March 13. 1902. 



The Weekly Florists^ Review. 



525 



House of Princess of Wales Violets at the Estiblistiment of Mr. Wm. Sim, Cliftoodale, Mass. 



regard to the health of the plant as pot- 

 ting. I have often seen young stock 

 potted and repotted with the greatest 

 of care, but when planting time came 

 they were hustled into the bench with 

 as little ceremony as if they were so 

 many coleus. The ball should be dis- 

 turbed as little as pos.sible and placed 

 just deep enough in the soil to cover it. 

 The soil should be carefully and equally 

 firmed all around it. Water around the 

 ball. The water should not be dashed 

 on the soil, but allowed to run slowly. 

 This individual watering should be con- 

 tinued for the first ten days, during 

 which time the soil should be disturbed 

 as little as possible. 



Syringing should be done twice every 

 bright day, but never so late in the after- 

 noon that the foliage will not have ample 

 time to dry before night. 



Repotting should be done just as soon 

 as the plants require it and ought not 

 to be allowed to stand over till some- 

 thing else is done. Roses when potbound 

 for any length of time are very hard to 

 start after being repotted. 



RiBES. 



HOUSE OF VIOLETS. 



We present herewith an engraving 

 from a photograph taken Jan. 29th of a 

 house of Princess of Wales violets at the 

 establishment of Mr. William Sim, Plif- 

 tondale, Mass. 



The house is 1.5x300 and contains 3,llil0 

 plants, each plant occupying a square foot 

 of space. The house was planted the 

 first week in November, succeeding a 

 crop of chrysanthemums. Up to March 

 1st the pick of first-class blooms was 

 240,000, and there is promise of a splen- 

 did crop up to Easter. The house runs 

 northeast and southwest. 



In response to an inquiry regarding his 

 method of growing the Princess of 

 Wales, Mr. Sim writes: "When the 

 flowering season is over — say after 

 Easter — before taking the plants from 

 the houses I pull away all runners and 

 destroy them. This leaves the plant a 



great deal smaller, only the center crown 

 being left. I then lift the plants and 

 heel them into a cold frame and keep 

 them exposed to all weather except frost. 



"If the season is so the ground can be 

 worked, we commence and break the old 

 plants up into single crowns, all having 

 good roots, and plant them in the field 

 12x12 inches apart. I do not allow any 

 runners to come on the plants in the 

 summer. I do not begin to house my 

 plants until I get a crop of chrysanthe- 

 mums cut. I grow them in the same 

 soil as the mums in solid beds. 



"After planting we run the houses at 

 45 degrees at night, 60 degrees days, in- 

 creasing the temperature to 50 degrees 

 towards Christmas. In January we let 

 the temperature drop to 40 degrees 

 nights, and in February and March to 36 

 degrees, with all possible ventilation. 



"I prefer an even span greenhouse, 

 with large glass, and glass to the ground 

 on both sides, running northeast and 

 southwest, thus getting the early sun in 

 midwinter." 



CARNATION NOTES. 



Tliis has been a very steady cold win- 

 ter and most of us have had to fire 

 stead.y during the first ten weeks of the 

 year, but we have also had more bright 

 days this winter than for several winters 

 jiast. This is as it should be and our 

 carnations have done better all winter 

 and are in better shape now than usual 

 at this time. There is not that soft, 

 transparent look to the grass which in- 

 variably follows a long dark spell such 

 as we usually have had in late winters. 



We are having warmer weather now 

 and in the next six weeks it will take 

 a good deal of judgment to keep the 

 plants in good condition so they will 

 keep up in qiiality until well into the 

 .'fununcr. We are likely to nave sudden 

 cold snaps ocasionally during this month 

 and early April and you must be con- 

 tinually on your guard. 



But while it is mild you must be care- 

 ful about the ventilators so it does not 



get too warm in the houses and exhaust 

 your plants. Carnations like a great 

 quantity of fresh air as long as there 

 are no cold draughts striking the plants. 

 We have already had a few nights when 

 it was necessary to open the ventilators 

 about an inch and at the same time 

 keep steam around in one pipe to keep 

 the atmosphere dry and moving. These 

 damp, rainy nights are very harmful to 

 carnations and the only resource we have 

 is the steam pipe. It may cause the tem- 

 perature to run up a few degrees above 

 the night temperature but that will do 

 no harm if there is an inch or two of 

 ventilation, in fact it is better than if 

 the temperature stood below 55 degrees, 

 as it would likely be too damp in the 

 house. This may seem like wasting fuel 

 to some, but you will find it will pay you 

 well later on. 



The sun is getting stronger now again 

 and when the days are bright the plants 

 will need increased supplies of water. 

 The soil is full of roots now and ex- 

 cept in case of a long cloudy spell it is 

 almost impossible to overwater. See that 

 none of the beds get extremely dry as 

 it will rajjidly reduce the quality of the 

 blooms. 



If the soil is pretty well exhausted you 

 would do well to give them a good mulch- 

 ing of well rotted cow manure, but be 

 sure it is well rotted if you use it alone. 

 If it is a little fresh you can mix it 

 with soil in about equal proportions and 

 it will do no harm. If applied at once 

 it will greatly benefit your Easter crop 

 too. If you are not prepared to do that 

 now, you should give them a sprinkling 

 of wood ashes or lime to help them bear 

 up under the forcing you are sure to do 

 during the next two weeks. With the 

 increased amount of sunshine we have 

 now there is not so much danger of 

 injuring the plants by a spell of forcing 

 as there is at Xmas, but it must not be 

 overdone else it will make the plants unfit 

 to produce quality later on. 



The hot weather of early summer is 

 extremely hard on the carnation and we 

 must strive to have them in as good con- 



