J 02 



The Weekly Florists' Review^ 



June 19. 1902. 



right out and let the sucker take its 

 place. There are various reasons for 

 this habit of bud producing in the 

 spring. With some kinds as Morel, it 

 is the nature of the beast. Again it will 

 appear if the plants have been too long 

 in small pots, and got hard and stunted; 



or too much heat early in their growth 

 will also be sometimes responsible. 

 While the mum is long suffering, once 

 in a while it turns and shows by this 

 method its disapproval of the culture 

 to which it has been subjected. 



Brian Boru. 



MISCELLANEOUS 

 SEASONABLE HINTS. 



Pots. 



A general cleaning up will soon oc- 

 cur; a very humble subject and yet one 

 of no little consequence is the care of 

 our empty pots. The market grower sells 

 his plants in pots and has to replenish 

 his stock every year, but many of us sell 

 few plants in pots and we are so much 

 ahead. I don't take great stock in the 

 porous quality of our pots, yet there is 

 no question that all plants thrive bet- 

 ter when shifted into new pots and per- 

 haps it is because there is a healthy 

 drying out from the sides. What I want 

 to impress on you is that beneath a bench 

 is the very worst place for pots to re- 

 main during summer or till you want 

 them again next winter. Put them out 

 of doors. The excuse of my beloved son 

 in the city is that we have not room on 

 an acre lot in the city, but there is al- 

 ways room if space is well utilized. Those 

 that have two or three acres of an or- 

 chard attached to their plant establish- 

 ment and jirodueing only a poor crop of 

 hay should put out all their pots and 

 the wider they spread them so that the 

 sun and rain gets at them the better. 

 Do anything rather than have a moisture- 

 soaked, greasy pot. 



Painting. 



I don 't w ant to start you into hard 

 work before you have had a week's res- 

 pite from the hurry and bustle of June, 

 but remember that any repairing of 

 benches or painting inside had better 

 be done as soon as possible. Carnations 

 you begin to plant by middle of July, 

 roses are already being planted and 

 mums should all be in by July 1, so that 

 houses that want a coat of paint inside 

 should be done at once. It looks like a 

 formidable job, but really it is not so 

 overwhelming. Two men can paint a lot 

 of sash bars in a day and the good it 

 does in the way of light is beyond meas- 

 ure. A well painted house is practically 

 a new house and we all know how well 

 plants do, apparently without skillful 

 management, in a brand new house. It 

 is a hot job in June to be looking up 

 at the glass, but that can be overcome bj 

 having some sail cloth or some such ma- 

 terial on the roof over the painters. I 

 know of nothing better than good linseed 

 oil and white lead, but it turns a yellow- 

 ish white unless j'ou add a small quan- 

 tity of blue coloring to it, which will 

 keep it a pure white. 



Putty and Mastica. 



Putty rots in the houses that are 

 lapped and every other year at least they 

 should get a good coat of white lead. 

 Appearance is most gratifying, but apart 



from that it is necessary to fill up those 

 leaky places that are sure to occur where 

 putty is used. (Those lucky fellows who 

 butt their glass don't have this worry.) 

 Eeally shaky glazed old houses that are 

 in bad condition will take too much lead 

 to make them water tight and there is 

 where mastica comes in. It is inexpen- 

 sive and will fill up cracks and holes. It 

 has a) dirty appearance, but answers well 

 to keep (Silt leaks in houses that you are 

 not quite ready to pull down and re- 

 build. 



Style of Houses. 



There has been a great change of late 

 in the architecture of many large ranges 

 of houses of recent construction. In f act,- 

 quite a revolution, and I hope sincerely 

 it is one in the right direction. With 

 all our boast«d intelligence, man — at 

 least the average — very much resembles , 

 some of our four-legged animals and 

 does nothing but follow the leader, and 

 are stampeded into any new idea with- 

 out giving serious thought whether it 

 is logical or not in their own mind. The 

 long span to the south with a high north 

 wall was considered fifteen years ago as 

 the only house that it was possible to pro- 

 duce high class roses in. Then some 

 man with wheels in his head thought that 

 the direct rays of the sun was the only 

 thing necessary and so started the short 

 span to the south house, a crude abom- 

 ination. 



Now the latest and (up to this mo- 

 ment, I believe) the most economically 

 built, the most airy and healthy, and 

 with the greatest diffusion of light, are 

 the blocks of houses with connecting 

 roofs but no partitions. Gutters of va- 

 rious designs, either metal or wood; 

 gutters from six to nine feet high. These 

 houses are always built in our northern 

 states running east or west or better 

 still facing a few points east of south. 

 The benches or beds are on the ground 

 or very near it, and there being no par- 

 titions the gutter is the only shade and 

 that you will notice is not continuous 

 on any part of the bench for many min- ■ 

 utes at a tiipe. As the sun rises and 

 descends (or rather the earth revolves) 

 the shade of the gutter is not long on one 

 portion of the bench. There is no doubt 

 about the larger expanse of space hav- 

 ing a purer and better air, less mildew 

 on roses and a great deal more econom- 

 ical to operate and to heat and a great 

 saving in construction. The houses can 

 be any length and the width from gutter 

 to gutter is from 16 to 25 feet. 



This style of houses or block of houses 

 is, of course, only suitable to the use 

 of one kind of plant, because you can 

 keep the temperature under one roof 



only slightly higher than under another. 

 They are for a block of roses or carna- 

 tions, mostly roses. Yet when these 

 crops happened to be dispensed wittf 

 from any cause, what grand houses they 

 must be for lilies, or later any kind 

 of spring bedding plants. Yet it is for 

 roses and carnations that they are es- 

 pecially designed. This radical change 

 in roof construction has brought about 

 a small change in elevation and construc- 

 tion of benches or beds. You will readily 

 see that in the houses with no partitions 

 and high gutters the farther away from 

 the gutters are your beds the more 

 changeable will be the shade. 



I have, many years ago, been presump- 

 tuous enough to say that the old fogy 

 saying which is still often observed in 

 the English gardening journals, "Keep 

 near the glass," was nothing more than 

 saying "Give them light." If the house 

 is light the plant is as well off sixteen 

 feet from the glass as six inches, but 

 often plants on a shelf near the glass do 

 remarkably well and light is not the only 

 cause; it is the freer circulation of air. 

 In this new style of houses no benches 

 are used, or if so, very low, but I cannot 

 see the utility of building a bench when 

 it is to be used so near the ground. Some 

 growers that make money in large quan- 

 tities from their rose beds put them 

 right on the ground and even have the 

 ground beneath plowed and manured so 

 that the roses will send their roots down 

 a foot or two. These are truly solid 

 beds and the roses are intended to re- 

 main there three or four years. 



No doubt roses of good quality can be 

 cut from these beds the year around and 

 we are witness to a block of houses of 

 this kind where roses are cut during 

 winter (Brides and Maids) with stems 

 three to, four feet long and command 

 the very highest price in New York City. 

 The}' are nearly every one what you may 

 call sucker growth. I don't say any- 

 thing about their color or their keeping 

 qualities, but they have the stem; but 

 with all that I advise no one to go into 

 that style of rose growing. It's peculiar 

 and unique, and the man who is doing 

 it is to be congratulated, for nothing 

 succeeds like success. 



But my advice is keep the roots con- 

 fined in four inches of soil and let there 

 be a space of some kind between the 

 bed and terra firma. If the surface ol 

 the house is dry (which it always should 

 be, if not naturally so, then well 

 drained), there is nothing so good for 

 the bottom of the bed as a 4-inch tile 

 placed side by side with a 4-inch brick 

 for the edge or a 2x4 scantling. This 

 tile may appear fo you as rather expen- 

 sive, but it will be found to l:)e less than 

 50 per cent more than 2-ineh plank, and 

 if you reckon in joints and legs for 

 bench, scarcely any more expense. They 

 are almost everlasting, while the wooden 

 benches are continually wearing out, and 

 they give absolute and perfect drainage. 

 If that cannot be afforded, then a 2x6 

 on the ground across the bench at every 

 four feet, and 6-inch fence boards 

 lengthwise with a %-inch space between 

 them, will do very well till you can 

 afford the tile. This is a big subject 

 and I would like to still keep on, but 

 time and space forbid. 



I will conclude by saying that while 

 I have the greatest faith in this new 

 style of houses for special purposes, and 

 we all know that flowers are going to 

 be produced in the future in the most 



