October 2, 1962. 



The Weekly Florists' Review. 



599 



MISCELLANEOUS 

 SEASONABLE HINTS. 



Poinsettias. 



Tiis is about the last week that you 

 can disturb the roots of poinsettias. No 

 matter how carefully you may shift 

 them, the roots will feel it and the 

 leaves will drop. So give the plants 

 that you want to flower singly in a 6- 

 inch pot their last shift. Since we have 

 been growing three plants in a 10-ineh 

 pot, or seven or eight late propagated 

 plants in a 10 or 12-inch pan, the single 

 stem in a 6-inch pot is not in much 

 favor. We find use for all sizes and 

 grow a good many in 4-inch pots, keep- 

 ing them as dwarfed as possible. One of 

 the most efl'ective center pieces we ever 

 put up was a mass of poinsettias. The 

 table was round, twelve feet across, and 

 the bed of poinsettias was six feet across, 

 beginning with plants a foot high and 

 coming down to plants not more than 6 

 or 8 inches high, with well berried holly 

 to hide the pots. It was around Xmas 

 time and Admiral Sampson was the 

 guest of honor. It took several hun- 

 dred plants, but they were little the 

 worse and did service again. 



To keep these poinsettias dwarfed is 

 the principal object. Pot firmly in a heavy 

 • but rich soil and give them the lightest 

 and brightest bench you have, with plen- 

 ty of ventilation whenever weather will 

 permit. Tliey are a tropical plant, but 

 no degrees at night is all they want. 

 I am not sure whether I have ever men- 

 tioned what we have found out about 

 keeping cut poinsettias from drooping or 

 wilting their bracts and foliage. If cut 

 with two feet of stem and put in cold 

 water and in a cool room or cellar or ice 

 box they soon have the appearance of a 

 wet hen, only not so useful. Cut them 

 over night and put the stems in water at 

 a temperature of 150 degrees and keep 

 in a warm room. They will stand up 

 stiff, leaf and branch. 



Cyctamen. 



If you have grown your cyclamen 

 in a frame or hotbed, it is time now to 

 bring them in where they are more 

 under your eye. We have some this 

 year that are not prize plants because the 

 seed was not sown until the end of Jan- 

 uary. We also have some earlier and 

 larger ones, but I like the late sown 

 batch because they are compact and per- 

 fectly healthy. They have ne\'er been out 

 of the houses; were shaded when the 

 sun was bright and the shade removed 

 on dull days, and since they were in 

 2-inch pots they have always been 

 plunged in tobacco stems. Greenfly is 

 their great enemy. Don't let up on the 

 tobacco, and if plunged in it it will save 

 you lots of smoking. Syringe lightly 

 every fine morning. Fifty-five at night 

 is the temperature for those that you 

 want in bloom by November and on to 

 the holidays, but cyclamen will thrive 

 in a much lower temperature if you want 

 to retard them for late flowering. For 

 filling the Christmas plant baskets we 

 found last year that well flowered cycla- 

 men in 4 and 5-inch pots was among the 

 best material we had. Little, if any. 



shading is needed after this, and if in a 

 north and south house, none. 



Asparagus. 



More and more are loose bunches of 

 roses and chrysanthemums asked for, 

 and some loose green to go with them is 

 constantly wanted. Maidenhair fern, 

 even the splendid fronds of Adiantum 

 Bardii as grown by Peter Crowe is not 

 large enough for all purposes, and for 

 many occasions I don't know that it is 

 any more suitable or pretty than Aspar- 

 agus plumosus or Sprengeri. Tlie former 

 is grown in immense quantities for the 

 long strings and you usually rob the 

 bottom of the plant of the short growths. 

 Sprengeri you should grow anywhere you 

 have a corner to spare. What it wants 

 is deep root room. In a shallow bench it 

 soon gets exhausted. As flne and con- 

 tinuous a lot as I ever saw with sprays 

 3 feet long, and in the same place from 

 October to July, was in boxes about 16 

 inches deep and 8 inches wide and 2 

 feet long. There was the depth that the 

 roots wanted. These boxes were stand- 

 ing beneath the gutters in a range of 

 rose houses. But that is not the only 

 place you have. There are many odd 

 places where a few boxes can be stood. 

 It is depth and richness of soil that will 

 pay. It is not too late yet to start such 

 boxes. You want this useful plant every 

 day in the year. 



Sweet Alyssum. 



Another very common little plant we 

 often neglect to gi'ow and miss it, is the 

 double sweet alyssum. I see it adver- 

 tised as the "Giant double." I don't 

 know much about the giant part of it, 

 but it is the double form you want, and 

 if giant monstix)sa, so much the better. 

 It is of the greatest use in funeral de- 

 signs, and there is something about it 

 that is tasty and by no means gives a 

 cheap appearance when associated with 

 larger flowers. I would hardly say occupy 

 a bench with it, as I have seen done, but 

 a few hundred plants 2 or 3 feet apart 

 along the edge of your carnation benches 

 will do them no harm and the alyssum 

 will be clear profit. 



Ferns. 



I suppose you have already laid in a 

 good stock of young ferns for filling the 

 pans this winter. There are plenty ad- 

 vertised now, but in the middle of win- 

 ter they are often scarce and difficult to 

 procure of the useful size. These young 

 ferns of small varieties and species, such 

 as onychium, Davallia stricta, Pteris 

 cretica and others, should not be in a 

 cool draughty house. Neither should 

 they be in a very warm, damp house or 

 they will grow too fast and become too 

 tender, and you don't want that for fern 

 pans. A fairly light house where the 

 temperature ranges between 55 and 60 

 degrees at night is about right. And 

 keep them in 2J, or at least 3-inch pots 

 as long as you possibly can. 



When Nephrolepis Piersoni gets spread 

 over the country and can be sold at the 

 same price as Bostoniensis, there will be 



nothing else grown, but that won't be 

 this winter, and the Boston fern is still 

 in the field. Any you have planted on 

 the benches should be lifted and potted 

 at once, so they will be established. 

 Some growers don't plant them out at 

 all. When first lifted they will want 

 shade for two weeks, and after that no 

 shade. The nephrolepis, or at least the 

 Boston variety, needs no shade any day 

 in the year. We have had large planta 

 out of doors in the full sun all sum- 

 mer, and the young fronds are aa green 

 as spinach in April. 



A very good house fern, hard to kill, is 

 Cyrtoraium falcatum, so called because 

 the division of the frond resembles a 

 falcon's beak. It is one of the best ferns. 



Perhaps the best of all large decorative 

 ferns is Cybotium Scheidei. It does not 

 have the appearance of being a very 

 tough, everyday fern, it is so graceful 

 and even soft in appearance, yet it is 

 the very best of all ferns to put up with 

 unfavorable surroundings, and this 

 makes it one of the best for decorating. 

 We have tried it in a dry store near the 

 floor and near the ceiling, and it thrives 

 anywhere, and all should have it. 



Don't forget to dust your violets once 



a week with tobacco dust. It will keep 



the black aphis away, and now is the 



time the black demon would like to work. 



WnxiAM Scott. 



CORRECTION. 



In Mr. Scott's notes on lilies on pags 

 567 of our last issue the date for bring- 

 ing in the Bermuda bulbs should have 

 read 1st to middle of November instead 

 of April. The error was probably ap- 

 parent to all as in the next paragraph 

 was mentioned the temperature to give 

 them "till the first of February." 



ROSES. 



Care of Blooms After Cutting. 



The first and most essential conditioa 

 towards the successful preservation of 

 cut blooms for shipment is to have ft 

 good cold store, one constructed on the 

 best up-to-date plan, the qualities of 

 which must combine dryness and airi- 

 ness, and the chamber of which must be 

 sufficiently isolated from the influence of 

 outside atmospheric conditions. The 

 idea of having such a chamber in a cel- 

 lar or partly under ground is obsolete, 

 or ought to be, as in such a structure 

 the vitiated air being so much heavier 

 than the pure, is always nearest the 

 floor, and having no means of escape 

 causes that damp mouldiness so detri- 

 mental to cut blooms. 



The modern structure is built so that 

 the floor is fifteen or twenty inches above 

 the surrounding surface. The walls, 

 which should be about ten feet to ceiling, 

 are built with a view to being as non- 

 conductive as is necessary. In the cen- 

 ter of the walls is an air space of four 

 inches between two boards one inch 

 thick; these boards are paper covered, 

 then on each side of this space is an- 

 other space of four inches which can be 

 filled in with either saw dust, dry coal 

 ashes, charcoal or, what is still better, 

 although it adds materially to the cost, 

 asbestos wool. Both sides of the wall 

 should be covered with paper and the 

 inside finished with dressed sheathing, 

 the outside with German siding. The 

 ceiling should be constructed on the 

 same principle as the walls. 



