March m, 19I.I4. 



The Weekly Florists' Review. 



761 



Prom the Lett: LawaoD.— Hill. Eclipse— Dorni-r Linvaon.— W.'biT. Lawsoii.— B. & VV. N. Plslier.— Thompson. Laweoo.— C. C. Co. 

 The Six Entries in the Class for Dark Pink at the Detroit Convention. 

 The jiid^ea awarded first prize to the Vase on the riglit and second to Dorner's Eclipse, but another set of judges 

 gave the Sweepstakes to the third Vase from the right. 



and for ten years he has saved his own 

 seed. AVe can all do it. It's merely a 

 matter of selection. Yet I believe in 

 division of labor, let the specialist sup- 

 ply you with seed. 



Seed Sowing. 



It is a long time since I have given 

 my little talk on sowing seeds, and I hesi- 

 tate to do so now, for it is like repeat- 

 ing an old story to the same old audi- 

 ence. But a few strangers have joined 

 the audience, and so the old heads can 

 look the other way. 



I always did and always will consider 

 that raising jilants from seed (I allude 

 particularly to our florists' flowers and 

 plants) calls for the greatest skill, the 

 greatest care and watchfulness of any 

 of our florists' operations. We have any 

 amount of young and old men calling 

 themselves gardeners, who can stand up 

 at the bench and pot or shift plants 

 very proficiently, but few can be trust- 

 ed to sow and care for the seeds of 

 cineraria or begonia, or even asters and 

 coarser seeds. Whatever soil may suit a 

 plant in its future or maturer state, it 

 is sure that a light or friable soil is 

 what it needs to germinate in, for in 

 nature a seed dropping from the parent 

 plant or carried by the winds to a rest- 

 ing place, would not bury itself in the 

 soil, but would merely be covered, if 

 covered at all. by the decayed leaves of 

 the year before. So make the compost 

 for your seed flats light, either with 

 the addition of sifted rotten manure or 

 leaf mold or, what is excellent, well de- 

 cayed refuse hops. 



For asters and that kind of plants I pre- 

 fer flats two inches in depth, putting one 

 inch of coarse soil or manure in the bot- 

 tom and filling up with an inch of the 

 prepared, sifted compost, ilake the sur- 

 face as level as you can and press down 

 with a smooth board, slightly, firmly and 

 evenly. Then place your flats or seed 

 pans on the floor and with a fine sprink- 

 ling rose water these flats till you think 

 all the soil is moist. In ten minutes or 

 so this watering will have soaked away 

 and you can begin to sow. After the 

 seed is sown another gentle pressure of 

 the board imbeds the seed and you are 

 ready for the covering of finely sifted 

 soil. This last covering needs but the 

 slightest wetting, which will not wash 

 the seeds, as it would if you had to water 

 sufficient to wet to a depth of two in- 

 ches. 



Somebody once said that a good rule 

 was to cover seed the depth of its own 

 thickness. This would mean that be- 

 gonia or calceolaria should not be cov- 

 ered at all, which is about true. And 

 the aster, phlox or seeds of that size 

 should be just covered enough to hide 

 them. Although we know there are many 

 exceptions to this, a grain of wheat will 

 force itself through soil forty times its 

 thickness and an acorn will germinate in 

 the forest with no covering. .lust cov- 

 ered out of sight will do very well for 

 nearly all our annuals except those mi- 

 nute seeds that you dare not attempt to 

 cover at all. 



A uniform moisture of the soil is the 

 great essential until the seeds are well 

 up through the soil, and after that full 

 light, so that the little seedlings do not 

 draw up spindling, is another. I meant 

 to add earlier that we are all inclined 

 to sow almost everything too thickly. 

 Sow thinly. My chapter is now so long 

 that I will ask permission to say some- 

 thing about the care of seedlings and 

 their transplanting in our next. 



William Scott. 



GREENFLY OR APHIS. 



I have noticed several complaints in 

 your paper concerning the aphis or green- 

 fly, which seems to give so much trouble 

 to many florists and gardeners. We used 

 to have great trouble with them, espe- 

 cially on roses and sweet pea vines plant- 

 ed outside. The plants being in the open 

 air, we could not use tobacco smoke to 

 advantage. We tried kerosene emulsion, 

 but found that if we used it strong 

 enough to kill the aphides the plants were 

 burned by the solution. 



As some of our roses were rather small, 

 we began ffeding them nitrate of soda, 

 and in so doing discovered a sure rem- 

 edy against greenfly or aphis. A few 

 days after the first application of nitrate 

 we noticed that the aphides had disap- 

 peared. On looking over the plants we 

 found the bodies of a few of them. The}' 

 were of a light brown color and were all 

 dead. 



We next tried the nitrate on the pea 

 vines, and drove the pest from them also. 

 The past year we had a bed of Helen 

 Gould roses which became infested with 

 greenfly ; we applied nitrate and in two 

 weeks they had all disappeared. The 

 remedy is much easier applied in green- 

 houses than tobacco smoke. It does not 

 discolor the flowers and is cheap. 



In explanation, the aphides seem to go 

 only to those plants which are not grow- 

 ing well or, in the case of roses, to those 

 which have been attacked by black spot 

 or mildew. The aphis will not suck the 

 sap of a healthy plant. Nitrate of soda 

 furnishes nitrogen in a quickly available 

 form, the results from its use being seen 

 in twenty-four hours. It purifies the sap 

 of the plant and starts it into vigorous 

 growth. Its presence in the sap seems to 

 be poison to the aphides. 



We use one tablespoonful to a twelve 

 quart pail of water, giving the plants a 

 thorough watering. A second application 

 should be given in about two weeks if 

 necessary. Rose growers especially 

 should try this remedy and see for them- 

 selves. " Eay H. Palmer. 



MOSS EVERYWHERE. 



AVould you please let me know through 

 your valuable' paper the reason why all 

 the pots and the soil in them in my 

 greenhouses are covered with a thick 

 layer of moss. W. G. 



It is almost impossible in a few 

 months for a thick layer of moss to grow 

 on either soil or pots, and a few months 

 is as long as the majority of our green- 

 house plants occupy the same pot. We 

 have seen azaleas and camellias and 

 other so-called hard-wooded plants oc- 

 cupying the same pot for years become 

 moss grown on the surface of the soil, 

 and the pots green with another species 

 of ' ' moss. ' ' The word moss covers a 

 multitude of humble plants, perhaps 

 thousands of species. 



The old oaken bucket that hangs in 

 the well, the poet tells us, was covered 

 with moss but there is no authentic in- 

 formation as to whether that dear old 

 vessel that elevated this temperance drink 

 was enshrouded with sphagnum, Iceland 

 moss or Selaginella denticulata. 



Want of drainage is one of the prin- 

 cipal causes of moss growing either on 

 the soil of greenhouse plants or in pas- 

 tures outside. If sod taken from a low, 

 undrained piece of groimd is used for 

 any of our indoor crops, moss will be 

 sure to appear. The damp exterior sur- 

 face of our common flower pots is an 

 excellent medium for the ever present 

 spores of these low plant organisms to 

 vegetate and the surface of the soil in a 

 poorly drained plant constantly moist is 

 another. Briefly, I would say want of 



