September 25, 1902. 



The Weekly Florists' Review^ 



567 



MISCELLANEOUS 

 SEASONABLE HINTS. 



Lilies, 



A reader of the Heview (L. W.) 

 asks the somewliat old, familiar and 

 hard to answer question — "How long be- 

 fore Easter should lilies be brought in, 

 and wliat temperature should the house 

 be to have them in flower for Easter? 

 tjhould lilies be shifted?" 



To give a, certain date to bring them 

 in and a definite temperature for the 

 house with any certainty of their com- 

 ing in just right is about as reliable as 

 making sure that a certain amount of 

 education will develop a boy into a 

 smart, clever man. Another thing to 

 consider is the fact that at present our 

 lily bulbs are of uncertain quality and 

 each bulb seems to have its own indi- 

 viduality. Under precisely the same 

 conditions one bulb will be in flower a 

 month earlier than another, and, unfor- 

 tunately, there are a good many "an- 

 others" that won't flower at all. The 

 disease that affects the Bermuda type is 

 discovered early by the yellow streaks in 

 the leaves and when once detected the 

 plants may just as well be thrown out 

 at once. 



The failure with the Japan longiflorum 

 of late is quite different and comes from 

 another cause, and as Mr. Farquhar of 

 Boston so plainly explained to us in his 

 lecture, arises from the bulbs being dug 

 before they are ripe. The effects of this 

 comes on with the Japan bulbs after 

 they are six to eight inches high and 

 often looking most vigorous. The top 

 of the growth wilts, it looks as if they 

 were scalded. Like the oak tree that 

 the witty Dean Swift looked at and 

 remarked: "I shall die like that tree — 

 from the top." Sui'e enough his mental 

 faculties gave way years before the ma- 

 terial body dissolved but only encum- 

 bered the, earth. So don't let your lilies 

 encumber the benches when once they 

 show evidence of either disease. 



This is scarcely answering the ques- 

 tions of L. W. He might have been 

 more explicit than just saying lilies, but 

 doubtless he means either the Bermuda 

 or the Japan longiflorum. The Ber- 

 mudas arrive early and there is time 

 to get a good start out of doors and they 

 can be brought in by the first to mid- 

 dle of April. Give a temperature of 50 

 degrees till the first of February and 

 then a higher temperature as they need 

 it; 65 degrees at night will not hurt 

 them at all. I will just mention here 

 that in my experience it is harmful to 

 take lilies from a temperature of GO 

 to 05 degrees at night and put them in 

 a cool house, say 50 degrees at nignt, 

 anyway before the buds are white and 

 about ready to open. It gives them a 

 setback and they will remain actually 

 dormant. Better let them come along 

 till the buds are about ready to open 

 and they will open then in any cool, 

 shady house and will keep two or three 

 ■weeks. 



From my own experience and what I 

 have observed among large growers, and 

 although we can't go back on the old 

 saw that experience is the best of teach- 

 ers, particularly in matrimony, we 

 should be very far behind in knowledge 



dill wc not observe the experience of 

 others, and this has led me to believe 

 tliat you should not be in a hurry about 

 receiving your Japan grown longiflorum. 

 I'ot them at once and get all the root 

 growth you can in a cold-frame out of 

 doors. Have sashes at hand to cover 

 in case of excessive cold or No- 

 vember rains. The first of Decem- 

 ber is early enough to bring them 

 in. Up to New 'Vears 50 degrees at 

 night will do, after that give them 60 

 to 05 degrees. In fact rush them right 

 along and they will be there all right. 

 As I said earlier some plants will want 

 more heat than others if you expect to 

 get them all in flower the same week. 



About the shifting, we have tried most 

 all plans. Potting a 7 to 9-inch Ber- 

 nuida bulb in a 4-incn pot and shifting 

 into a 0-inch when you bring them in 

 is done to save room, and another rea- 

 son for it and the best one, is that you 

 can discover the diseased plants while 

 yet in the 4-ineh pots and you save la- 

 bor, space and soil. Otherwise it has 

 no advantage and the shifting slightly 

 retards the growth. With the .Japan 

 bulbs I would certainly not shift them 

 but pot them at once into the flowering 

 pot, a 5 or 6-inch. 



While on the important subject of 

 lilies, and I may not think of it later, 

 many of our lilies are now sold in large 

 pots, three to five plants in an 8 or 

 10-incli pot. Our best customers want 

 them and are not satisfied with a single 

 stem. This particularly applies to the 

 Japans. Five plants in a 10-inch make 

 a handsome group. Don't attempt to 

 put the dormant bulbs in these large 

 pots in the fall; two out of five may be 

 a failure, or quite dwarf, or one may 

 grow a foot higher than the others. The 

 time to make up these pots is just be- 

 fore the buds expand, or when they are 

 open. You can slice the ball of a 6-inch 

 grown plant down to a wedge not over 

 three inches thick; you won't hurt eith- 

 er the foliage or flowers and they will 

 last just as long when sold. Neither is 

 it any fraud, for after two weeks the 

 final end of these handsome pots of rib- 

 bon bedecked lilies is Sheol or garbage 

 box, barring the ribbon, which Maggie 

 Clancey, the cook, detaches, and it comes 

 in handy for the confirmation of her 

 niece, Nora Nolan. 



Carnations. 



I am not a carnation writer but read 

 with great interest the clear and up-to- 

 date views of Mr. Baur. I am not 

 sure that he ever touches on carnations 

 for outdoor bedding. Our customers ask 

 continually for plants that will give 

 them flowers in their gardens during the 

 summer. The plan I briefly describe is 

 correct, and for years we did it with 

 success. _ Those were the days we did 

 more with our own hands and watched 

 things closer. There is sure to be a 

 lot of plants in the field that you left 

 because they were small. These are just 

 what you want. Lift them at once and 

 pinch off all leading stems. Pot in 4 

 or 5-inch, the latter is better, and 

 plunge in a deep cold frame. When thev 



have begun to root you can remove the 

 sash and except in rainy weather keep 

 it oil till hard frost comes at the end 

 of November. Now some will say they 

 will freeze dead during winter. They 

 will not with us if you keep double 

 sash on in the cold winter weather and 

 ventilate in mild weather. I believe 

 they are often killed during winter by 

 being kept too dry. An apple tree or 

 evergreen or rose kills more quickly in 

 winter by being dry at the roots, par- 

 ticularly plants in pots. 



I had a bitter experience with that a 

 few winters ago (or rather a Decem- 

 ber). Some American Beauty roses cut 

 down and lifted and potted in Novem- 

 ber and plunged in a cold-frame were 

 killed just because the soil was allowed 

 to remain almost dust dry. These car- 

 nation plants will begin to grow end of 

 ilarch and by early May will be in 

 splendid order for planting" out. We are 

 going to treat a few hundred Lawson 

 this way, but about the middle of Feb- 

 ruary will bring them in and they will, 

 I think, make fine pot plants, and should 

 sell readily in April. For a change we 

 will try some for Easter. 



Another plan to fill the wants of our 

 customers for carnation plants in the 

 spring is to put in a few cuttings of a 

 few desirable varieties in October. You 

 can often get these cuttings from plants 

 left in the field. They root readily and 

 if grown on in a cool house and shifted, 

 can be in 4-inch pots by next May with 

 four or five shoots. They quickly 

 flower, and a man is very proud 

 to wear a carnation in his but- 

 tonhole if he can say "that's from my 

 own garden," and when the cold and 

 wintry blasts come and the poor florist 

 is hunting for another ton of anthracite, 

 this dealer in options will have so ac- 

 quired the virtuous weakness of wearing 

 a boutonniere that it will have become 

 with him, like Joseph Chamberlain, 

 chronic. 



Hollyhocks. 



Sometime during summer I said that 

 the stately hollyhock will be in demand, 

 and so it ought. We sowed several flats 

 of it early in the month and have them 

 now in 2-inch pots. Before hard winter 

 comes they will be in 4-inch and plunged 

 in a cool frame where they will do all 

 right, and if planted out in April will 

 send up the finest stalks if the fungus 

 doesn't attack them. There is always 

 an "if" in most of our prospective crops 

 and very much so with this majestic 

 plant. The disease is a fungus and will 

 soon give the plants the appearance of 

 having the smallpox, although T have 

 never had that trouble, but I have had 

 the hollyhock fungus. Give them sev- 

 eral syringings of Bordeaux mi.vturo or 

 some copper solution; as a preventive it 

 is good. You sec any amount of "advs." 

 of acres of hollyhocks. When you write 

 for them they are either sold out or rub- 

 bish. We can winter them in the Qeld 

 as they do in New Jersey. Grow them 

 in pots and you will have success. Even 

 the single hollyhocks are beautiful; in 

 fact the artistic taste wouhi pronounce 

 them more beautiful than the double. 



Sweet Peas. 



I suppose you saved some sweet peas 

 in 3-inch pots in the month of Aug- 

 ust. They should be planted out in the 

 carnation beds at each post, supposing 

 you have the posts; if not, you can run 

 a couple of strings to the "bars above. 

 Don't overdo it. Every eigh.t feet along 

 the bench is enough and two plants in 

 each place is all you want. Several cf 



