874 



The Weekly Florists' Review^ 



Mat 15, 190e. 



vidual watering for the first ten or fif- 

 teen days, syringing tlie plants twice a 

 I lay during bright weather, the afternoon 

 syringing to be done early enough to 

 have the foliage dry by sundown. 



ElBBS. 



CARNATION NOTES. 



There are a great many growers who 

 do not think of the soil for filling their 

 benches until it is nearly time to fill 

 them, and instead of looking around for 

 good, rich loam they are obliged to take 

 whatever comes handiest. There is no 

 time to prepare it properly, and how can 

 a good crop be raised on it? Other grow- 

 ers who grow both carnations and roses 

 put up all their soil in the spring, because 

 roses like a rather soddy soil, and the car-s 

 nations have to do the best they can on 

 the same sort. To put up a separate pile 

 of soil for carnations is too much trouble 

 for them. This is one of the many rea- 

 sons why a better grade of blooms is 

 grown on the place where carnations are 

 made a specialty than on places where a 

 variety of plants is grown. 



Carnations do not like a rough, lumpy 

 or soddy soil, but rather a well-pulverized, 

 close-lying soil is to their liking. The 

 same soil that you use for roses is good 

 for carnations, except that it should lie 

 long enough to rot the sods thoroughly. 

 Sod that is piled up in the fall will be 

 in good condition to use for carnations 

 by the following summer or fall. 



The best way we have ever found is to 

 plow up in the fall what you expect to 

 pile up, and let it lie exposed to the 

 weather over winter, and then stack it 

 up as early in the spring as you can. The 

 exposure during the winter will kill many 

 worms and weeds which you do not care 

 to take into the house, and it will mellow 

 up your soil wonderfully. If you did 

 this last fall you should lose no time now 

 in getting it piled up, so that all the 

 vegetable matter will rot and so the ma- 

 nure can become well incorporated with 

 the soil. 



Perhaps you are one of those who do 

 not think of the soil until planting time, 

 and if you are, just let me give you fair 

 warning that your crop next season will 

 not be as good as your neighbor's who 

 has his soil stacked up and in course of 

 preparation. Take an hour or two to 

 hunt up some good sod, and if your help 

 is too busy to put it up get some teams 

 and put them to work. Cut the sod with 

 about four inches of soil to it, so that it 

 will rot the grass quicker, and mix in 

 only well-rotted manure. Cow manure is 

 preferable, but if it is not to be had you 

 can use well-rotted stable manure. Make 

 the proportion as about five of soil to one 

 of manure, and turn the pile over every 

 four weeks so as to thoroughly mix it. 

 Each time you turn it add about a 4-inch 

 pot full of slacked lime to each wheel- 

 barrow of soil. Do not add bone meal 

 or other fertilizers until it is in the house 

 on the bench. 



Break tip all the lumps as you turn it 

 over, and never handle it when in a wet 

 condition. You can still get very fair 

 soil by August if you get at it at once 

 and keep at it, but you can just as well 

 do this work at a time when you are not 

 so busy as you are sure to be just now if 

 vou just think ahead far enough. 



A. F. J. Bauk. 



establishment, it is high time that the 

 propagation of the young stock, if not al- 

 ready in operation, should be attended 

 to without delay. Of course, cuttings 

 can be rooted for a long while j'et, but 

 for early and mid-season varieties May 

 is late enough to propagate if one is 

 looking for a good flower with sufficient 

 length of stem. 



In rooting cuttings at this season see 

 that they are well supplied with water, 

 and frequently syringed to keep them 

 from wilting, and just as soon as the 

 young roots are beginning to spread 

 from the base of the cutting, which they 

 will in from two weeks on according to 

 variety, pot up your young plant and 

 let it make its new roots into the soil di- 

 rect. This is, I know, well understooS, 

 and will probably sound like superfluous 

 advice to some readers, but there is al- 

 ways the beginner who often fails to 

 grasp the importance of doing things at 

 the right time, and how often do we see 

 in places whose owners know better, or 

 at least ought to, the cuttings left in the 

 sand until they make long, straggling 

 roots and a thin, spindly top. 



If stock has already been propagated, 

 and a house is vacant, planting can be 

 done at any time from now on ; in fact, if 

 the best flowers are desired, I would rec- 

 ommend planting as soon as possible. 

 Early planted stock produces flowers of 

 much better substance and firdsh than 

 later plants will produce. Plants put 

 out on the benches this month can, of 

 course, be pinched as soon as they get 

 hold of the new soil, and as many shoots 

 taken up as are desired, though I would 

 not recommend leaving over three 

 shoots on any one plant. 



All young stock should be outside 

 somewhere now, preferably in a cold 

 frame, within easy reach of the hose. I 

 am no advocate of outdoor culture all 

 the summer, but I have always found 

 young plants to be greatly benefited by 

 a few weeks outside before being planted 

 in the benches. It induces a stocky 

 growth, clean and short jointed, and the 

 cool, moist night air is just what the 

 mum delights in. Later on, with the in- 

 ti nse heat of July and August, outdoor 

 culture is quite another story, and any 

 one who can possibly make room should 

 keep their plants inside during the sum- 

 mer months. 



The rust, which is such a terrible 

 scourge to European growers, makes no 

 headway here where plants are grown in- 

 side, although it will often appear on 

 plants outside in July if a few days of 

 moist, warm, showery weather happen 

 along. Brian Boru. 



SAN FRANCISCO. 



CHRYSANTHEMUM NOTES. 



If it is proposed to plant early in June 

 as soon as the liedding stock is got out, 

 which is the run of the average florist's 



Cut flowers of all kinds have made their 

 annual swamp of the market, bringing 

 prices away down low with very little 

 business of any kind doing. Funeral 

 work is what we are looking for at pres- 

 ent, but with the splendid weather we are 

 now enjoying very few seem disposed to 

 kick the bucket. We florists are the 

 kickers ; we generally kick when business 

 is poor, but we hope to shy at the bucket 

 unless there's something in it. 



The supply of roses and carnations 

 that are coming in is very heavy, and 

 many fine lots can be seen that go for a 

 song, in fact nobodj' wants them. Sweet 

 peas are at their best and immense quan- 

 tities are being disposed of by the retail- 

 ers; they are a cheap and pretty flower 

 and very popular on the coast. 



F. Lyons, Sutter street, has bought out 

 his partner, V. Antonie, and will conduct 

 the store under his own name. 



Mr. Jack Gilmour, Elmhurst, has made 

 a success of growing Liberty roses. Some 

 that he sends to market have stems three 

 feet and over, and buds of splendid color. 

 Jack will make a large planting of Lib- 

 erty this year. 



J. Figone will open a store on Fourth 

 street near Market in a few weeks. 



Mr. Thomas Stevenson, Powell street, 

 intends to visit London on June 10. This 

 will be his first visit since he left the old 

 sod to the scenes of his childhood. East- 

 ern florists, look out for him if he comes 

 your way. He is a pleasant chap and 

 very entertaining. 



J. Barry, recently from New York, has 

 leased the Potett establishment and re- 

 stocked it with carnations, chrysanthe- 

 mums. Bridesmaids and Beauties. 



J. W. Shannahan, Powell street, has 

 been on the sick list for four weeks with 

 appendicitis. Although still suffering 

 from the malady, Mr. Shannahan was at 

 his post this week. It is to be hoped he 

 will soon recover entirely. 



V. Matria, Powell street, is thinking 

 of visiting Boston in the near future for 

 the purpose of opening a store in that 

 city. 



Ed Gill will erect one house, 30x100, 

 for carnations. 



The State Floral Society, chiefly com- 

 posed of lady amateurs, and the Pacific 

 Coast Horticultural Society, composed of 

 practical gardeners and growers and 

 those connected with the trade, have 

 agreed to disagree in the matter of hold- 

 ing a spring flower show, for the reason 

 that the lady members of the S. F. S. 

 wanted to run things their own way. It 

 is the writer's belief that the best has 

 happened. It is well that it was nipped 

 in the bud. The combination should 

 never have been made in the first place 

 if floriculture was intended to be ad- 

 vanced in San Francisco. At the present 

 time San Francisco is away behind 

 eastern cities when it comes to a floral 

 exhibition, while her place ought to be at 

 the head, considering her climate and 

 talent to be had. 



The premium list lately issued by the 

 joint societies is the same old premium 

 list we have had for the last fifteen years 

 or more; we haven't got out of the old 

 rut yet. Just think of it! In class A 

 No. 1, for professional growers, $2.50 is 

 offered for the best seedling carnation 

 (never exhibited before). What a splen- 

 did inducement for the raisers of seed- 

 lings! Then again $25.00 is offered for 

 the best and largest collection of carna- 

 tions. There is only one man in San 

 Francisco, or, in fact, on the Pacific 

 coast, that has the best and largest col- 

 lection of carnations, and he wins that 

 prize each year with little or no competi- 

 tion. We may not care for competition 

 in business, but when it comes to the 

 show room we want all the competition 

 we can get. The more the better. 



The premium list runs in the same 

 strain from beginning to end, and I con- 

 sider it very unfair and not interesting. 

 When exhibitors are not interested in 

 general and only a few attend an exhibi- 

 tion, knowing they have a cinch, the af- 

 fair becomes a failure like many we have 

 had on the Pacific coast in years gone by. 

 In m.nking up a premium list the effort 

 should be made to bring out the multi- 

 tude. For instance, if $10 or $25 was of- 

 fered for the best twelve blooms of 

 Flora Hill, or any other variety of stand- 



