52 



The Weekly Florists' Review. 



December 



1003. 



CALCEOLARIAS, ETC. 



I want to grow crtlceolavias and cine- 

 rarias from stetl. I have the plants 

 startoil now, with tlnce to four leaves. 

 I have had no experience in the treat- 

 ment of these plants. Will you please 

 through your columns advise best soii, 

 temperature ami method of growing these 

 plants, ali-o gloxinia bulbs and oblige. 



W. L. 



iNotes on both of these cool greenhouse 

 plants have many times appeared in the 

 columns of the Eeview. They need al- 

 most identical treatment. Sometimes 

 seed of cineraria is sown in May or 

 June to have them in bloom at the holi- 

 days, but for the commercial man that is 

 not desirable and sowings at the end of 

 August or in early September will give 

 you good iilants for JIarch and April. 

 Xeither wants, during the winter mouths, 

 a higher night temperature than 4.5 de- 

 grees and the fullest light. Tliey should 

 never be crowded or the foliage has no 

 room to spread and be. perfe<-t, without- 

 which neither of these plants would be 

 worth bench room. The soil is not so 

 particular a point. A fresh yellow loam 

 with a fourth of leaf mold will do well 

 for them. From the time they are shifted 

 from 2 to 4-ineh pots don 't sift the soil ; 

 use it rather coarse but firm. A fine 

 sandy soil is .iust what they don 't like. 



Althougli both of these showy, plants 

 nre considered beneatli the notice of many 

 of our great aud illustrious specialists, to 

 do them well needs not so much skill as 

 constant care aud attention. If allowed 

 to wilt through negkct of water, the 

 leaves may be lost. If overwatei-ed, or 

 rather if the water do<\s not jiass freely 

 through the soil, the plants will go off 

 dead beyond redemption, i'rom 2 to 4- 

 inch and then to a 0-inch, the flowering 

 pot, is about the shift they want. Their 



They ;ire now at rest, or should be, aud 

 tlie subjeet can rest till a more season- 

 able time. The seed of gloxinias is not 

 sown till Kebrnary, but the bulbs are so 

 inexpensive that it is better to buy those 

 and start in February and March, of 

 which I will have .something to say in 

 due season, W. S. 



CALCEOLARIA AMPLEXICAULIS. 



After such an unfavorable season for 

 bedding plants in general, it is most 

 gratifying to see this charming old plant 

 one mass of bloom. It has been quite a 

 picture all through the summer, and will 

 continue to flower until cut down b.v 

 frost, says a writer in the Gardeners' 

 Magazine. We have it planted in a larga 

 group, well sheltered from the wind, and 

 in a half-shady position, in good rich 

 soil. The cuttings are taken at the same 

 time as those of that old bedding vari- 

 ety, Golden Gem-, aud inserted in sandy 

 soil in a cold frame, covering the glass at 

 nights when very keen frosts are ex- 

 jiected. About the latter part of March 

 these are transferred into a rough frame, 

 and only covered up at night. By keep- 

 ing the shoots pinched back nice bushy 

 plants are obtained for planting into 

 permanent quarters early in May. 



When the cuttings are rooted, if a few 

 dozen are potted siugly into 5-inch and 

 ()-ineli pots, placed in a cold frame till 

 established, and then brought into the 

 greenhouse, they will bloom in advance 

 of those outside ami will be found most 

 useful. The flowers of this calceolaria 

 are a most pleasing shade of lemon, a 

 shade not usually met with in any other 

 plants. The rust does not seem to at- 

 tack this, as it does some of the others, 

 and especially Golden Gem. But we have 

 been very free from rust this last two 

 seasons, owing, I think, to planting in 

 shadier places, also where the soil con- 





Greenhouses of Mueller Bros., St. Joseph, Mo. 



greatest enemy is the common green 

 aphis. If there are any of these in the 

 county they will come to roosrt on your 

 calceolarias and- cinerarias. Tobacco 

 stems among the pots at all times is a 

 great help, but a mild fumigating twice 

 a week without a miss is a necessity. 

 W. L. also asks about gloxinias. 



tains more moisture, and is of deeper 

 and better tilth. C. amolexicaulis de- 

 serves to be more largely grown than 

 it is. 



THE READER'S CORNER. 



Ed. Keview — Enclosed find a dollar for 

 the Ee\iew another year. I wrote Eibes 

 some time ago. for advice on roses: please 

 thank him for his timely advice and words 

 of encouragement. I followed his direc- 

 tions and the plants responded righi 

 away and have behaved splendidly since. 

 1 also thank you (this is Tlianksgiving 

 IJay) for your courtesy in publishiug my 

 query and the confidential way you treat- 

 ed my correspondence. One article from 

 the pen of Professors Eibes, Scott, Banr 

 or Osborn is worth, to the man in trouble, 

 a dozen subscriptions to your best of 

 l)apers. W. G. N. 



Ed. Eeview — I am making a success of 

 my business and it is largely due to tlic 

 lielp I get from the Eeview. Witli me 

 trade has not been so very good for the 

 fall until this month, when it increased 

 over 100 per cent. I benched my carna- 

 tions in July and I do not think I evei 

 had £i finer outlook for the winter. I 

 originated a variety of tomatoes sevt n 

 years ago, which I consider unusually 

 fine. In a good season, very few ot 

 them will go under a pound, and from 

 that to two and one-half pounds. While 

 not all perfectly smooth, they will aver- 

 age 75 per cent smooth ones. This 

 year from 125 vines we had all a family 

 of eight could use, which was no small 

 amount, sold $14.81 worth and canned 

 seventy-one dozen three-pound cans. The 

 crop would h^ve been much larger had 

 they not blighted toward the close of 

 the season. 



W. C. Scovell. 



I.oRAix, O. — F. J. Stehle has opened 

 a very attractive flower store adjoining 

 the Hotel Franklin. 



PHILIPPINE ORCHIDS. 



Orchids to the number of nearly 4,000 

 plants, collected in all parts of Amer- 

 ica's new archipelago in the Pacific 

 and valued by experts at more than .$30,- 

 000, were received at St. Louis a few days 

 ago and are now in an Old Orchard 

 greenhouse under the eye of John Heth- 

 eriugton, recuperating from their .iour- 

 ney of 7,000 miles over sea and land. 



These Philippine orchids will be in 

 liloom when the World's Fair opens on 

 April 30, next. At this writing, early 

 in December, the plants are supposed to 

 lie passing through the ' ' rainy season ' ' 

 of the Philippines. They are growing 

 and gaining strength to survive the "dry 

 season" that will begin about the time 

 the fair opens. Then the grcenhcnise 

 which wUl be the orchid's home in tin- 

 Philippine reservation of forty acres on 

 the ex]iosition grounds, will be a -bower 

 of tropic beauty. 



This wonderful lot of orchids, which 

 was collected by Dr. Gustave Niederieiu, 

 in various islands of the archipelago, 

 has for its star a splendid specimen of 

 the Phalffinopsis Sehilleriana. Thejdaut 

 is worth $500. It is a prolific bloomer, 

 as many as 174 flowers having been pro- 

 duced in a single blooming period. Phal- 

 amopsis Sehilleriana originated in the 

 Philippine Islands, but is now exceed- 

 ingly scarce in the Islands. 



Among the vandas the most attractive 

 in the colleciion is the Vanda Sanderiana. 

 It was originally discovered, in 18S1, on 

 the Island of Mindanao, one of the 

 Philippine group. 



Among the small flowering orchids in 

 the World's Fair collection is the Sac- 

 colabium guttatum. The flowers, indi- 

 vidually small, compensate for any defi- 

 ciency in size by the profusion in which 

 they are produced. lu the numerous 



