70 



The Weekly Florists' Review. 



June 12. 1902. 



Editor Florists' Revieav: I have 

 read vour able article on this subject and 

 the comments of Jlessrs. C. T. and Joseph 

 Heacock. The use of solid beds and 

 side ventilation are doing much toward 

 improving indoor cut flowers in hot 

 weather; alum as you suggest, or some 

 other shading will help. It is doubtful 

 whether the demand during the summer 

 season will Avarrant any great outlay. I 

 am inclined to think that a larger field 

 for profitable efforts will be found in the 

 month immediately preceding Lent. 



J. W. YOUXG. 



Editor Review: Your article entitled 

 "The Future" in the May 22nd issue 

 certainly has some very good points in 

 it and they are inclined to set one to 

 thinking. AVe all have to think ahead 

 and look into the future as far as we can 

 and every one knows that the men who 

 are able to guess what is to be in de- 

 mand next season have a great advantage 

 over those of us whose foresight is not 

 so well developed. 



As to the practicability of your sug- 

 gestions of course we cannot say until 

 some one gets up enough courage to ex- 

 periment along those lines. If we were 

 able to keep the temperature in our car- 

 nation houses down to March or April 

 temperature during the entire summer it 

 certainly would be worth much to us, 

 but who is going to find out for us 

 just how it should be done? It will take 

 a lot of money not only in fitting up the 



apparatus, but in loss of crojis as well 

 until the thing is perfected enough to 

 be a benefit to the plants. And if it is 

 worked out ■ to the satisfaction of our 

 growers there will be few places of any 

 pretension without at least part of the 

 houses fitted up in such a manner in a 

 short time. We shall certainly try your 

 suggestion of shading with alum and if 

 it does noi prove too" expensive it may be 

 a good thing. We shall try some put on 

 cold first to see how it stands the weather. 

 It may stick too tight if applied hot. 



While our summer flowers have not in- 

 creased in quality as rapidly as has the 

 demand for them, yet at the same time 

 you must admit that we have much bet- 

 ter flowers nowadays during July and 

 August than we did ten years ago. While 

 our methods of growing them have im- 

 proved we must not forget our hybridists 

 who have given us varieties that stand 

 the heat better than the older varieties. 

 For instance in roses we have now Maman 

 Cochet and its white sport, which will 

 produce almost as fine blooms during the 

 summer as Bride and ilaid produce in 

 the winter, and in carnations we have 

 Crocker and Fl. Hill, from which we c:in 

 cut fine blooms all' summer if we choose 

 to handle them properly. That these 

 will be improved upon we have no 

 doubt, and that other colors will be added 

 to that class is just as certain. I really 

 Vielieve that there is as great a future in 

 store for the hybridist as there is for 

 tiie refrigerator man. A. F. J. Baur. 



MISCELLANEOUS 

 SEASONABLE HINTS. 



Palms. 



Y'our sales and planting will soon Ije 

 over and you will have time to draw 

 your breath if not your cheque, and 

 take care of what is left over. We all 

 have more or less of good-sized palms 

 that we use for decorating and are not 

 anxious to dispose of them unless a 

 good price is obtained. What is the 

 best thing to do with them during the 

 next three months of wann weather? 

 If you have a large airy house and the 

 means of shading when necessary and 

 no shade when not necessary, then they 

 are about as well left under glass, and 

 better still if you want an increase of 

 growth, but if you have no better place 

 than a heavily shaded house with but 

 a limited ventilation it is better to stand 

 these large palms out of doors. 



Providing you are sure that the pots 

 and tubs have drainage it is a great ad- 

 vantage to sink them in the ground 

 nearly to the rim of the pot. It is, as 

 we all know, the evaporation from the 

 sides of the pots that dries up the soil. 

 If they can't be sunk in the ground 

 then some material can be thrown round 

 the pots. The best of all palms will burn 

 in the sun if allowed to get dry at the 

 roots, but not otherwise. It will also 

 burn if it has been grown in a very 

 Avarm shaded house, because the leaves 

 are soft, but a kentia that has not been 

 in over 6-5 degrees during winter and 

 has had plenty of light will not burn. 



and a few months out of doors gives 

 them a toughness and hardiness that fits 

 Iheni well for next winter's campaign. 



The large palms and decorative plants 

 that should go out of doors are the ken- 

 tias, latanias, phoenix of all kinds, Pan- 

 danus utilis and Veitchii, Ficus elastica, 

 Cycas revoluta and overgrown Araucaria 

 excelsa, if you are unfortunate enough 

 to have any of the latter, which are like 

 little pigs — very .cute when young but 

 unsightly when six feet long unless kept 

 in splendid order, and that you can 

 hardly do kept in a pot or tub. (I 

 dropped care of the pig at two weeks.) 

 Areca luteseens, the most graceful of 

 all our decorative palms, should be kept 

 indoors. The sun and wind does not 

 agree with it. As good a time as any 

 to shift these plants, if necessary, is 

 when you are moving them out, only a 

 little more care and judgment is needed 

 in watering afterwards for a month or 

 two. 



We all know that plants that we have 

 to lug around in a wagon during winter, 

 lierhaps in zero weather, should be in 

 as small a pot or tub as they will grow- 

 in or exist in, but unless they have some 

 new material as their roots get crowded 

 they will show the effects by loss of 

 color. The arecas must have root room 

 and if it were not for making the tub 

 too bulky will do well with a liberal 

 shift, and so will the latanias. The 

 kentias will thrive and make verv hand- 

 some plants in comparatively small pots. 



but even they must be given more room 

 every two or three years. Palms form a 

 great mass of roots at the bottom of 

 the tub without a particle of soil among 

 them. Supposing a kentia badly needed 

 shifting and it was in a 12-inch pot, there 

 would be found three inches of solid roots 

 at the bottom of the pot. Now two 

 inches of these roots could be cut square 

 off at the bottom with a sharp hatchet 

 and do the jilant no harm; considerable 

 old soil can be loosened away from the 

 sides without disturbing the roots, and 

 an inch or so can be taken from the top 

 of the ball, so you can by these means 

 give these palms a good deal of fresh 

 earth without greatly increasing the size 

 of the tub. 



I would just say here that if you have 

 been interfering much with the roots you 

 had better not expose them to the full 

 sun for a few weeks. If a shift is not 

 necessary then merely pick out what soil 

 you can ofi' top -of liall and mulch with 

 two inches of half decayed cow manure, 

 to which j-ou can add a 5-inch pot of 

 bone dust to every Vjushel of manure. 

 It keeps them from drying out ami they 

 feed on it. Time was when it was 

 thought quite wrong to give animal 

 manure to i)alms, ferns or coniferous 

 trees. Now we know they all like it. 



Rubbers. 



Many growers now plant out their 

 young rubbers and it is a fine way to 

 get a sturdy, strong plant. Young plants 

 a foot high with the top pinched out 

 and planted out now will make fine 

 branching [)lants by the end of Septem- 

 ber, and lift without losing a leaf. The 

 soil should be a good, well manureil. loam 

 and within reach of the hose. Did it 

 ever occur to you that plants of many 

 kinds that we think want this or that 

 kind of particular soil under glass will 

 grow finely in almost any quality of 

 soil when planted out of doors f Un- 

 doubtedly most plants have their prefer- 

 ence f oj- dift'erent soils, but it proves that 

 soil is only a small part of the busi- 

 ness compared to light and pure air and 

 the i-est of the blessings that plants 

 and animals (including ourselves) gain 

 from ' ' out of doors. ' ' But aside from 

 anything that the soil contains, texture 

 of it is important to us, and those that 

 have a good friable loam that will al- 

 ways wet or dry, fall easily into small 

 particles, are fortunate, for in lifting 

 plants from the ground, like rubbers I 

 have just spoken of, or our familiar car- 

 nations, you get all the roots and fibers 

 without a cumbersome lump of soil which, 

 in reducing to the required si^e, carries 

 with it the best roots as a clay and 

 som.e kinds of sand do. 



Ferns. • 



There is no wane in the popularity of 

 that most useful plant, the Boston fern, 

 and won't be until Nephrolepis Piersoni 

 becomes common, and that will be three 

 years hence. Excuse me, Mr. Editor, 

 commenting on this wonderful fern, 

 which I had the good fortune to see 

 almost in its cradle a year ago last 

 October. The mother plant was then at 

 Tarrytown and a score or two of its 

 babies. There is no mistake about this 

 fern, it 's a gem. and if as easily grown 

 as Bostoniensis will soon be the whole 

 thing. It's a gem and although pure 

 good fortune, and not science and not 

 skill, is to be thanked for its production, 

 the hK-ky proprietor is to be congratu- 

 lated. 



