736 



The Weekly Florists' Review. 



April 17, 1902. 



or in the room Tvhere the ceremony takes 

 place, because of its color — sometimes its 

 odor. The prie-dieu can be made a very 

 pretty part of the wedding decoration, 

 but keep all flowers with thorns away 

 from it. (Thorns will come later on 

 life's way.) Needn't rush around to bor- 

 row a prie-dieu. You can rig up one 

 with a little wood or a cheap bench. 

 Cover with white silk and put a spray 

 of flowers and cluster of ribbon on top 

 rail. 



Jasmine and red roses — ^what can be 

 finer? And there's many a wall in a 

 greenhouse covered with a much less 

 profitable flower. Yes, grow a little jas- 

 mine gracillinium or any of its tyjies. It 

 will pay. . 



Many very fine effects can be produced 

 by using a background of cloth, that will 

 bring out the full beauty of the flower 

 you use. For instance, turquoise blue 

 and pink go well together; so do crimson 

 and deep yellow. 



When making hand bouquets please 

 give a thought as to tbe size and strength 

 of those who have to carry them. Be hu- 

 mane. 



Last week the types put "variety" 

 where "vanity" should be. Ivera. 



CARNATION NOTES. 



We are having some weather just now 

 that is extremely hard on our carnations. 

 The sun has gained enough strength to 

 make it qaite uncomfortable under the 

 •glass on very bright days, and in addi- 

 tion to this we are treated daily to a 

 strong, dry wind, which takes the moist- 

 ure off the soil like a drying oven, and 

 so we are, as it were, "between the devil 

 and the deep sea." In order to keep 

 out the drying wind we dare not raise 

 the ventilators to their full height, and 

 by keeping them down we raise the tem- 

 perature to an uncomfortable degree. 



This condition of affairs causes a good 

 many growers to begin to shade their 

 houses, and although it does bring tem- 

 porary relief, we are not in favor of shad- 

 ing this early except in a few cases, and 

 then only very lightly. For instance, 

 such 'varieties as Lawson, Jubilee and 

 nearly all the light pink varieties are 

 badly bleached by the sun unless a light 

 shade is put on the glass, or, what is bet- 

 ter still, a curtain of mosciuito bar bung 

 over the bench; you want just enough to 

 break the force of the sun. A heavy 

 shade at this time will cause your plants 

 to grow soft and weak, and by the first 

 of June they will be ready to throw cut. 



The carnations arc making a very rapid 

 growth now, and you want to keep them 

 as- solid as you can by giving plenty of 

 air and light. If the houses dry out too 

 rapidly you can dampen the walks and 

 under the benches right after noon, which 

 will help a good deal to keep the plants 

 fresh. Give plenty of water at the roots, 

 but do not imagine that you can stop 

 the wilting by keeping the roots more 

 moist than usual. A plant that is kept 

 on the dry side right along will not wilt 

 so quickly as one that has had plentj' of 

 water and made a quick, soft growth. 



Don't let a few mild nights cause you 

 to become careless with the firing and 

 perhaps turn off the fireman altogether. 

 There will be many nights yet when a lit- 

 tle steam will greatly benefit your car- 

 nations, and you should be prepared to 

 give it to them. Whatever you do, don't 

 close the ventilators about 5 o'clock in 

 order to trap a little warmth from the 

 sun and then let the house run down to 

 45 degrees by morning. An occasional 



drop to 45 degrees will do no serious 

 harm if it is not too sudden, and if it 

 does not follow an unnatural rise to 70 

 degrees at the beginning of the night. 

 Whenever you intend to have no fire ,you 

 should have an inch or two of air on the 

 houses, as this will keep the air circu- 

 lating and dry, even if the temperature 

 does drop a little low. On damp, rainy 

 nights you should, of course, keep steam 

 around, even if the ventilators have to 

 be kept up. A, F. J. Baur. 



FEEDING CARNATIONS. 



Please tell me how to use liquid cow 

 manure or liquid sheep manure in feed- 

 ing carnations. How often would j'ou 

 advise using slaked lime or wood ashes? 

 I merely pepper it over the soil every 

 two or three weeks. Is that too often? 



I have a great many split flowers right 

 along. My man had them too wet for a 

 while. I took hold of them and kept 

 them on the dry side for four or five 

 weeks, until I thought they needed water- 

 ing, which I then gave them. And still 

 they split. Do you think I am overfeed- 

 ing them with liquid manure or lime or 

 wood ashes? Or would they split from 

 being kept too dry? 



Pittsburg Florist. 



There are many things that may have 

 caused .vour carnations to split their cal- 

 yxes, and in your case it may have been 

 brought about through a combination of 

 mistakes. Keeping them too wet might 

 cause a few to si)lit and keeping them 

 too dry is just a trifle worse. I am in- 

 clined to believe that it was brought 

 about either by overfeeding during dark 

 weather or b.y irregular temperature. We 

 do very little feeding with liquid at any 

 time, and we would not think of feeding 

 our carnations liquid during December, 

 January and the first half of February, 

 unless the plants were suffering for want 

 of food. The first thing you should have 

 done would have been to discontinue the 

 feeding, and the next thing to watch 

 your temperat\ire very closely. The lime 

 and wood ashes did no harm applied as 

 you .say in your letter. My advice to you 

 would be to discontinue the liquid feed- 

 ing altogether, but give plenty of clear 

 water and keep up a regular temperature 

 about 4 degrees higher than usual, and 

 I think your trouble will disappear. If 

 the soil seems exhausted give a light 

 mulch of well-rotted manure. 



A. F. J, Baur. 



ROSES. 



Seasonable Hints. 



This is the season when young roses 

 in pots require the greatest care to keep 

 them in a vigorous growing condition, 

 and to protect them from the ravages of 

 insect and other pests, and ward off dis- 

 eases to which they are liable. To keep 

 them vigorous and healthy _they must 

 never be allowed to become pot-bound, 

 especially now that the days are getting 

 warmer. The foliage on pot-bound 

 plants soon loses the rich, healthy green 

 color, however carefully they may be at- 

 tended to, and if allowed to stand for 

 any length of time it is hard to get them 

 back to health again. 



By reason of the foliage lying so near 

 the pots it is diificult to reach green fly 

 by fumigation; frequent applications 

 will, therefore, be necessary to keep them 

 in check. Keeping plenty of tobacco 

 stems packed under the benches of the 



stock house does away with the neces- 

 sity of fumigating altogether. Spider is 

 also difficult to reach, for the same rea- 

 son, and it is only by steady persistence 

 •nith the syringe that this pest can be 

 controlled. 



Another enemy which we have to con- 

 tend with at this season is mildew. Keep- 

 ing the stock hardy by judicious ventila- 

 tion is the best preventive. Dusting the 

 leaves with flowers of sulphur once or 

 twice a week on bright days also helps 

 to keep it in cheek. If it does make an. 

 appearance, painting the pipes with a 

 mixture of air-slaked lime and sulphur of 

 equal proportions of the consistency of 

 paint and closing the ventilators tight 

 for two hours during the coldest part of 

 the night will soon banish it. If young 

 Beauties or Liberties are allowed to get 

 crowded on the bench they are very apt 

 to get a dose of black spot. To prevent 

 this the surest method is to give plenty 

 of room, pick off decaying and diseased 

 leaves, give plenty of ventilation and 

 keep an even temperature of 56 degrees 

 at night, and thej- will soon grow out of 

 it. Rebes. 



MANURE FOR ROSE SOIL. 



I want to jilaut my rose house this 

 spring and have no well-rotted cow ma- 

 nure. Can I use sheep manure, and how 

 much to a square yard of soil? Also, 

 how much bone meal? H. A. 



Sheep manure being much stronger 

 than cow or horse manure, must be used 

 with caution in rose culture. Have fre- 

 quently seen it used, and have tried it 

 myself, the results in most cases being 

 far from satisfactory. One load of sheep 

 manure to twenty of loamy sod is about 

 as strong as it can be usecl with safety. 



Where well-decomposed cow or horse 

 manure is not obtainable, manure made 

 during the past winter is the best and; 

 safest substitute. To ordinary loamy 

 sod one load of such manure to four of 

 sod will make it rich enough. Piled to- 

 gether and left for three weeks before- 

 being chopped up and then turned over 

 at intervals of ten days will put it intO' 

 good condition by planting time. To 

 such a compost three poimds of dessicatedi 

 bone meal to each cubic yard will be- 

 ample. Ribes. 



DUTCH HYACINTHS. 



Replying to W. S.. there are several 

 reasons for hyacinths "lifting" their 

 blooms, or, as we call it in Holland, 

 "spitting their bloom.'' Sometimes it is 

 due to the bulbs having had a very heavy 

 bloom the year before, which has brought 

 about a weakness in the bulb. Again, it 

 depends a good deal upon the soil the 

 bulbs were grown in the jear before. 

 Sometimes a very light sandy soil will 

 produce the most "spitters" or "lifters.'" 

 Still another reason is growing the bulbs 

 on too fast. After the little bulbs are 

 taken from the old one it takes about 

 five, and sometimes six, years to grow 

 them to full size. But sometimes the 

 Holland growers, by giving them the best 

 soil and culture, bring them to full mar- 

 ketable size in throe or four years. These 

 quickly advanced bulbs bring many dis- 

 appointments the following year. As you 

 sa.y, it is apparently not the fault of the 

 tji.lbs, as they are as sound as any, and 

 they make the finest-looking bulbs. 



■The best thing to do is to save the 

 bulbs that have lifted their flower spikes, 

 as they make the best bloomers the fol- 

 lowing year. Take them out of the green- 



