November 20, 1002. 



The Weekly Florists' Review* 



893 



Vase of One Hundred Bndes Exhibited by Peter Reinberg at the Chicago Show. 



ney is harmful and especially so, if the 

 sand has been kept at too high a tem- 

 perature. Any grower will agree that 

 it is an advantage to put cuttings in 

 soil as soon as possible after being 

 rooted, reducing exposure of roots to 

 air to a minimum. 



We hear of varieties that do not suc- 

 ceed in some sections the first year, but 

 improve the next. So familiarity does 

 not always breed contempt, but I be- 

 lieve the cause is due to the fact that 

 they must be acclimatized, and the soon- 

 er this process is begun the better. Is 

 it not reasonable to state that the pro- 

 cess will begin from the moment the 

 unrooted cutting is placed in the differ- 

 ent sand, watered and syringed with the 

 different water, and surrounded by tlie 

 changed condition, air, etc.? It woiiid 

 seem to me like a plant born of a seed 

 and one likely to adapt itself to new 

 conditions, quickly. 



'Iliis may seem like a lot of extra 

 work or entirely unnecessary, but it is 

 all these extra details that tend to score 

 touchdowns and goals; more than that 

 it is no longer an experiment with us. 

 as the method has been demonstrated 

 again and again, invariably with the 

 best result''. Where -will you obtain 

 your supply of the cuttings of the va- 

 rieties purchased last year, and which 

 you intend to continue? Will you send 

 them back where purchapcd, thinking 

 they can be rooted there only? 



In view of the foregoing it may be 

 well to state emphatically that my re- 

 marks are not in the least intended 

 to discourage or belittle the business of 

 rooted cutting specialists or to make 

 any grounds for reduction in the price 

 of cuttings. On one hand they are usu- 

 ally bc'tter eqiiippcd than niost grow- 

 ers; on the other hand unrooted cut- 

 tings should sell at the same price as 

 rooted ones. I neglected to say earlier 

 that when those cuttings arrive, give 

 them immediate attention, first giving 

 them a bath in ammonical-cnpper solu- 

 tion, then into the sand at once. 



Geo. S. Osborn. 



CARNATION NOTES— WEST. 



.'\fter Tlianksgiving day and possibly 

 even before you will begin to thirJc of 

 your Xmas crop of carnation blooms. 

 Tho.so who find it profitable to grow 

 especially for Xmas and Easter should 

 have been handling their plants 

 with that end in view for several weeks 

 jjast and keeping the buds off and the 

 shoots pinched back until about the 

 first of this month and now they would 

 lj<' coming along in a rush with a big 

 crop of buds just in time for Xmas. 

 We need a constant supply of blooms 

 from September until the next Sep- 

 tember, and possibly that is why I did 

 not thiidc of wTiting on this subject 

 earlier in the season. Of course wc 

 need an extra lot of blooms at those 

 times, too, and we try to have our 

 heaviest cuts then, but you will find it 

 more difficult to manage tlian when you 

 don't care much whether you have 

 blooms then or not. 



Tlie first jjart of this month has been 

 exceedingly warm and it has partly up- 

 set our calculations. It has hastened 

 I lie buds along on some varieties so 

 tliat many have opened sooner than 

 tliey were expected and shoots that 

 \\ould have bloomed just about the 

 holidays have their buds showing now. 

 If the weather i-emains cool and largely 

 cloudy it may retard them again to 

 s.ime extent, but with bright weather 

 sdiiie of the crops will be off before 

 then. It is a pity sometimes that we 

 (an not regulate the weather, but think 

 of wliat a glut there would be every 

 holiday if we could, so I guess it is 

 best after all that we can not regu- 

 late it. 



Dtm't try to retard them much hy 

 running the tempeiaturc very low or 

 you will have a lot of bursted calyxes 

 on your hands, and don't try to force 

 out the next crop or you will have a lot 

 of weak stems and soft plants on your 

 hands. The only way to regulate your 

 cf.rnation crops is by keeping off the 

 buds and allowing them to come when ' 



it is time to allow a crop to mature by 

 the date you want them. Much forc- 

 ing or retarding by manipulating the 

 temperature will nearly always result 

 in disaster to the crops. There is noth- 

 ing that is }nore difficult to counteract 

 than a spell of warm weather, as there 

 is no way to keep the temperature down 

 in the houses when it is warm outside, 

 and just when you may be thinking 

 that your crops are all going to come in 

 just right your hopes may be dashed to 

 the groimd by a spell of September 

 weather in November. We can fight 

 cold weather with our steam pipes, but 

 old Sol has the upper hand of us when 

 he chooses to take a hand. 



We are now putting the third supr 

 porting strings on some of our benches. 

 All the taller varieties, such as White 

 Cloud, Lorna, etc, need them long be- 

 foie Mrs. Joost and Lawson, and others 

 of the upright and stiff stemmed va- 

 rieties. Put them on before the 

 stems begin to grow crooked. Such 

 varieties as Mrs. Bradt, that have very 

 heavy blooms, should have supports 

 close up to the buds to keep their weight 

 off the stems as it will gradually make 

 the stems grow crooked from being con- 

 stantly beat over. 



A. F. J. Baub. 



COLD STORAGE VALLEY. 



Will a temiierature of 18 to 20 de- 

 grees be safe for cold storage of valley 

 in summer? Mine has been kept this 

 summer at 31 to 33 degrees and it has 

 not been satisfactory. For a while in 

 the spring the temperature was about 

 40, but the boxes we opened to use from 

 were all right then. 



We repack our valley when received in 

 the fall into cases of about 1,000 each, - 

 using moss around the outside, and 

 sprinkle sand through the bundles of 

 roots. We have access to two rooms in 

 the cold storage house, kept at above 

 named temperatures, but there is no in- 

 termediate temperature at our com- 

 mand. 



If 18 to 20 above zero is too low, 

 would it be safe to give the cases some 

 extra protection and still leave them 

 in that temperature? W. S. H. 



Some few years ago was published 

 a series of articles by Mr. Robt. Simp- 

 son, the best of authority on forcing, 

 as well as storing, this beautiful and 

 important little flower. I don't have the 

 article at hand, but I can remember that 

 the temperature for summer storage was 

 at 28 to 30 Fahrenheit. Much lower — 

 anything like 12 to 14 degrees of frost 

 for months at a time — would destroy 

 the flower and altogether weaken the 

 growth. Even at 33, or 1 or 2 degrees 

 above freezing, there is a slight start into 

 growth. By some means you had bet^ 

 ter obtain the temperature best suited 

 for these roots, and that quoted from 

 Mr. Simpson is, I have found, the right 

 thing. 



I understand that some of the New 

 York importers put away for cold stor- 

 age the original cases just as they 

 were packed in Europe. If this is so, 

 it is remarkable how well they come 

 out and satisfactorily force, as has been 

 our expel ience with these roots in the 

 month of August. We would prefer for 

 our own u.se, when packing the roots in 

 iUarch for cold storage, to see that the 

 roots were moist, not wet, and that there 

 v>as a good coveiing of moss, top, bot- 



