Feekuari 25, 1904. 



The Weekly Florists' Review. 



643 



MISCELLANEOUS 

 SEASONABLE HINTS. 



The Easter Stock. 



Our Easter crops are now the absorb- 

 ing subject of band and brain, and bow 

 wo would like to know what tlie weather 

 is going to be in the long month of 

 March! As little difference as the 

 ■weather makes to some of our midwin- 

 ter crops, it has all to do with most of 

 the plants that we grow for the Kaster 

 sales. 



The Lilies. 



If you can count the Ijuds in the 

 crown of the Japan lilies b.y March 1 

 .vou will have no trouble in getting them 

 in at a night temperature of 60 degrees, 

 and some sunshine to help, which is due 

 us in considerable quantities next mouth. 

 If your lilies are earlier than this no 

 liarm is done, so don't get alarmed and 

 move them to a cool house to retard them 

 or they will .iust stand still. When the 

 buds are turning white you can put them 

 into a much cooler house, for when ad- 

 vanced to that stage they will open al- 

 most anywhere. I have noticed that the 

 public knows enough to prefer some 

 plants, an azalea, for instance, that is 

 not so fully out. But a lily they want 

 with every flower open, and witlT many 

 people a fine plant with one expanded 

 flower and ' ' these four buds will all 

 open, ma'am," don't go. After the 

 buds are above the leaves there should 

 be no further danger of trouble from 

 aphis. A moderate fumigation on two 

 successive nights each week will keep 

 them clean. 



The Roses. 



Crimson Eambler roses should be just 

 about showing the clusters of buds, and 

 will be in time without any extra forc- 

 ing. If you can get them in bloom in 

 a night temperature of 55 degrees they 

 are much better in color than when you 

 have to give them 5 or 10 degrees high- 

 er, and this also applies to the hybrid 

 perpetuals. Keep them cool if possible. 

 Now here is a plant, above all a h.ybrid 

 perpetual rose, in a 6-inch pot, that 

 your customers don't want with all the 

 buds out. No matter how attractive a 

 few flowers of an Ulrich Brunner may 

 be, every one knows how soon their pet- 

 als drop, and unless there are buds yet 

 to open they don't want your rose plant, 

 so it takes some careful management to 

 get them just right. 



> The Azaleas. 



The azaleas are now one of our most 

 important plants. Easter's early date 

 will suit most of them better than if it 

 were two weeks later. A few azaleas are 

 selling all the time, and these you have 

 had in a temperature of 55 to 60 de- 

 grees. But the main lot that you are 

 growing for Easter has done well in a 

 night temperature of 40 to 45 degrees. 

 Now is the time to do the regulating 

 and not wait till some varieties are in 

 full bloom and others so backward that 

 no amount of heat will open theii- buds. 

 It is not necessary to mention varieties, 

 because it is so easilv observed at what 



stage of development tlie liuds aie. Here, 

 however, are a few varieties of the con- 

 dition of which 1 have just made note. 

 That great favorite, Mme. Van der 

 Cruyssen, will at about 45 degrees at 

 night be about right, and so will Em- 

 press of India. Niobe is showing rather 

 early and must be moved at once to 

 some house where it can be kept at 38 

 to 40 degrees and shaded, and you know 

 that if it went down to 35 no harm is 

 clone. Mme. C. Van Langenhove is too 

 early, and so is that most densely flow- 

 ered' white, Sakuntala. De Schryveriana 

 will also have to go to cooler quarters. 

 Bernard Andre alba may need 55 de- 

 grees a little later, as it is rather back- 

 ward, and so on. It is easy to see what 

 they need, only don't wait till it is too 

 late. 



Many a patron is disap|iointed with an 

 azalea. "It all wilted down; it must 

 have been frozen in deliver.y. ' ' is the 

 little song w'e often have to hear. It's 

 nothing but want of Avater, and even 

 greenhouse men, I notice, on some occa- 

 sions don't realize how thoroughly they 

 should be watered. Last fall's import- 

 ed plants have made no roots into the 

 soil that we rammed in around the ball 

 of peat, and unless we get water into 

 the old ball we are not watering the 

 plant. On dull, cool days an azaJea may 

 not show that it is suffering, but some 

 bright day in March will soon show your 

 neglect; and if the plant is in flower 

 great injury has been done. 



The Dutch Bulbs. 



In another column I promised an in- 

 quirer fuller particulars as to the num- 

 ber of days to give hyacinths, tulips and 

 daffodils to be in flower for Easter. 

 It's a simple subject, and yet it's not 

 so easy to speak definitely about any 

 number of days. There are several things 

 to consider. Some twenty or more years 

 ago, when rather new at the bulb busi- 

 ness, Easter came on April 24 or 25, and 

 along about the middle of the month we 

 had a few days of midsummer heat. We 

 had broiight in our Tournesol and Muril- 

 lo, as well as all the single tulips, daffo- 

 dils and hyacinths, four weeks ahead of 

 Easter. The result was sad. We re- 

 sorted to sub-basements and cold frames 

 with heavy shade, but to little purpose, 

 for the honey bees hummed through the 

 frames and we lost the greater part. 

 The next year Easter was very early and 

 the weather mostly cold and dull. Ee- 

 membering our experience of the pre- 

 vious year, but without reasoning about 

 the difference of dates, we allowed only 

 two weeks to get our bulbs in, and that 

 was nearly as big a failure, and instead 

 of the cold frames and cool cellars we 

 had to resort to the Russian bath meth- 

 od, and then only partially got there. 

 I don 't remember that we have missed 

 it since. 



The weather, w-hether cold and cloudy 

 or bright and mild, will make a differ- 

 ence of five or six days. One other very 

 important consideration is the fact that 

 those who keep their flats of bulbs out 

 of doors,, covered, with soil or tan bark 



and stable litter, have found tliat this 

 arctic winter has frozen clear through 

 all covering and into the soil of the 

 flats. This has not hurt tulips, hya- 

 cinths or daft'odils, but it has greatly re- 

 tarded their growth, which means two or 

 three days more under glass. After we 

 chop out the flats it takes two days in 

 a warm shed to thaw them out. 



After March 1 these bulbs should not 

 lie forced in any hot box or warm, shad- 

 ed bench. They should come along in 

 f\ill light, in any house w^here the night 

 temperature is from 50 to 55 degrees, 

 and they will be better in texture, color, 

 form and, above all, stem, than those 

 we had to force and shade earlier in the 

 season. 



Better be safe and, considering the 

 earliness of Easter and the present coa- 

 dition of the bulbs, I would say give 

 daft'odils and single tulips twenty days 

 on the bench, Dutch hyacinths about the 

 same and double tulips three or four 

 days more. There is no need to wait 

 for getting in your bulbs just for Jhese 

 days; take advantage of a fine, warm 

 da.v, even if it is a week earlier. in 

 a cool shed or beneath a bench in a 

 cool house they will make little prog- 

 ress. 



Some yeaTS ago we depended for pans 

 of tulips, daffodils and hyacinths entirely 

 on those planted in pans in the fall and 

 placed out of doors, as we do the flats, 

 or perhaps in a frame a little better 

 protected. There was always considera- 

 ble breakage of pans and many pans 

 ATOuld not be uniform in growth. For 

 two or three years past we have made 

 up these pans from the flats just about 

 the time the flower is fully developed. 

 If lifted out without losing much roots 

 the flowers last equally as long, stand 

 up as straight and are in every way aa 

 satisfactory as those grown in the pans. 

 There is no fraud about this and you 

 can ' ' manufacture ' ' a more perfect and 

 prettier arrangement than j'ou can get 

 the old way, and save some losses. 



William Scott. 



STOPPING GERANIUMS. 



Will some one tell me tlirough the 

 columns of the Eevieav how to make my 

 geraniums grow more stocky, instead of 

 running up to single stem. I once read 

 an article about topping. I tried it 

 the last two .years, but the most of them 

 would throw out one side shoot and start 

 heavenward again. Should the topping 

 be done at shifting time or some time 

 before, or after? Should the.y be cut 

 back severely or just a little oft" the top? 



J. N. S. 



This very simple subject has been ven- 

 tilated in the columns of the Eeview 

 ' ' many a -time and oft. ' ' If .your plants 

 were propagated in September or Octo- 

 ber and supposing you shifted them into 

 a 3-ineh at New A'ear's, then by Feb- 

 ruary they should be pinched or stopped. 

 The majorit.y should give you a cutting 

 and yet leave two or three eyes on the 

 jilant, which if given daylight and not 

 crow(led will ahva.vs break anil make a 

 stocky plant. If vou don't desire the 

 cutting, or the plant is not large enough, 

 then just pinch out the top and you 

 will have the same bushy plant. Stop- 

 ping or pinching out the top should not 

 be done at the time of potting. Let 

 them be in active root growth when that 

 is done. If J. N. S. will refer to the 

 Review of February 11 he will see this 

 very subject treated of at some length. 



