700 



The Weekly Florists' Review. 



April 10. 1902. 



where people cannot see or determine 

 what they are. Magnolias are easily 

 brought into bloom and are splendid for 

 all sorts of work. What could be pret- 

 tier than an avenue of small magnoUas? 

 Eemember avenues or hedges of any one 

 variety of showy growing plants are the 

 most effective kind of arrangements and 

 should be recommended in all extensive 

 work. You can always use the Easter 

 "left-overs" for filling in, but we would 

 advise that you don't at present keep 

 either your window or store spoiled by 

 the things you could not sell last week. 

 Have them relegated to the rear and keep 

 at least your window always looking 

 fresh. This can only be done by having 

 fresh, new stock to the front. 



Fine work can be done with sweet 

 peas, white or yellow daisies, pansies and 

 many of the small popular flowers. 

 Many of them need wiring singly, but 

 people appreciate them, and it 's a mistake 

 to always imagine the tip-top scarce arti- 

 cle only is sought. It would be a bad 

 day for the business were it to narrow 

 down to American Beauties, Bride, Maid 

 and Meteor. We must keep variety on 

 the market and the retailer is the only 

 one that can do so. We must not be 

 content to display flowers as they come 

 from the market. The grower does not 

 claim much of the artistic tinge. Most 

 of his stock requires rebunching in or- 

 der to show it to advantage. Many a 

 good thing is ignored or despised be- 

 cause of imperfect presentation. Small 

 white willow or green baskets of trailing 

 arbutus go well; tie a soft-hued bow 

 on the handle. 



Get your pansies out in boxes and vases 

 and use good soil and put colors in 

 blocks. An immense quantity of pansies 

 will bo used this spring. Make a dis- 

 play outside your store. Nothing finer 

 than a weil-made wreath of carnation 

 "Viola Allen" tied with white or warm 

 colored cattleya ribbon; very little green. 



IVERA. 



TABLE DECORATION. 



The accompanying engraving is from a 

 photograph of the decorations for the 

 breakfast to Prince Henry at the St. 

 Louis Club, St. Louis, during his visit 

 to that city. They were ar-ranged by 

 Ellison & Tesson. 



CARNATION NOTES. 



If this pleasant spring weather keeps 

 up we will be planting our carnations in 

 the field in a few days. This is a job 

 that should be done just as early as pos- 

 sible, as soon as the ground is in good 

 working condition. We may have a few 

 light frosts yet but after April 20 we 

 aie not likely to have frosts that wUl in- 

 jure a sturdy young carnation plant. We 

 have on several occasions had them cov- 

 ered with snow and also had a crust froz- 

 en over the ground without any apparent 

 damage. Of course we would not advise 

 anyone to court trouble along this line, 

 but with the present methods of early 

 planting, etc., it is very beneficial to 

 have .your plants out early enough so 

 they can take advantage of the fine grow- 

 ing weather of May and June. 



In selecting ground for planting car- 

 nations we would prefer a rather high 

 lying location. Carnations like good 

 urainage and with such a location this 

 would be assured. A good rich sandy 

 loam is also desirable as the plants will 

 lift better in the fall from such a soil 

 which will crumble easily than they will 



from a stiff clayey soil. If the soil on 

 which you must plant is too stiff you can 

 heip matters some by giving a good dres- 

 sing of stable manure and the more straw 

 there is in it the better for the ground. 

 This, however, should have been done 

 during the winter so it could be pretty 

 well rotted by this time. We also find 

 that plowing in the fall helps to loosen 

 up a stiff soil as will also a dressing of 

 lime or wood ashes. Whatever you do, 

 though, don't plant your carnations in 

 a soil that is inclined to bake and tear 

 the roots off your plants when digging 

 tnem up in the fall. 



When you are ready to plant see that 

 the young plants are plenty moist enough 

 and unless the.v are rather wet it would 

 be well to give them an extra watering 

 just before knocking them out of the 

 pots. Get as many men as you possibly 

 can onto the job. Have some knocking 

 out plants while others are planting and 

 see that the plants are getting into the 

 ground as soon after they are knocked 

 out of the pots as possible, for a few 

 hours of laying around will give them 

 a severe check. It is surprising how 

 quick a ball of soil will dry out when it 

 is exposed to the warm, dry air. On some 

 places they have boys to drop the plants 

 along the line and men to go after them 

 planting. We do not like that way as it 

 often happens that the boys get ahead of 

 thp men and the plants will lay with 

 the roots exposed to the sun a half hour 

 or more, and the plants suffer. We use 

 boxes about 14x18 inches and each man 

 takes a box and slides it along as he 

 plants and we find mat a man can plant 

 almost as many plants as he can when 

 they are dropped for him and they get 

 into the ground in much better condition. 



We do not plant in beds as many 

 first-rate growers do, but we plant in 

 rows across the field just as it is. Plant 

 10 inches apart in the row, and the rows 

 about 15 inches apart. I am taking for 

 granted that you use a hand cultivator 

 during the summer to keep the soil loos- 

 ened up. I worked for a man a few 

 years ago who had a horse so well 

 trained that he could cultivate his car- 

 nations with a shovel plow. This cer- 

 tainly saved him a good deal of time, 

 but i don't think the work was done so 

 well as it can be done by hand, as he could 

 nT)t run so close to the plants for fear 

 of uprooting them. In that case we had 

 to plant rows 2 ft. apart, which makes 

 them take up considerably more room. 

 You will also find it good policy to have 

 one of the men go over the day's plant- 

 ing in tue evening with the cultivator to 

 loosen up the soil which is sure to be 

 packed down considerably while planting 

 and likely to bake if it lies a few days 

 without rain. It will only take a short 

 time and it will help to keep your ground 

 in good shape. 



And last but not least let me urge you, 

 practice crop rotation as much as you can 

 to prevent stem-rot, etc. There is no bet- 

 ter way of fighting that dread disease 

 than by never planting carnations on the 

 same ground two consecutive seasons, and 

 if you can let two or three seasons lapse 

 before returning to the same patch it 

 will be all the better. But if you are 

 obliged to plant in the same ground year 

 after year you should apply a heavy 

 dressing of lime or wood ashes each 

 spring before plowing and be sure to 

 clean off all the plants that were not 

 housed last fall; in fact you should do 

 tlie latter in the fall each year. If you 

 have decaying carnation plants in the 



soil it is very likely to bring on stem- 

 rot among those that are supposed to 

 grow in the soil. 



One of the handiest implements in get- 

 ting the field ready for planting is the 

 "Swivel" or "side hill" plow. With 

 the ordinary plow it is a lot of bother 

 to plow small patches of ground at a 

 time, but with the above named imple- 

 ment you can plow up one furrow or a 

 hundred just as you choose and have no 

 trenches or ridges in your field and you 

 can have the pleasure of having fresh 

 plowed ground to plant in right through 

 jilanting time, which will not only facili- 

 tate the work, but will also save your 

 men's tempers during the short dry spells. 

 A. F. J. Batje. 



ROSES. 



Seasonable Hints. 



Kaiserins and Meteors which have been 

 planted for early summer bloom should 

 now be cultivated regularly once a week, 

 stirring the soil evenly to the depth of one 

 inch, taking care not to go too near the 

 stem of the plant. This should be done 

 when the soil is in a half dry condition. 

 If done while the soil is too wet it leaves 

 it knott.y anu lumpy. The surface should 

 always be smooth and fine so as not to 

 expose the young roots too much to the 

 sun. As soon as the stirring is finished 

 the bench should receive a thorough 

 watering. Now that the days are long 

 and plenty of sunshine the syringe should 

 be used freely twice a day. This will 

 keep spider in check, cool off the house 

 and produce the requisite amount of 

 moisture. The afternoon syringing should 

 be done about two o'clock as this gives 

 ample time for foliage to become dry be- 

 fore sundown. 



Staking, tying and disbudding should 

 also be attended to. Stems which are 

 Kept in an upright position are much 

 more vigorous, produce stronger eyes, and 

 are much easier kept clear of insects than 

 those allowed to scramble over the bench. 

 Disbudding as practised by experts is 

 more than simply nipping off the buds. 

 The bud before removal should be al- 

 lowed to develop till it shows color, it 

 should then be carefully cut off along 

 with the three or four topmost eyes, some 

 even advocate taking half tlie stem. This 

 puts more vigor into the remaining eyes 

 and has a tendency to lessen the crop of 

 small blind wood so detrimental to the 

 plant. 



Firing should still be kept up though 

 the danger of hard frost is over, so that 

 the house can have ventilation most of 

 ue time. Letting out the fires and clos- 

 ing the ventilators to keep the house 

 warm produces a soft spongy growth 

 which is very susceptible to the attacks 

 of mildew. Kibes. 



ANOTHER LILY TROUBLE. 



Last summer when we opened the cases 

 of Japanese Longiflorum that we had 

 ordered, we were greatly pleased as they 

 seemed to be the best lilies we had ever 

 received. 



They were potted promptly, and start- 

 ed growth quickly, and uniformly, and 

 for some time all seemed to be doing 

 well. 



When they were about four inches high 

 we filled a number of large pans with 

 them, taking the plants to do so from the 

 smaller pots in which they had started, 

 and choosing for this purpose those that 



