500 



The Weekly Florists* Review. 



FEnniARY 4. 1904. 



buds which remain when carnations are 

 used for design work. Use many of them 

 among and under the flowers. If the 

 natural foliage cannot bo had, get foli- 

 ag9 which most nearly resembles it in 

 color and form. Ccntaurea gymnocarpa, 

 any of the pteris ferns, asparagus and 

 fancy grasses are good substitutes for 

 carnation foliage. 



Narrower ribbons with plenty of loops 

 suggest themselves as ties. But don't 

 tie all the bunches with ribbon. Use as 

 many bunches without. A spray of 

 green often makes a dainty tie. Some- 

 times at a funeral the amount and va- 

 riety of ribbon is entirely too dazzling 

 for the everlasting fitness of things. 

 There is usually enough variety in tlie 

 different kinds" of flowers used nowa- 

 days, without aggravating the condi- 

 tion. Gertrude Blak. 



PIMELEAS. 



These beautiful greenhouse shrubs are 

 nearly all natives of Australia and New 

 Zealand, and consequently require cool 

 greenhouse treatment. They are easily 

 grown, are profuse bloomers, the tip of 

 each shoot producing a flower head, and 

 when they are properly handled and of 

 sufiScient "age the number of these shoots 

 is large, so that a three or four-year-old 

 plant will average from fifty to 100 

 blooms. 



Being compact in habit of growth they 

 require little training, the only pruning 

 required being to cut back the bloom- 

 ing stems to about one-half of their last 

 growth. They succeed well in a com- 

 post of one-half fibry peat soil and one- 

 half good fibry loam, to which must be 

 added about one-s-ixth of sand, broken 

 pot-sherds and charcoal in equal propor- 

 tions. Unlike most other hard-wopded 

 plants, they delight in plenty of water, 

 so they must be provided with perfect 

 drainage and as red spider is particularly 

 fond of them they require frequent 

 syringing. 



As soon as the flowering season is 

 over the shoots should be cut back and 

 the plants removed to a cool house or, if 

 the season will permit, to an outside 

 frame, where they should be kept cool 

 by shading and moist by covering the 

 pots with moss until the eyes break, when 

 the shading should be discontinued. Dur- 

 ing this stage they should be frequently 

 syringed to encourage the eyes to break. 

 When there is a good start made with 

 the new breaks they should be repotted 

 and shaded for a few days. 



Although they blight in a cool temper- 

 ature, 40 to 45 degrees during winter, 

 they are very susceptible to frost, the 

 first touch causing them to shed their 

 foliage, so they must be housed before 

 there is the least danger. 



Propagation is usually effected by cut- 

 tings in sand at a temperature of 48 

 degrees, kept moist and shaded until the 

 hairlike roots appear, when they should 

 be potted and placed in a cool, moist 

 atmosphere until the ball is well filled 

 with roots, when they can be fully ex- 

 posed to light and sun. They can also 

 be propagated by seed but the process 

 is too slow to be either profitable or in- 

 teresting. 



Well-grown specimens, by their at- 

 tractive shape and color of bloom, usual- 

 ly command a ready sale, as they make 

 a good window plant and coming into 

 bloom .iust as most other hard-wooded 

 plants are going out, they are doubly 

 valuable. They remain in bloom from 



three weeks to a mouth. Their colors 

 vary from deep red through all the 

 shades of pink to a pure white. 



Some of the varieties best suited for 

 commercial work will be found in the 

 following list: P. arenaria, white; de- 

 cussata (ferrngiiiea). rose; glauca, 

 white; Gnidia, red; ligustrina hyperici- 

 na, white; rosea, rose and pink; spec- 

 tabilis, white tinged with pink. 



These plants can be flowered in very 

 small pots while in a young stage but 

 this ruins them for afterwork. The cut 

 flowers have good keeping- qualities and 

 are very effective in design work or 

 sprays. RlBES. 



CARNATION NOTES— WEST. 



Notes on Varieties. 



Before reeei%"ing the last number of the 

 Review I had decided to give my im- 

 pression of some of last spring 's novel- 

 ties, of which we bought more or less 

 quantity for trial, and as only a few 

 of these are mentioned I will go ahead. 

 We make a practice every year of buy- 



ing at least a few of nearly all the varie- 

 ties that are introduced and are likely 

 to be of value to us. Some few that 

 we did not buy I have seen growing on 

 other places, and was able to get an idea 

 of what they looked like on the bench. 



Two varieties have stood out above all 

 the rest with us, but most of the others 

 have some very good points about them 

 and some of them will no doubt be grown 

 in quantity for a few years. Enchan- 

 tress has produced a good crop of large 

 blooms on fine stems. The color is fine 

 when the bloom first opens, but it wants 

 to be cut when three-quarters open, else 

 the edge will fade. The center does not 

 open quick enough. It keeps well with 

 us. 



Harlowarden is a grand crimson and 

 so far ahead of Roosevelt that we do not 

 want the latter any more. It is very 

 early and free in spite of the long stems 

 it makes. The color is a trifle dark. It 

 never splits and will stand lots of feed- 

 ing. 



Gov. Lowndes made a poor growth in 

 the field, but after housing it at once 

 shot up long, strong stems and made 

 good blooms. This may make a good 

 commercial sort. 



Lillian Pond has disappointed us some- 

 what. We were led to expect a big crop 

 of large blooms extra early from it; 

 three and one-half inch blooms in Sep- 

 tember, we were told, but we failed to 

 see them. It is a strong, sturdy grower 

 and produces large blooms, rather late 

 with us. Splits some in midwinter. One 

 large grower told me not long since that 

 it will be one of his main whites next 

 season. 



Her Majesty we consider a very fine 

 thing. It comes in early and blooms 

 steadily. The blooms are of good size 

 and it never splits. We are making all 

 we can of this. Will stand heavy feed- 

 ing. 



Mrs. Theo. Roosevelt has a beautiful 

 color, neither red nor pink. The early 

 blooms came rather single and flimsy, but 

 it rounds up in good time. Perhaps it 

 wants more feeding than we gave it. 



Innocence would be a grand carnation 

 if it did not inherit a bad fault from 

 one of its parents. Flora Hill. With us 

 it has a little bacteria this year, but we 

 hope to keep it clean next season. A 

 nice round bloom, pure white and a fine 

 stem. Makes a fine plant in the field 

 and is very free. 



Murphy 's White has not done well for 

 us, but some say that for quantity of me- 

 dium grade blooms it is hard to beat. 



Sybil stem-rotted badly with us, but 

 what was left made good plants and fine 

 long stems. The bloom is average size 

 and the color is a fine soft shade of 

 cerise. Should be a good commercial 

 sort. 



Fragrance is a free flowering variety 

 of a blush color. The. blooms are fair 

 sized. The stem and calyx are good. 



Pres. McKinley has not made good 

 with us, but I am inclined to lay the 

 blame on ourselves. On the originator's 

 place it is doing fine and also on another 

 place not far away. Both of these grow- 

 ers have a very rich soil and their carna- 

 tions make a very strong, heavy growth. 

 I think a lack of food is the cause of 

 this variety 's poor showing on so many 

 places. Give it a heavy diet next year 

 and see if it does not improve. 



Success has not shown us anything very 

 good yet. The growth is very thin and 

 wiry and we did not expect a large bloom. 

 The bloom is quite small, but the color 

 is very pleasing. Too small for us. 



Adonis has surprised us twice this sea- 

 son. The first time by refusing to take 

 hold of the soil after we planted fine 

 strong plants. The plants seemed to 

 dwindle away until they looked fit for 

 only a hospital. The second surprise was 

 when those sick looking plants shot up 

 some fine stems and produced blooms that 

 would make a seedling raiser 's heart 

 leap for joy. We are going to learn to 

 grow this variety if we possibly can. It 

 will never become an every-day scarlet, 

 like Crane, but it always brings a fancy 

 price and will most likely be a paying 

 variety. WUl try indoor culture on a 

 few of it. 



We did not buy any of The Queen, but 

 have seen a couple of batches that looked 

 very fine indeed. Large blooms on good, 

 long stems and very free. 



Fair Maid is also liked real well by 



