August 21, 190:; 



The Weekly Florists^ Review. 



391 



AMONG THE GROWERS. 



J. A. Peterson, Cincinnati. 



At this cstuljlislimeiit Hegania Gloire 

 lie Lorraine is miu'h in eviilence. There 

 aro now no less than 1:2,00(1 cuttings in 

 the sand, a large proportion being leaf 

 cuttings. Jlr. Peterson finds that he can 

 get a much more shapely young plant 

 from a leaf cutting tlian from the cut- 

 ting of usual form. And there were 

 plants in all stages from those ,iust 

 potted off up to specimens. He certainly 

 does this begonia e.xtra well and handles 

 them suecessfully in a wholesale way that 

 is very encouraging. 



Pandanus Veitchii is also largely 

 grown here and the stock was in uniform- 

 ly fine condition. A large batch of young 

 plants was plunged in hot manure in a 

 cold frame niuler elevated shaded sash. 

 A large lot of fine young cyclamen was 

 in a similar frame, but instead of being 

 l)hinged the plants were set on inverted 

 jiots in a thick bed of tobacco stems. 



He has quite a stock of Dracaena ter- 

 niinalis and Irord Wolseley, but says he 

 is decreasing the space devoted to them. 

 An odd plant of Drac«na GodsefBana 

 drew the remark that it was of no value 

 to the commercial florist. And he cares 

 little for Dracsena Sanderiana. Says it 

 may be useful to some, but doesn't be- 

 lieve it is worth while for him to bother 

 with it. 



An interesting house was one of Law- 

 son carnations planted in June from 4- 

 inch pots, the plants having been grown 

 in frames up to planting time. He will 

 undoubtedly get some fine early blooms 

 from that house. The plants were in 

 solid beds, but the question of drainage 

 can never be serious with him as the 

 whole establishment is on a side hill, 

 each house several feet higher than the 

 one in front of it. A general line of 

 roses and carnations is grown, but in 

 plants he runs altogether to a few spe- 

 cialties, doing tliese unusually well, 

 which is certainly the correct line of ac- 

 tion. 



Below the lowest house he lias a poud 

 of aquatics that was showing some of 

 the finest blooms of Nelumbium specios- 

 um we have ever seen. 



CARNATION NOTES. 



An inijuirv conu'S to me asking how 

 soon it is advisable to allow carnations 

 to bloom after they are brought in from 

 the field. 



It depends on a good many things, and 

 the first of all is whether you need the 

 blooms or not. When we bring in the 

 plants we pinch off every shoot which has 

 begun to run up into bud, and by the 

 time the next shoots run into bud the 

 plant has a pretty good hold on the soil, 

 and if they are of a color that is in de- 

 mand we let them bloom; providing, they 

 are of a variety which will jiroduce good 

 blooms during this warm weather. These 

 varieties are comparatively few, however, 

 and up to date there is not a scarlet 

 one among them. Crane is the earliest 

 red to made good blooms, but even it is 

 not of much account while the weather 

 is hot. Lawson is inclined to come on 

 short stems, and it will pay you to pick 

 off the flower shoots until the middle of 

 September. White Cloud does not make 

 good blooms until cool weather, nor does 

 Mrs. Bradt. The best early white is 

 Flora Hill, and we let it come in just as 

 soon as it will, and the same way with E. 



Crocker. Queen Louise is also a good 

 early white, and Dorothy is a good early 

 pink. 



If you are a wholesaler it will pay you 

 to keep your plants from blooming until 

 they will produce good blooms, as poor 

 blooms will bring you neither money nor 

 reputation; but if you have a retail trade 

 you can use tlie blooms to good advan- 

 tage, and it will do the plants no harm 

 to let them bloom. You will want to put 

 on the first mulch of cow manure pretty 

 soon now, and you should see that you 

 have a sufficient quantity on hand and 

 also that it is of the right kind and in 

 proper condition. If you had it hauled 

 last fall or during the winter and turned 



to bake loosen it up occasionally, and it 

 will not bake. If the bottom foliage 

 has turned yellow and dried up now is 

 a good time to clean it off. Put a care- 

 ful man at the job, though, or else he is 

 liable to do more harm than good. If 

 the grass is quite dry it will Ijreak off 

 easily and no harm is possible, but if it 

 is damp you will have to pull it off, and 

 that is where the danger is. See that 

 you do not pull the skin oft' the stem, as 

 that W'Ould do more harm than the dead 

 foliage could ever do. It is a tedious 

 job, but it pays to do it, as a plant which 

 has only healthy foliage is much nearer 

 disease proof than a plant which is half 

 dead. A. F. J. Bauk. 



A Broken Wreath. 



it over a couple of times it will be well 

 rotted and in fine condition to use for 

 mulching. It is essential that it should 

 be well rotted. There is perhaps nothing 

 (unless it be a good sod pile) that there 

 is less danger of a grower's having too 

 large a supply of, than cow manure, ilost 

 growers have a hard time finding enough, 

 and lucky is the grower who has a dairy 

 within reach where he can get all the 

 manure he needs. 



Your plants will need other food be- 

 sides cow manure, though, and now is 

 a good time to think of what you are 

 going to feed with this winter. You will 

 need to apply a dressing or two of bone, 

 and it will pay you to have it in shape so 

 the plants can assimilate it at once. Sift 

 a lot of soil through a %-inch 

 screen and mix in about a .5-inch 

 pot full of bone to a bushel of soil 

 and put it where it will not be exposed to 

 the weather too much. A heavy rain will 

 wash much of the bone meal away. In a 

 few months this stuff will be in fine 

 shape for the plants to take up, and it 

 will stiffen the stems and toughen the 

 blooms wonderfully. Lime and wood ashes 

 we sprinkle on the soil and work them in- 

 to the .soil just as they are. Do not mulch 

 your carnations until you have weeded 

 them at least once. If the soil is inclined 



A BROKEN WREATH. 



The common wire form for a broken 

 wreath is made with a smaii portion lack- 

 ing to represent the break; or at most is 

 only held together by two wires which 

 require to be hidden by some kind of 

 greenery. 



If required to make this design, and a 

 form of the necessary size is not avail- 

 able, or if it is desired to produce some- 

 thing varying from the common type, 

 which it is often a good thing to do, the 

 florist may use a form for an ordinary 

 wreath, of proper size, and fill in to the 

 height of the body of the work with 

 smilax instead of flowers, to indicate the 

 break, as shown in the illustration. 



W. T. Bell. 



Spkingpield, O. — The Good & Eeese 

 Company have moved their office build- 

 ing to a more desirable nearby location, 

 and are building several fine new green- 

 houses. The cost of the improvements 

 wUl aggregate about $10,000. The build- 

 ings will be completed by Sept. 1. 



A COPY of the twenty-seventh annual 

 report of the Board of Commissioners of 

 the Boston parks has reached us. It is 

 freely illustrated and contains a full re- 

 port of the work of the year by Superin- 

 tendent Pettigrew. 



