost, E. Crocker, etc., really 

 need only to be topped once and it should 

 be tolerably high up, as each eye will 

 break and a compact plant is their nat- 

 ural form; and with the exception of 

 keeping them from running into bud later 

 in tlie summer in tlie field there will be 

 no more topping needed. 



Do not do what some growers practice 

 when they have a few plants of some- 

 thing fine or new. It is this: They buy 

 a few plants of a new variety and when 

 it conies they pot up the young cuttings 

 and set them in a warm house, where 

 they will grow rapidly, and as soon as 

 they can they pull out the top and stick 

 it in the ciitting bench, expecting thereby 

 to double their stock. They may be 

 doubling the number of (lu-ir plants, but 

 they are also diminishing the bloom and 

 quality producing power of their stock. 



When you get your slock of the nov- 

 elties, ])ot them up and set in a cool 

 house, where they will make a sturdy, 

 stocky growtli. and wlicn the time comes 

 for ])inching them, do it right and don't 

 rob tlie plant of an extra joint in order 

 to make another cutting. Many of the 

 novelties are propagated pretty hard to 

 begin with (although it is not so bad 

 as it was a few years ago) and it often 

 takes .a whole season to get the stock 

 into good condition again, and so you 

 should do all you can to promote a sound 

 sturdy growth. 



Benching Conation Plants. 



Please request J[r. Baur to state in 

 the Review whether he finds carnations 

 cbiing better planted in tlie benches with 

 soil on the roots or without it ? In the 

 essay by Mr. Geo. S. Oslnirn he seems to 

 favor removing the soil from the roots 

 before planting in the bench. M. II. 



.Tudging from Mr. Osborn's words, one 

 is led to believe he shakes all the soil 

 from the roots when he houses his carna- 

 tion plants, and as this is a question on 

 which many good growers disagree it is 

 quite possible that he does so. I know 

 of many good growers who shake all the 

 soil from the roots and dip the roots into 

 a pail of water as soon as they are dug 

 and they have tfie very Itest of success. 

 I think it takes a little closer watching 

 for a few days when the soil is all 

 shaken off than when a ball about the 

 size of a 3-inch pot is left on the roots. 

 When a ball of earth of considerable size 

 is left the roots are not all disturbed 

 and the plant can draw moisture, etc.. 

 from those undisturbed roots until it 

 gets a good hold of the new soil, and the 

 suffering is much less in extreme hot 

 weather. 



Several years ago we planted alto- 

 gether with as large a ball of earth as 

 jiossible, but through some other neglect 

 always lost a certain percentage, but 



when some of the foremost growers be- 

 gan to recommend shaking off all the 

 soil it naturally became necessary to 

 watch them very closely for a few weeks 

 in order not to lose the whole batch. 



We have, however, since gone back to 

 the old way of saving a ball of earth to 

 each plant and at the same time giving 

 them just as close attention as when 

 we shook it all off. The result is that 

 we lose fewer plants than ever, and I 

 Ijelieve they start off a little quicker, all 

 of which counts heavily when a high 

 grade of bloom is wanted early in the 

 season. 



In some soils this is almost impossi- 

 ble, though, unless you pot the young 

 plants into 3-inch pots before planting in 

 the field, and it pays to do it, not only 

 to hold on the soil, but you will also 

 get a good sized plant earlier. Then 

 there is that heavj', stiff soil wluch would 

 not allow any shaking off at all without 

 tearing off most of the roots, which 

 should not be used for growing carna- 

 tion plants if it can be avoided. We 

 do not discard a good plant though mere- 

 ly because the soil ma.v have dropped 

 away from the roots, but it is planted 

 along with the rest and given some water 

 as it is planted so that the roots do not 

 get too dry from c<miing in contact with 

 the warm soil in the bench. 



We think that every grower should 

 decide this question for himself after 

 studying his soil and conditions in gen- 

 eral, but for the beginner it is undoubt- 

 edly the safest plan to save some soil on 

 the roots if .at all possible. 



Irrigating Carnations in the Field. 



Is it advisable to irrigate a piece of 

 land 100x200 for carnation plants, the 

 land sloping about two feet the long 

 way? If so, tt-hat kind of tiles should 

 be u.sed, how deep, how far apart, and 

 how should the connections with the wa- 

 terworks be made? Please give particu- 

 lars through the Review. C. W. 



I have no doubt that great benefits 

 could be derived from a piece of land 

 that is well irrigated, especially during 

 an extremely dry season such as we ha<l 

 last year, when (everything suffered bad- 

 ly for want of rain. Tliere certainly 

 would be little danger of having a lot 

 of undersized plants to house in the fall. 



An<l yet 1 wcmid not be willing to say 

 that it would pay one who has to pay 

 for the water at the rate usually charged 

 in cities, except during such extremely 

 dry seasons as last summer. During 

 any ordinary season with a normal rain- 

 fall we have never had any trouble in 

 getting fine plants by August 1, and 

 even last summer the plants from 3-inch 

 pots were of good size by that time. 



I have often noticed that during mod- 

 erately dry sununers we lose fewer plants 

 in housing our carnations than we do 

 during wet summers, which is no doubt 

 caused by the plants being harder on 

 account of having grown slower. So I 

 believe that with good plants to start 

 with, planted out earlj-, plenty of hoeing 

 or cultivating and a fair amount of rain, 

 we can get along nicely without any ir- 

 rigation and have better plants at hous- 

 ing time, although perhaps not quite so 

 large. There would also be this disad- 

 Aantage. He could not very well prac- 

 tice crop rotation unless he would irri- 

 gate a piece of ground about three or 



