308 



The Weekly Florists' Review^ 



Al-gust 7, 1902. 



MISCELLANEOUS 

 SEASONABLE HINTS. 



Dahlias. 



This should have been a good season 

 for dahlias, for they delight in cool 

 weather and lots of moisture. Under 

 our hot suns the soil soon dries out and 

 perhaps in a few days we will be praying 

 for rain. If you want fine flowers and 

 plenty of them, see that your dahlias get 

 a good soaking at least once a week, and 

 what is of as much importance, muleh 

 round the plant for a distance of eighteen 

 inches from the stem. People that grow 

 acres cannot, perhaps, find time for wat- 

 ering and mulching and staking, but 

 where the best results are wanted it pays 

 to do it. 



Hollyhocks. 



We have been asked this summer sev- 

 eral times for stalks of hollyhocks and 

 we had to get them, for they were cus- 

 tomers that could not be refused. Single 

 flowers were just as much thought of 

 as the double, but you would not think 

 of sowing seed tliat would produce single 

 flowers the first year. My experience is 

 they they will come single quick enough 

 if left growing 2 or 3 years in one spot. 

 I don't blame people of good taste for 

 liking the hollyhock. What is more 

 stately and informal and really pictur- 

 esque? The dahlia is the perfection of 

 form and color, but too formal and not 

 in it with the hollyhock as a decorative 

 flower, either in the border or cut. 



Every spring you see plenty adver- 

 tised, and when you write tor two or 

 three hundred everybody is either sorry 

 to say they are just sold out or you 

 get horrible rubbish that was raised to 

 sell and not to flower. Raise your own, 

 and the middle or end of August is a 

 good time to sow. Perhaps 500 miles 

 south of this the young plants will do 

 out in the open ground all winter; with 

 us they won't, and when the young 

 plants are large enough to transplant 

 we put them in cold frames, where they 

 can be protected with glass during win- 

 ter. If the very best plants were want- 

 ed I would prefer to put the plants in 

 3-inch pots in a frame, and during the 

 four coldest months keep them in a 

 violet house. That has been my experi- 

 ence, and finer hollyhocks were never 

 seen than these wintered that way 

 and planted out as soon as the ground 

 was dry in the spring. Buy the best 

 strain of seed you can find and a good 

 mixture of colors. 



Pelargoniums. 



It will soon be time to think of propa- 

 gating the show pelargoniums. Perhaps 

 about the end of the month is the right 

 time. It does not make much diflference 

 where the old plants are now, either 

 under glass or plunged outside. They 

 have made a growth since flowering and 

 now should be kept on the dry side. Un- 

 less you are well posted about these 

 plants you will be afraid to cut them 

 down as low as they require to make de- 

 cent plants of the old ones. Too many 



growers just take oft' the green cuttings 

 from the ends of the shoots. That will 

 never do. The old plant, if you wish to 

 grow it on, will be a long-legged, un- 

 sightly plant for the rest of its days. 

 Cut down to within two or three inches 

 of the soil. Dozens of eyes will break 

 out where there was no visible eye. Keep 

 the cut-down plants almost dust dry for 

 three or four weeks. By that time" they 

 will be covered with young.shoots. Then 

 shake off every bit of soil, trim back 

 the roots and put into pots two or three 

 sizes smaller than they flowered in, and 

 on they go for another year, and these 

 one-year-old plants make grand speci- 

 mens if well grown. 



The end of the green shoot you have 

 ,eut off and the second cut, even if it's 

 a little hard, will root freely. Put them 

 in the propagating sand, and after the 

 first good watering keep them only mod- 

 erately moist, and you will lose biit few, 

 although it will take a month or six 

 weeks for them to root. It is, of course, 

 the young plants that you mostly depend 

 on for your market plants in May and 

 June. There is something about the 

 pelargonium — its flower, the odor of its 

 leaves — that recalls almost the days of 

 infancy, and gorgeous plants we" have 

 seen of them. Immense is the time and 

 labor expended on them for the exhibi- 

 tions of Great Britain. It seems we 

 don't have that time here, and yet time 

 and labor have been given to the chrysan- 

 themum, and why not to the pelargon- 

 ium ? 



Don't attempt to propagate the zonale 

 geranium till the ueginning of April ; the 

 hot days of August are most unfavorable. 

 In fact, this month (if someone will 

 plant your carnations) is most suited to 

 attend conventions. 



William Scott. 



A GERANIUM TROUBLE. 



My geraniums are troubled about the 

 roots with wire worms. The plants are 

 not in pots. They wilt right down. What 

 can I do to save them? W. T. S. 



Wire worms are seldom troublesome 

 in the garden except on sod that has 

 been lately turned up. I have seen them 

 clean out a crop of carnations, and even 

 small shrubs. It's a bad job. Make 

 a barrel of weak tobacco water by pour- 

 ing some boiling water on the stems, 

 or dilute the Rose Leaf extract 150 

 times, and water around each geranium. 

 It may not kill the wire worms, but they 

 will leave for other parts. W. S. 



SAGO PALMS. 



A question is asked by a subscriber 

 who signs himself " B " "and who says 

 that two of his customers complain that 

 the young growths on their >Sago palms 

 are dying. They are kept in dwelling 

 houses. Mr. "B"does not say whether 

 he has visited the houses and looked into 

 conditions under which these eyeas are 

 trying to grow. 



The trouble may arise from several 

 causes. Too much gas used, insufficient 

 water, a close, hot, dry room, and per- 

 haps other unfavorable conditions. Cy- 

 cas revoluta, while not the worst of house 

 plants, is by no means the best. Well 

 established plants do fairly well win- 

 tered in a light, warm room, if thorough- 

 ly watered occasionally, but plants that 

 have been established from imported 

 roots within a year quickly lose all their 

 leaves and should never be sold for such 

 a purpose. W. S. 



SOCIETY OF AMERICAN FLORISTS. 



Rates to AsheviUe. 



Members in western Xew York State 

 and Pennsylvania will please note the 

 following modification of arrangements 

 regarding railroad fares to Asheville as 

 heretofore announced: 



The Trunk Line Association, compris- 

 ing the railroads in the Middle States, 

 east of Buffalo, Pittsburg, etc., will sell 

 tickets to Asheville and return on the 

 basis of one and one-third fare to Wash- 

 ington, plus one fare therefrom to Ashe- 

 ville, except that from Buffalo, Pittsburg 

 and other Trunk Line termini on the 

 west, via Washington, regular one-way 

 fare via Washington wilf apply for 

 round trip, charges from intermediate 

 points on direct lines not to be higher. 

 '±^.., gives all those attending the con- 

 vention from or via Buffalo, Pittsburg 

 aud neighboring territory the concession 

 of one fare for round trip, in common 

 with Cleveland, Chicago and other West- 

 ern centers. 



These will be regular round-trip tick- 

 ets, no certificates being required, limit- 

 ed to continuous passage in each direc- 

 tion. They will be sold, and good going, 

 August 17, 18, 19, and one day earlier 

 than these dates from Buffalo, Pittsburg 

 and other western Trunk Line termini, 

 with final return limit to Aug. 25, in- 

 clusive. 



Plant Registration. 



M. H. Walsli, Wood 's Holl, Mass., reg- 

 isters climbing rose, Wending Bells. A 

 seedling from Crimson Rambler, flower- 

 ing from June ± to July 1. Flowers 

 cherry pink, borne in large clusters on 

 every shoot. Flowering shoots spineless. 



H. T. Rose Princess (Margaret Dick- 

 sonxLa France) 1898. Color flesh pink. 

 Buds large, pointed. Stems strong and 

 straight. 



H. T. Rose Urania. Seedling from 

 American Beauty, 1897. Color intense 

 carmine. Vigorous, foliage large, stems 

 stout. Free bloomer. 



Lager & Hurrell, Summit, N. J., reg- 

 ister Cattleya Hardyana Mrs. Geo. 

 Schlegel. xCattleya gigasxC. chrysotoxa; 

 a natural hybrid from Colombia. Bulbs 

 aud foliage extra large and strong. Flow- 

 ers, sepals and petals deep rose pink; 

 lip over three inches across, very long, 

 of intense purple color, heavily fringed 

 and lacerated ; throat golden yellow, 

 spreading laterally into two unusually 

 large blotches. 



J. B. Trudo, Alderbend, X. Y., regis- 

 ters Carnation Miss Aimee (Mrs. Law- 

 sonxEldorado). Flower white, edges fine- 

 ly striped scarlet, clove scented, three to 

 four inches across. Foliage glaucous, 

 stems wiry, holding heavy bloom erect. 

 Height, two feet. 



