338 



The Weekly Florists^ Review* 



August 14, 1902 



ing time to eany the plants right 

 through, but the grower for exhibition 

 must feeil, and feed considerably, or get 

 left in the race. I believe that the Chi- 

 nese, wlio have been growing mums longer 

 than we have, encourage their plants witli 

 liquid manure right from the tirst stages 

 of growth. They evidently realize the oft- 

 repeated assertion that the minii is a 

 gross feeder. 



A man who came round looking for a 

 ,iob once told me that a mum could be 

 fed lip to the point where it would digest 

 ' ' kerosene ile ; " he 'd be ' ' blink blanked 

 if it wouldn't." It may be so, but I 

 never experimented to see, being reason- 

 ably content with my success obtained Vjy 

 keeping to more conservative and better 

 known aids tO' culture. 



Rkiax Boru. 



MISCELLANEOUS 

 SEASONABLE HINTS. 



Rambkr Rose Cuttings. 



A subscriber asks: ''Would cuttings 

 from Crimson Bambler rose root if taken 

 from the plants at this season of the 

 year? Kindly state in the next issue 

 of The Eeview what time of the year 

 is best for rooting them and oblige. ' ' 



By going to the trouble of putting up 

 a mild hot bed and with a few inches of 

 sand, also the greatest care in shading 

 and moisture, they could be rooted now. 

 Prom middle of October to middle of 

 Xoveniber is a far better time. Then the 

 ordinary propagating house will do very 

 well. Again in February and March 

 from blind shoots of the plants .vou are 

 forcing for Easter you can jji-opagate 

 to a certainty. In selecting the cuttings 

 either in the fall or spring don 't choose 

 the strong, stout growths; the medium- 

 sized firm growths root much better. This 

 is a rule that applies to all rose cuttings, 

 more particularly to the hybrid perpetual 

 and the hardy i-lindiing ty]ies. 



Asparagus Sprengeri. 



Some weeks ago, in describing a raugc 

 of rose houses that were all connected, 

 but no partitions, and the gutters sup- 

 ported with cedar posts, walks on each 

 side of posts, I mentioned that I saw- 

 Asparagus 8prengeri growing in deep, 

 narrow boxes between the posts. The 

 boxes were 24 inches long, 16 inches deep 

 and perhai)s 8 inches wide. In fact, they 

 were made to hold 100 lights of 16x24 

 glass, but the glass was on the roof and 

 the asparagus had been growing in these 

 deep, narrow boxes all winter most 

 luxuriantly, and must have added greatly 

 to the revenue of the houses. 



^ovi is a good time to start, and any 

 amount of it is advertised. I don 't rec- 

 ommend a costly range of houses being 

 built on this plan just to accommoilate 

 these boxes, but what could be put in 

 this space so profitably, and some of you 

 may have such a spot or two on your 

 place. We all know that the asparagus 

 family are prodigious feeders, and this 

 useful one soon gets small and stunted in 

 its growth if there is not a large supply 

 of food, and what impressed me with its 

 growth when I saw these boxes last No- 

 vember and again in June this year was 

 their wonderful growth and color. It 

 was the ilepth of soil, and the plants had 

 not become exhausted. Depend upon it, 

 that hap|)y thought of utilizing those 

 otherwise useless boxes was inspiration. 

 The conditions were just what this hun- 

 gry jdant need^. 



Paosies. 



Tlmse who grow pansies and winter 



them in a cold frame so as to have early 

 flowering jilants in April for vase-filling 

 shouhl sow by the middle of this month. 

 In the choice and fancy of people for 

 the many faced and marked pansies there 

 is no accounting, and if only a few thou- 

 sand are wanted some good mixed strain- 

 is sufficient, but of late in pansies as in 

 other flowers the customers want a bed 

 or vase filled with one color, and you 

 should be sure that you have a gooil sup- 

 ply of the yellow, white, purple and very 

 dark or black Aariety. A bed of these 

 four colors in olistinct lines or masses is 

 about as chaste and tasty a bed of flow- 

 ers as can be found. After a bed of 

 coleus or geraniums it is like a Rubens 

 compared to a circus poster. 



Cinerarias. 



Sow cineraria this month or early in 

 the next for your Easter and spring 

 plants. We do not think that this showy 

 plant is worth growing. It takes up too 

 much room, needs a vast amount of fu- 

 migating and is cheap in the end, but 

 there may be communities where it is of 

 value. Cineraria has a seed that you can 

 see without the aiol of a microscope, and 

 is easy to manage in a young state. 



Calceolarias. 



Calceolaria (the herliaceous) is a much 

 more showy plant, and if well done is 

 about as gaudy, high-colore<l a plant as 

 we gro«. The seetl is very minute and 

 will not need any covering. Just well 

 water the soil in the pot or pan and 

 when <lry enough so that it is not sticky 

 sow the seed on the surface and press in 

 with the clean bottom of a new pot. I 

 don 't know any better plan with all these 

 small seeds than to put a light of glass 

 over the pot or flat and cover witli a 

 cloth. This keeps the soil moist witlnnit 

 the need of daily watering, but you nuist 

 watch out and remove both as soon as the 

 seedlings are up or they T\ill generally 

 "draw up," and that's a iioor waV to 

 start. 



Callas. 



1 was asked a (jucstion a few days 

 ago about callas. A friend and neighbor 

 has just planted a bench 150x.5. Evi- 

 dently he thinks they arc going to be in 

 demand, and I am not sure but that he 

 hiia guessed right. He is not the man 

 who asked the question ; he knows all 

 abiuit it. Calla roots that are just bought 

 should be started at once, out of doors 

 if you are crowded indoors; it makes lit- 

 tle diiference. Although you get a good 

 crop of flowers from them in the spring 

 when planted in a bench in six inches of 



good sciil, you will not get .-n many 

 flowers during the ilark days from the 

 bench as from those grown in pots, and 

 I prefer them the year around in pots. 



Those you flowered last winter and 

 have rested out of doors this summer 

 should soon be shaken out and started. 

 You will find a great many off-shoots, 

 little Ijulblets we call them, from the size 

 cif a marrowfat pea to a freesia l>ulb. If 

 they are potted this fall into 2-inch and 

 givom one shift during winter and in 

 ilay put into a •'j-inch and plunged out 

 of doors and kept liberally watered all 

 summer they will make fine fiowering 

 roots the following winter. Perhaps it 

 is as cheap to buy the Pacific slope roots. 

 I have never tried the latter. 



Cyclamen. 



Will you please look after the cycla- 

 men just now. The sun is getting less 

 and less powerful every day and ,a per- 

 iminent shading will not ilo, so have, buy, 

 get, invent or make some means of shad- 

 ing during the bright hours of the tlay 

 and remove it after 3 j). m. and on dull 

 days altogether. 



WiLLi.JM Scott. 



BUFFALO. 



Business. 



Extreme dullness in businass is re- 

 ported all along the line, and we sup- 

 pose we are no exception. Gladioli, as- 

 ters, sweet peas and carnations of very 

 fair quality are piling up, or would piie 

 up if there were not the daily dumping. 



The Club's Picnic. 



It has started in again to rain at some 

 time every twenty-four hours. Yet be- 

 tween the hours of 1 and 10 p. m. last 

 Wednesday it did not rain, and the 

 Florist Club's annual picnic went off 

 in the most approveil style. Niagara was 

 calm and no seasickness was reported. It 

 was by far the largest crowd that ever 

 attended a similar occasion. There were 

 sisters and cousins ami aunts — altogether 

 125 sat down to the feast, which con- 

 cluded the ilay's sport. There were half 

 a dozen faces not seen there that should 

 have been, but to make amends for that 

 were several present whom we diil not 

 look for. C. F. Christensen and family 

 and all the staff were welcome attenil- 

 ants. The most notable absentee w-as 

 Daniel B. Long. Now-, w-hat was the 

 matter. Dan? Don't pretentl you were 

 too busy. Still, if you were going to in- 

 troduce business it's as well you stopped 

 home. 



After the inevitable operation of jihoto- 

 grajiliing was over we all adjounieol to 

 the pasture lot, on which a iliamonU is 

 laid out, and with little delay the biill 

 game was begun. It was all Buffalo 

 florists vs. Scott's Sons and employes. 

 There was a small "ringer" on tue Seotf 

 team and two big "ringers" on the other 

 side. The battery was Stevens and K. 

 Scott, and for All-Buffalo Scrap Iron 

 Heavyweight and Weiss. 1 would like to 

 be able to give the correct name of t.'Te 

 All-Butt'alo ]utcher, but I don't know it. 

 His claim to being a florist was based 

 on his having carted some little around 

 town for Mr. Anderson at one or more 

 Raster times. He was, however, a gooil- 

 temi)ei-ed, jolly fellow. 



The game was for blooil and gore and 

 something else, and the soinethiiig else 

 i-aused a good manv remarks between S. 

 A. Andei-M n and W. B. Scott. At the 



