664 



The Weekly Florists' Review. 



Aprii, S, 1S02. 



Tuberous Rooted Begonias. 



We started them about two weeks ago 

 in two inches of sand in fiats. They soon 

 start and if you are not ready to put them 

 into 3 or 4-ineh pots place the ilats in the 

 light and cool. I like to put these plants 

 into a hotbed end of April, where the sash 

 can be removed and the plants hardened 

 off. 



Bedding Plants. 



It is not necessary to remind you that 

 all the common bedding plants that need 

 shifting should be attended to as soon as 

 possible, but there is use for considerable 

 judgment in not getting many of the 

 cheaper plants too early. The great ob- 

 ject is to get plants in a growing, thrifty 

 condition just at the selling or bedding 

 time. A geranium may not be hurt if 

 rather stunted for root room for a few 

 weeks, but many plants are, such as helio- 

 trope, salvia, feverfew, coleus and others. 



Spiraeas. 



For some years we have forced a few 

 hundred Spirsea Japouica for Memorial 

 Day. They should be potted and brought 

 into a cool house at once; they will come 

 along easily by the right time. A good 

 grower in Boston told me last week that 

 spiraea did much better potted in the fall 

 and kept in cold-frames than heeled in 

 for the winter, and doubtless he is right, 

 but they take up lots of room in 6-inch 

 pots, even if it is a cold-frame. Speaking 

 of spiraea, the new varieties that are now 

 offered for sale are grand. We have a 

 few dozen of a sort called Washington, 

 and we have sent for Gladstone, although 

 the roots cost about double what the old 

 japonica.s do, which is only a few cents. 

 The plants sold at Easter for double, 

 which was a clear gain of at least 50 cents 

 a plant. Hemember it when you order. 



Acacias. 



No sooner is Easter over than prepar- 

 ations are made for a year hence, a few 

 of the important plants must be thought 

 of at ouce. At Jlr. Wm. Edgar's of 

 Waverley, Mass., the other day, in a 

 grand collection of Easter stuff I noticed 

 many beautiful plants of Acacia armata 

 (Mimosa paradoxa) ; it is a superior, aris- 

 tocratic plant to any other yellow we 

 have. The}- are not much use for forcing 

 if imported in the fall, and if you want 

 to grow any, import them this spring. . 



Hydrangeas. 



We never believed in the hydrangea 

 greatly as an Easter plant, but in some 

 localities it goes, and young plants should 

 be grown on as vigorously as you can. 

 They should be. shifted on from a 2 fl- 

 inch to a -i-inch pot when well rooted and 

 the top pinched out, so that you will get 

 a good plant either for planting out or 

 growing in pots. 



Genistas. 



Another plant that is under way for an- 

 other year is the c.vtisus, alias genista. 

 They should be good sized cuttings when 

 you start them as they grow mostly in 

 spring, fall and winter, and little in hot 

 weather, every chance should be given 

 them to grow now. If starved in 2-inch 

 pots till you "get time" in June, you 

 cannot get a good plant for next spring. 

 I believe there is no division of opinion 

 about one point of treatment of this pret- 

 ty yellow flower. It should always be 

 grown in pots; some keep it inside and 

 some plunge it outside, and both are suc- 

 cessful. 



Crimson Ramblers. 



As necessary to think of as any just 

 now is the Crimson Rambler rose, which 

 -. seemed to me sold quite as well as ever. 

 No doubt if well managed, the plants 

 lifted from the field in November will 

 give fine results, and if you have them in 

 your own field or garden you are much 

 better off than buying them from a dis- 

 tance. But I still think the plants grown 

 in pots during summer are much more 

 easily handled and are sure to give you 

 shapely, well flowered plants. Now is the 

 time to begin operations on this style. 

 You can buy from any reliable nursery- 

 man good one-year-old plants now and pot 

 them in 6, 7 or 8-inch pots, according 

 to their size. Cut them back to within 

 four or five inches of the roots, you only 

 want five or six good breaks, and if you 

 can get a growth of 4 or 5 feet from 

 these you are assured of a splendid plant. 

 I believe for the first two or three weeks 

 that a cold-frame is the best place to start 

 these dormant plants, or a cool, shaded 

 house, but when they have once started 

 and are making roots they should have 

 the greenhouse till at least July or Aug- 

 ust — but of that later. 



Hardy Plants. 

 In conclusion, don "t forget that you 

 should not waste a day in transplanting 

 herbaceous plants, deciduous trees and 

 slirubs the moment the ground is dry. 

 But don't touch the evergreens till the 

 middle of Mav. Willlvm Scott. 



CARNATION NOTES. 



Now that Easter has come and gone 

 you will naturally be looking forward 

 to the time for planting your young stock 

 in the field. In some sections this can 

 be done about the middle of April, but 

 we here are fortunate if we get our 

 plants in the field by the middle of May. 

 There is no more excuse now for shift- 

 ing the young plants that need it, as you 

 can now get all the room you need. You 

 are sure to have a bench or two that 

 are not yielding what they should or 

 perhaps badly off-crop. By the time you 

 get them into shape again you will be 

 cutting all the blooms you need from one- 

 half of your plants. Throw them out and 

 give your next year's stock a fair show. 

 There are some varieties like Lawson, 

 Crocker, White Cloud, Elma and a few 

 more that make large plants, and these 

 especially will be greatly benefited by the 

 additional room. 



If you have only a limited stock of 

 some choice variety or a seedling of which 

 you want to work up a big stock as soon 

 as possible, it is not too late to root the 

 cuttings. These plants will only be good 

 for propagating purposes, though, as they 

 will be too small at planting time to 

 give a fair quantity of bloom next sea- 

 son, unless you put several plants together 

 in the bench. We have often planted 

 cuttings into the field right from the cut- 

 ting bench and if they are well rooted 

 and the weather is favorable they take 

 hold quickly and suffer very little. You 

 will find much more difficulty, however, 

 at this time in rooting the cuttings than 

 you did a month ago. The sun is getting 

 strong now and during bright days the 

 houses get quite warm and really too 

 warm for the cuttings. By whitewashing 

 the glass and damping down the walks 

 and spraying the cuttings you can keep 

 them in a comparatively fresh condition, 

 but you must always be careful that you 



do not overdo it, either. That is where 

 the trick comes in, to know just how 

 far to go and when to stop. An experi- 

 enced propagator can tell at a glance just 

 what is wanted or what has been done 

 that was wrong. Too much shade will 

 make the cuttings soft and weakly. Too 

 much water and especially on the foliage 

 at night, will cause rust and cutting 

 bench fungus, too much sun and a bad 

 wilting will kill the cuttings and so it 

 keeps the best of us guessing just what 

 to do sometimes. 



A good plan is to put a light shade 

 of whitewash on the outside of the glass 

 to keep some of the heat out on bright 

 days and yet not heavy enough to make 

 it dark underneath on cloudy days. In 

 addition to this you should have a cur- 

 tain of good heavy muslin so arranged 

 that it can be drawn aside on cloudy days 

 so as to let the cuttings have all the light 

 there is. At this time you must be care- 

 ful, too, to select only well matured cut- 

 tings, as they are the only kind that 

 will not wilt badly and cause a large 

 percentage of loss. A. F. J. Baur. 



ROSES. 



Seasonable Hints. 



Now that Easter is past there will be 

 plenty of bench room and no excuse for 

 crowding the young stock. The differ- 

 ence in quality of stock that has had 

 ample room on the bench right along 

 from that which has been crowded is 

 easily seen. The stock that has been 

 cro^^■dcd shows the effects by having lost 

 a percentage of the lower leaves, and 

 every leaf lost is a detriment to the 

 vigor of the plant; they usually also 

 have a weakly appearance. Overcrowd- 

 ing also allows spiders to get in their 

 work, as it is so difficult to dislodge them 

 with the sATinge. 



The advantages derived by giving room 

 for a free circulation of air among the 

 leaves are many. The foliage dries out 

 rapidly after being syringed and is con- 

 sequently harder and healthier than if 

 allowed to stand a long time wet. Mil- 

 dew has less chance to attack and is 

 much easier checked than would be the 

 case with soft, spongy growth. 



The soil in the pots by being exposed 

 to the sunlight dries out quickly and 

 keeps sweet longer than if hidden un- 

 der a dense foliage. 



I am often asked : When is a young 

 rose plant at the right stage to repot? 

 I consider the proper time to repot is 

 just after the plant has completed a 

 growth and begun to ripen it. This is 

 easih- discerned by seeing the bronze col- 

 ored tips assuming a natural green color. 

 The roots also begin to lose that soft 

 whiteness and become a nut-brown color. 



By studying the conditions and proper 

 time for these operations the plant will 

 gain in vigor, stookiness and uniformity, 

 conditions which cannot be obtained by 

 unseasonable repotting. Ribes. 



LETTUCE TROUBLES. 



J. W. N. has three houses of lettuce 

 which are almost a failure. When half 

 grown, plants wilt down and rot. Soil 

 was changed last fall. Fumigated with 

 brimstone twice. Asks if there is any 

 remedy short of tearing down the houses 

 and moving on to new ground. 



The trouble is, of course, due to the 

 "rot," as it is called. If J. W. N. will 



