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The Weeldy Florists' Review* 



May 15, 1902. 



difficult to arrange large, stiff flowers, 

 but with the aid of some light sprays of 

 green they can be made to look graceful, 

 and, as in everything, some people want 

 or demand a change. 



Casket covers are once in a great while 

 asked for, and you can make the finest 

 out of dark and white pansies — center 

 dark, and deep fringe of white around 

 the bottom. You might require from 

 5,000 to 10,000 blooms, and they need to 

 be wired in order to properly arrange 

 them and keep them in good condition. 

 From $35.00 to $50.00 can be asked for 

 such a design. No cumbersome frame is 

 necessary, just fine wire netting or pur- 

 ple Porto Eican matting that will hang 

 gracefully. The galax leaf trade has 

 done an immense amount of harm to the 

 funeral flower trade, because they are 

 cheaper, and many florists push them in 

 preference to flowers. You can make a 

 $10.00 or $15.00 wreath with 1,000 galax 

 leaves, which cost only 75 cents, and 



where you have plenty of trade you can 

 always have a wreath ready for immedi- 

 ate delivery. Of course, it's a florist's 

 particular aim to make all the money he 

 can, but the future of the funeral flower 

 trade sometimes deserves consideration. 



Notes. 



At this time of the year when the av- 

 erage person gets out of bed before 

 breakfast it is not out of place to have a 

 few fresh flowers on the breakfast table; 

 in fact, providing diS^erent flowers are 

 used, a vase of them on the dining table 

 at all meals will produce pleasant 

 thoughts, and they are often a cure for a 

 bad appetite. In this class we find an 

 abundance of bulbous flowers, carna- 

 tions, roses, in fact all sorts, which can 

 at least be offered at double what they 

 cost you. We forgot to mention that 

 Azalea Mollis can be lifted and made to 

 shine in large decorations. IvKRA. 



MISCELLANEOUS 

 SEASONABLE HINTS. 



Chrysanthemums. 



The middle nf .Iiun' cir even a little 

 later is a good time to plant your main 

 crop of chrysautliemums, and conse- 

 quently about now is the time to put in 

 the largest batch of cuttings. I am, of 

 course, speaking purely of good commer- 

 cial flowers. I'or spccinicii flowers a 

 strong plant in a 3-iuch pot would per- 

 haps be the thing for this date. If you 

 plant any on the benches in 4 or 5 inches 

 of soil and pinch them during the sum- 

 mer a few times for the purpose of mak- 

 ing bushy little plants to be lifted about 

 September 1 for pots, then they can be 

 propagated now, and if planted out by 

 June -0 will be in plenty of time. I 

 would rather have a healthy young plant 

 full of growth, even if planted late, than 

 a stunted plant. Yet I would like to say 

 that it is remarkable how well a stunted, 

 hide-bound, wiry chrysanthemum will 

 grow and produce a good flower, but 

 don't let them get into that state when 

 you can help it. 



Some few years ago we used to have 

 some difficulty in rooting "mums" during 

 May and June, and we used to put up a 

 hotbed and a good deal of other fuss, 

 simply because we did not know how to 

 root them in the greenhouse. They want 

 shade continually and without any let-up 

 on all bright days, and a copious water- 

 ing twice a day if the weather is warm. 

 If these conditions are faithfully carried 

 out they will root every one in 17 or 18 

 days. If your shade is not of a perma- 

 nent kind and can be removed as soon as 

 they are rooted, so much the better, for 

 chrysanthemums want not a minute of 

 shade after they have roots. Under shade 

 they.will quickly grow thin and weak and 

 lanky, and that is worse than being 

 stunted in the sunlight. 



Hanging Baskets. 



I notice just now we are filling once 

 again our annual crop of hanging bas- 

 kets. It is a style of ornamental garden- 

 ing that is gradually growing more and 



more obsolete, yet there are always some 

 people who want them. If well looked 

 after and watered they can be really 

 somewhat of an ornament, but too often 

 they are sadly neglected and the bunch 

 of moss which lines the basket swinging 

 round in the summer zephyr is about all 

 that is left to admire. The wire basket 

 lined with green moss and then filled 

 with soil is beyond question better than 

 any earthenware or wooden basket, and 

 is. I believe, much cheaper. In these 

 hanging baskets the great features are 

 the drooping plants or rines. It is of 

 little consequence what plants are in the 

 center, or whether they are flowering or 

 not, for no one sees above the rim of the 

 basket, but they do see the droopers that 

 hang down a foot or two. 



Never mind how common these vines 

 are if they only make a good green show- 

 ing. I find that we are using for this 

 purpose the money vine (lysimachia), 

 glechoma (the variegated), senecio 

 (called here foolishly German ivy), loph- 

 ospermum, nasturtiums, and for smaller 

 plants to give some color, the lobelias, 

 ivy geranium. I forgot one important 

 plant, the vinca, green and variegated, 

 although not thriving in the starved con- 

 dition that usually pervades the hanging 

 basket it never goes back and is always 

 as good as when you put it there. Once 

 more, if the vines grow your basket will 

 be satisfactory and will please. You can 

 put almost any old thing in the center. 

 We generally use a geranium for the cen- 

 ter, with coleup, achyranthes or a varie- 

 gated geranium around that. 



Orchids. 



Your cypripediums (one of the most 

 useful orchids) will soon be growing, 

 and you should not delay in giving them 

 a surfacing of fresh sphagnum moss. 

 When the moss is green and growing it 

 is nearly in the right condition. C. in- 

 signe is by long odds the most useful of 

 the genus, and when adding the fresh 

 moss to the surface don't be afraid to 



mix a good deal of bone meal with the 

 moss.' They don't want a watering as 

 you water a geranium, but they want the 

 surface continually moist, and when mak- 

 ing their growths can be syringed twice 

 a day. There is no place that suits this 

 orchid so well as "out of doors," not with 

 the pots standing on soil or sod, but stood 

 on a plank or inverted pot and not in the 

 full sun. On the north side of a building 

 or the shade of lattice work will do. 



Coelogyne also does much better in the 

 open air than it does under glass. Of 

 course you will not put out these orchids 

 tUl after the first of June or till all dan- 

 ger of frost is past. Cattleya Trianaa, 

 the most useful of this grand genus, will 

 soon be starting its growth. Clean peat 

 or moss should be given to the surface of 

 the pots or baskets, and if there is any 

 sign of scale it should be thoroughly 

 washed off. Now is the time to do it. 



It takes twelve months to kill an or- 

 chid, and yet so few understand their 

 wants. They have periods of rest, and if 

 you can master that you have largely ad- 

 vanced on the road to orchid culture. 

 After they have flowered they take a 

 short period of rest when they want lit- 

 tle water. Then after a few weeks they 

 begin to grow, the terrestrial kinds, such 

 as cypripedium and ccelogyne, making 

 merely new crowns, not very observable, 

 and aerial genera making pseudo-bulbs or 

 growths which are very visible. While 

 making this new growth they naturally 

 want moisture because they are in active 

 growth. After the new growth is ma- 

 tured they again want a rest, that is, less 

 moisture, and many will endure a much 

 lower temperature. The dendrobium, for 

 instance, a most magnificent genus, while 

 making its bulbs (which had better be 

 called cane?) wants a tropical climate, 

 both as regards heat and moisture, and 

 after the growth is mature will do well 

 in a house where the temperature is not 

 over 50 degrees at night. 



Keep Ahead of Your Work. 



As I am supposed to write strictly sea- 

 sonable hints, there is no greater or more 

 valuable hint just now than to keep well 

 ahead of your work. Western New York, 

 and perhaps many other districts, was 

 ^sited last Friday and Saturday with 4 

 degrees below the freezing point, and 

 several thousand carnations that IiaTl been 

 planted out a few days before look like 

 straw. The carnation is almost a hardy 

 plant, but taken from ever so cool a 

 greenhouse and suddenly subjected to 4 

 degrees of frost is a jar such as Mr, Erne 

 of Buffalo received from Mr. Gans of 

 Baltimore last night on the classic shores 

 of Niagara River in the small time of 

 1:49, but that makes no difference. Be 

 up with your work, and if a customer 

 wf nts a bed of geraniums or cannas or 

 dahlias in a hurry, plant them out by the 

 25th of the month. Don't sing the same 

 old song that "We are liable to have a 

 frost about Decoration Day, and it is not 

 safe to plant out till the first of June." 

 If you do you will be so overwhelmed the 

 first week of June that you will wish you 

 had been a resident of Martinique. Get 

 out everything just as soon as it is safe. 

 Geraniums can be planted here by the 

 20th of this month, and so can all the 

 other bedding plants, except, perhaps, the 

 colcus, and that is going out of fashion. 

 William Scott. 



PRIMULAS. 



The accompanying engraving is from 

 a photograph of a house of primulas at 



