744 



The Weekly Florists' Review. 



OCTOBEIl 30, 1902. 



set up on exhibition, because the stem 

 is full of water. Any flowei- that is to 

 be exhibited should have twenty-four 

 hours in water beforehand to prepare 

 it for its journey, and if the distiuice 

 to the exhibition is long, thirty-six 

 hour.s' immersion is not too niueh. If 

 the foliage is limp and the petals hang 

 loosely it is a sign that the stem has 

 not taken up water, and such llowers 

 you had better leave home because they 

 will droop hopelessly in the dry air of 

 an exhibition hall. It is half the battle 

 in exhibiting to set up your flowers in 

 a fresh, crisp condition, and many a 

 man whose flowers looked fine on the 

 plants has been disgusted when he 

 viewed his stock after it liad been set 

 up for an hour or two. 



Exhibition. 



By the time these notes are in print 

 the "ball will be opened with the New 

 York exhibition, and many of us will be 

 going round with a hat several sizes too 

 small for us, and a broad expansive 

 smile, or else be sneaking back to the 

 place whence we came, kicking ourselves 

 and vowing vengeance on the judges 

 and mankind generally. Poor Judges. 

 what a thankless lot is theirs, even 

 though it may occasionally run to 

 "Suite A in tlie Waldorf." When we 

 don't win we always have an idea that 

 the judges didn't know an\-thing or 

 had a personal grudge against us. or 

 something of that kind. What a fertile 



field a genius like Dickens would have 

 in an exhibition hall for studying the 

 tragedy and comedy of life, and yet 

 when it's all over we shall survive the 

 shock, and coal will continue to be 

 scarce and high all winter. Whatever 

 other purpose they may serve exhibi- 

 tions are the best thing in the worhl 

 for the growers, since fhey are the 

 means of making a man continually pro- 

 gress onward and upward or get Inst in 

 the shuffle. 



The Market 



is not so far favorable to llie mum and 

 prices are not so good as last year. 

 Asters were fine and they kept down 

 the price for the earliest flowers, and 

 dahlias and many otlier things have 

 kept coming in long after the.y should, 

 according to precedent, have given up 

 the ghost. Talk about "winter lingering 

 in the lap of spring.'' It isn't a cir- 

 cumstance to the cactus dahlia lingering 

 in the lap of the midseason mum, and 

 if the season is going to change like this 

 we shall have to grow Golden Wedding 

 for an early variety and fall back on 

 Merry Christmas and such varieties for 

 midseason. 



The weather has been beautiful and 

 many of the best flower buyers are >^till 

 in the country enjoying the landscape. 

 When November comes in with its frosty 

 nights and darker days we may reason- 

 ably expect that the market will im- 

 prove. ]5|{I.\X BORU. 



MISCELLANEOUS 

 SEASONABLE HINTS. 



Alternantheras. 



I have had a few questions sent to 

 me of late, which I will answer under 

 this head. Alternantheras are easily 

 kept over winter, except the high col- 

 ored and most valuable species, parony- 

 chioides major. Whether you have root- 

 ed them in flats in August or lifted some 

 old plants and put them in flats, they 

 should have a warm corner. The full 

 light is not so essential if they are warm 

 and dry. You don't expect nor want 

 them to grow \intil you divide them 

 next April (just to exist) so very lit- 

 tle water will do. If not below CO <le- 

 grees, and if drv, they will come out a-ll 

 right, but if kept wet, even at that warm 

 temperature, numy will rot of!'. Water 

 once in two weeks will be ample, unless 

 very near the heat of the pipes. 



Insects. 



The greenfly is as troublesome on our 

 Bermuda and Japan lilies as on any 

 plants we grow, and they do their work 

 in the crown of leaves where the smoke 

 can hardly reach them. When you see 

 aphis on a fully developed leaf it is 

 proof that you liave been very negligent in 

 your smoking or other means of killing or 

 keeping down the fly, but the big fellows 

 you see creeping around are not what 

 "is ruining the plants. It is the punc- 

 tures they are making on the young 

 leaves and buds that will later develop 

 only into arrested, crippled, abortive 

 growth. For instance, you can walk 

 tiirou'jli vonr benches of Marie I^ouise 



violets, look .it the large leaves, and 

 peihaps not discover any of those mis- 

 erable, greasy, dark green or black flies: 

 yet the young leaves are small, curled 

 up and blistered in appearance, and the 

 flowers are small and pale in color. You 

 are afraid you have the fly on them, but 

 the naked eye does not reveal the numljer 

 there are or the harm they are doing. 

 .Just get a lens of moderate magnifying 

 power and pull up a plant and take a 

 good look into the heart of the i>lant 

 where the young leaves and biuls are 

 struggling for an existence. If you pull 

 up such a plant as I did a few years 

 ago tins month, you will see thirty or 

 forty horny spiked brutes that will make 

 your epidermis itch and that will remind 

 you of Barnnm's troupe of trained hy- 

 enas. You will wonder no longer at 

 anything, except that you have leaves 

 and buds at all. 



A hyena is much larger than a green 

 or black aphis, and the latter is nuich 

 larger than the various kinds of bacil- 

 lus, millions of which a sick man is often 

 the host. All things are great or small 

 only comparatively. And as the parson 

 tried to illustrate it, but finished rather 

 humorously, in his Idea of the Creation, 

 he said; "When God made the moun- 

 tain He also nrade a grain of sand ; wlien 

 He made the mighty Niagara He like- 

 \\-ise made the dewdrop, and when He 

 made me He made a daisy." Those of 

 the congregation who were not asleep 

 tittered. 



Coming back from pulpit to plant, the 

 mischief done hy the aphis is not always 



seen until weeks after. About the time 

 the lilies are forming their flower buds 

 Ijefore they are visible, is when they are 

 crippled. A mixtui-e of the Roseleaf Ex- 

 tract diluted, one part of extract to 

 one hundred of water, or one part of 

 nicotine to four hundred of water, light- 

 ly sprayed in the crown of leaves will 

 keep the aphis away. 



Gladioli. 



It seems these beautiful flowers have 

 taken a leading part in the decorations 

 of floral stores for many weeks during 

 August, September and October, and they 

 hiive been useful and largely used for 

 many occasions. The hotels of the coun- 

 tiy have used millions. If your avail- 

 able ground is limited, it is almost as 

 cheap to get your supply of cut spikes 

 from Mr. Cowee, of Berlin, or some other 

 of the men who grow fifty acres, but 

 wiien you have the room there is little 

 expense in their cultivation and your 

 st(X>k should be constantly on the in- 

 crease. 



The corni, usually called a bulb. is. I 

 presume, all the better for remaining in 

 the ground until the top is pretty well 

 matured, and that time is here now and 

 with early crops long past. Cut the 

 lops ofl" six inches alx)ve the bulb when 

 lifting. A day's sunshine on the bulbs is 

 gjod for them, hut run no risk by leav- 

 ing them out over night, as one of my 

 dutiful sons did once, and three or four 

 degrees of frost come down and next 

 morning my few thousand bulbs were of 

 tlie same value as the same quantity of 

 lotten potatoes. I have seen gladiolus 

 bulbs that were missed at lifting in the 

 fall come up in the spring when I 

 tliought they must have Ijeen frozen. 

 However that may he, they won't en- 

 dure any frost when exposed. Don't put 

 them in a warm, dry ba.sement, or in a 

 shed where the furnaces are. Beneath 

 a bench in a cool house will do very well 

 and lav them out thinly in shallow boxes 

 or flats. 



Chrysanthemums. 



Chrysanthemums arc glorious just be- 

 fore you cut them out. Wliat a wreck 

 the bench is when you have cut the long 

 stems. It's no cut and come again crop, 

 as it is with our roses, carnations and 

 violets. You are, however, usually glad 

 of the room they give you. Some very 

 gootl advice has been often given about 

 varieties. It is fascinating to try the 

 new ones, and you won't keep up with 

 the procession unless you do try the 

 pick of the later varieties, but for your 

 main crop a dozen varieties is a great 

 ]denty to supply your own retail trade: 

 and if a grower, si.x varieties are all 

 you want, so throw away entirely all 

 the stock you have of any that has not 

 turned out Al with you. and lift suf- 

 ficient stools of those you are going to 

 grow. 



If some new one has pleased you very 

 much and you want to greatly increase 

 your stock, you can put in some cut- 

 tings just as soon as you can get them. 

 When rooted plant them out in a bench 

 nine or ten inches apart and they will 

 give you the best of cuttings from New 

 Years on to June. Standard sorts of 

 which you have an abundance should be 

 lifted and placed in shallow boxes in 

 four or five inches of soil and kept in 

 a cool but light house, and don't en- 

 courage them to grow or make cuttings 

 until next March. The chrysanthemum 

 can he called an herbaceous shrub, and 

 after flowering takes a rest during the 



