The Weekly Florists^ Review* 



Mat 29. 1902. 



ROSES. 



Seasonable Hints. 



At this season mildew is one of the 

 Tvorst enemies of the rose grower. The 

 houses have to be left open so much 

 and the sudden fluctuations of temper- 

 ature are just the conditions suited for 

 the germination of the spores, which are 

 alwars present, and as the weather is 

 too warm to require firing, it is no easy 

 job to get rid of it. Careful ventilation 

 and a dusting of flowers of sulphur twice 

 a week will help to keep it in check. 

 For a bad dose of it shutting dowji the 

 ventilators for half an hour while the 

 sun is shining and applying the sul- 

 phur will usually kill it. Care should be 

 taken not to get the house too hot, as 

 the foliage may suffer. 



Young stock in pots will require care- 

 ful watching. Where the pots are well 

 filled with roots they should be kept 

 from any approach to drying out, as 

 this gives them a check which it will 

 take them some time to get over even 

 after being planted in the bench. 



In stock houses, after some of the 

 plants have been removed it is well to 

 keep the sand or ashes on the empty 

 spaces of the bench well watered as it 

 helps to keep the house cool and moist. 



support of a stake as soon as planted, 

 as the syringing is apt to detach the 

 scion from the stock. Ribes. 



AMERICAN ROSE SOCIETY. 



The stated June meeting of the Amer- 

 ican Eose Society will be held in New 

 York on June 11 in connection with the 

 June show of the Horticultural Society 

 of New York at the New York Botan- 

 nieal Garden. The Rose Society offers 

 a silver medal for the best display of 

 garden roses on this occasion. Further 

 particulars of the exhibition and the full 

 schedule may be had from the secre- 

 tary, 136 Liberty street. New York, 

 The Rose Society is now arranging to 

 offer its gold and silver medals at some 

 of the leading exhibitions next year, 

 particulars of which will be made pub- 

 lic very shortly. The gold medals will 

 be offered for novelties. 



VIOLET NOTES. 



I said in my first article several weeks 

 ago that I would later consider the style 

 of house that violets should be grown 

 in, and I will endeavor in this to give 

 some idea of them. 



It is a generally accepted fact that 

 north and south houses are the best for 



Pillow Arranged by Samuel Murray, Kansas City, Mo. 



These matters are small and may seem 

 trivial, but there is nothing too minute 

 for the grower to notice if he wishes 

 to be successful. Every grower should 

 keep a journal in which to note his ob- 

 servations, and keep a record of his 

 work, and whilst recording his successes 

 he should also note his failures; by keep- 

 ing these failures and their causes vivid- 

 ly before us we can try to avoid them 

 in the future. 



In recently planted houses where root 

 action has well started the surface should 

 be cultivated regularly once a week, 

 stirring the soil with the hand to the 

 depth of an inch. By keeping the sur- 

 face in good condition the plants can 

 use more water, as evaporation will be 

 perfect and consequently growth more 

 rapid. 



Plenty of ventilation carefully regu- 

 lated will give strong leathery foliage, 

 which can better resist the attacks of 

 mildew. Grafted stock should have the 



violets taking everything into considera- 

 tion. Nevertheless if one was growing 

 only a few for home trade and only 

 wanted them for the holiday trade, and 

 wished to use the house for other pur- 

 poses later, and did not have a regular 

 riolet house and did not want to build 

 such, I would not hesitate to plant them 

 in a south span house if it had ample 

 ventilation under the south eaves and at 

 the ridge. In fact you should be able 

 to get more blooms at that time of the 

 year than in a regular violet house, but 

 a little later the sun gets too strong and 

 spoils them, and if you shaile to prevent 

 this then the house is too dark on cloudy 

 days. 



One thing you should always bear in 

 mind is that violets like to be near the" 

 glass, have plenty of fresh cool air, and 

 planted in solid borders and not in 

 benches — at least we can never succeed 

 with them on benches. 



To mv mind there are two ideal violet 



houses, running north and south, even 

 span, one ten feet wide and the other 

 twenty-four feet wide. The latter is 

 of course the cheaper house to build. 

 They should both have ventilation on 

 both sides of the ridge and also clear 

 around both sides under the plate, 

 which should be three or four feet from 

 the ground accorumg to the location. In 

 the first named house you will have a 

 path in the center with a border on eax;h 

 side, and in the larger house you will 

 have four borders and three paths, the 

 two inside borders being six feet wide 

 each, as you can work them from both 

 sides. The walks to the borders can be 

 laid up of either brick or grout wall, 

 the latter being very nice if properly 

 done and the best of Portland cement 

 used. R. E. SntTHELT. 



CUTTING MUMS BACK. 



T. K. asks if it is best to cut his 

 mums back before shifting the last time, 

 or after shifting. I hardly catch the 

 idea of your correspondent so far as the 

 cutting back is concerned. 



If the plants are in pots and it is 

 proposed to grow them so and take up 

 a number of shoots they should have 

 been kept pinched in. this will keep 

 the plants dwarf and will induce numer- 

 ous breaks to form. It is always better 

 to pinch the tips out of the young shoots 

 than to let the plants get up long and 

 then cut down again. If T. K. has let 

 his plants get up too long they should 

 be cut down and made to start "out into 

 growth again before being potted on. 

 Mums do not necessarily have to be cut 

 back, though of course, it may be done 

 when dwarf plants only are needed. 

 Brian Bortj. 



PERENNIAL PLANTS FOR CARPET- 

 ING BEDS. 



A great saving of labor results from 

 planting all the flower beds with a car- 

 peting of low-growing hardy suojects, 

 so that the only after-planting that is 

 required will be the introduction of a 

 few annuals, or hardy or half-hardy 

 subjects. Thus, a bed" of white pinks 

 will always look sightly, and can have 

 a few wallflowers set at intervals over 

 it in autumn or spring, with geraniums 

 to replace these in summer. The bed- 

 ding plants will be benented rather than 

 injured by having the ground about 

 them so closely covered ; in dry, hot 

 seasons they will be found to flourish, 

 whereas other plants set in uncarpeted 

 beds will have at least the lower foliage 

 withered, and stand in need of frequent 

 applications from hose or water-can. 



As there are a great number of low- 

 growing perennials the choice among 

 colors is a varied one. Alyssum saxatile, 

 A. montanum, A. spinosuiii (white), and 

 A. olympieum are all suitable. So are 

 Iberis Pruiti (white) and I. corrafolia 

 (white), while the common A. semper- 

 virens will flourish an\Tvhere. The blue 

 winter windflower makes a beautiful car- 

 pet beneath early spring-blooming plants, 

 but must be alternated with some sum- 

 mor-flowerer, such as violas, if later 

 shew is required. Anemone blanda must 

 have full sunshine. Excellent are the 

 Mountain Cat 'sears, Antennaria alpina 

 and A. minima, as these have neat whit- 

 ish foliage. Anthemis Aizoon is a pretty, 

 dwarf, silver-foliaged camomile. 



"Where the ground is wet and cold 

 Anthyllis montana should be tried; this 



