458 



The Weekly Florists^ Review. 



Fbbbuaby 27, 1902. 



erally understood by students in that 

 line "that Mrs. Noah and the voung 

 ladies had charge of the horticultural 

 department, and no doubt Mrs. N. in 

 taking in a plant of lemon verbena, it 

 served as host plant for the tiny creat- 

 ure that now gives us so much anxiety. 



I have seen the common zonale geran- 

 iums infested with spider all summer 

 out of doors, even during a rainy sea- 

 son, because no .storm reached the under 

 side of the leaf. Just a word about 

 syringing. Comparatively few know 

 how to syringe efl'ectively. It must be 

 a fine but strong stream directed up- 

 wards at the underside of the leaves. 

 Nothing else will destroy spider. Tlie 

 old-womanish term "spraying" is more 

 applied to what good old gardeners 

 would call a "dusting;" strange thing 

 to dust with (water), but gardeners 

 know exactly what it means, which is a 

 fine spray of water thrown over the 

 plants, which we do to freshly potted 

 cuttings or plants that have been ex- 

 hausted by a hot day, but that is en- 

 tirely different from syringing. 



Now for a specific remedy for the 

 plants that are infested. The carna- 

 tions and lilies should certainly be 

 cleaned of spider by good hard syring- 



on. The "kerosene emulsion" is death 

 to them applied with syringe. You can 

 buy the latter all ready for mixing 

 with water, and it is death not only to 

 spider, but for thrip and mealy bug 

 also. 



I have, as a boy, often seen sulphur 

 burnt in vineries to kill spider on the 

 grapevines, and you can try it by heat- 

 ing an old shovel or spade nearly red 

 hot and then drop a pinch of sulphur 

 on the shovel as you walk slowly along. 

 But it is a dangerous operation, and in 

 killing the spider you run a big chance 

 of burning the foliage. Try the kero- 

 sene emulsion and get it from the most 

 reliable firm. W. S. 



A FXJNGUS AND A FERN. 



An inquirv" comes from a correspond- 

 ent which boiled down is this: "A 

 white mould gathers on the pots quite 

 thick." And again what is the matter 

 with his ferns, "The tips of the fronds 

 are burned brown and then drop. What 

 is the proper temperature for such 

 ferns as sword ferns, Boston ferns and 

 Wittboldii?" 



First, as to the fungus. I have fre- 

 quently seen a white fungus on the pots, 

 but never but a few in the house, and 



White Carnation Bon Homme Richard, as Shown at Indianapolis, 



ing with cold water. The cinerarias I 

 would take down and lay on the path 

 and well hose the underside of the 

 leaves. Two or three such thorough 

 syringings should settle the spider. 



There are any amount of "cure alls" 

 or insecticides warranted to kill aphis, 

 thrip, mealy bugs, etc.. and everything 

 else that our plants are troubled with. 

 One of the oldest and best is "Gishurst 

 Compound," sold by all seedsmen. Just 

 let me say here that the red spider is a 

 "sucking" insect, or beast, not a chewer, 

 so poison on the surface of the leaf 

 does not aftcct him as it would a chewer. 

 "Nikoteen" diluted in 300 of water. 

 or the "rose leaf extract of tobacco." 

 diluted 7.) times, are both good for kill- 

 ing spider if thoroughly well syringed 



then it had come from some plunging 

 material and I saw no great harm come 

 from it ; in moving the plants it was 

 easily rubbed off. This trouble can be 

 scarcely serious enough to be of any 

 consequence. 



The tips of the ferns should not turn 

 brown unless on very old exhausted 

 fronds, and then the tips would not turn 

 brown but the whole frond would turn 

 yellow. If kept in a night temperature 

 of 55 to GO degrees, properly supplied 

 with water, that is, a thorough water- 

 ing whenever on the dry side, there 

 should be no trouble in growing these 

 free-growing ferns. It is possible that 

 a very heavy fumigating might have 

 liurnod the fronds of these ferns, but it 

 must have been strong to do it. A good 



loam, full daylight, and a temperature 

 of 55 degrees at night will grow all the 

 fei'ns mentioned. W. S. 



SWEET PEAS, 



W. Atlee Burpee & Co. have a national 

 reputation for their sweet pea seed. 

 Their novelties and their standard va- 

 rieties are famous all over the country. 

 They are hard at it now, busy as bees, 

 for the sowing season is here. Great 

 satisfaction was expressed at the strides 

 made by the growers in forcing sweet 

 peas under glass. There are more and 

 finer sweet peas in the cut flower market 

 to-day than ever before. We also have 

 white as well as pink and white; the 

 other colors will stand forcing well but 

 take longer to come into bloom. Lovely 

 improves in color under glass, its pale, 

 pink flowers gaining a deeper color, 

 which is verj' pleasing; Countess of Rad- 

 nor, on the contrary, comes with a pink- 

 ish tint when forced, which mars the 

 beauty of its soft shade of lavender. 



E.xperiments made with sweet peas 

 under glass at Doylesto%vn show that for 

 early flowering, raised benches are much 

 better than solid beds; the latter very 

 choice flowers with stems often 16 inches 

 in length. By frequent and heavy 

 mulching sweet peas have been flowered 

 steadily from December until July, four 

 inches of soil being enough when aided 

 by plenty of manure to keep the vines 

 moving all this time. No matter how 

 early sweet peas are planted in the fall 

 it seems impossible to flower them for 

 Christmas when they are in solid beds. 

 The vines seem to refuse to flower until 

 the sun gets stronger. It is thought, 

 however, that a temperature of 60 de- 

 grees at night maintained regularly 

 throughout the fall might bring them 

 into flower at Christmas even when the 

 vines are growing in solid beds. 



PALE HYDRANGEAS. 



For some time I have been troubled 

 with light colored foliage on Hydrangea 

 Otaksa. Not sickly plants, but on all 

 my stock, with the exception of occa- 

 sionally a plant, which will come with 

 dark rich green foliage, under same 

 treatment and conditions so far as I 

 know. The plants now growing on for 

 Easter are looking well in every respect 

 except the pale foliage. Can you sug- 

 gest cause and remedy? Have renewed 

 stock from different sources with same 

 results. C. L. D. 



I am glad to see this question asked, 

 but would rather that some one would 

 reply who never was troubled with these 

 pale yellow leaves on the hydrangea. 

 We have had this trouble some years to 

 a great extent and it not only affects 

 the leaf, but the flower also will be col- 

 orless. This year, perhaps, from the 

 soil we are using, the foliage is a goovi 

 dark green. The hydrangea is a ricn 

 feeder, wanting manure in abundance, 

 but a heavy, strong clay loam is also 

 essential to do it well. In the present 

 instance with C. Li. D. I would advise 

 him to put one pound of nitrate of 

 soda in forty gallons of water and use 

 this solution every other day. If nitrate 

 of soda is not easily available then pro- 

 cure some soft coal soot and use it in 

 proportion of one peck of soot to forty 

 gallons of water. This you can use at 

 e\erv watering. W. S. 



PREP-iVRE advs. now for the special 

 spring number of the Review to be is- 

 sued JIarch 20. 



