ilAucii 17, 1004. 



The Weekly Florists^ Review. 



an 



MISCELLANEOUS 

 SEASONABLE HINTS. 



Handling Seedlings. 



lu concludiiicr my notes last week I 

 said I would like to sa,v something more 

 about the care of seedlings. Seeds do 

 not certainly need the light to germinate, 

 for nearly all are hidden from the light 

 by the covering of compost of some kind, 

 but as soon as they are above the ground 

 light is very essential or they will draw 

 up and be spindling, and that is a poor 

 start for them. Especially is this true 

 of the dicotyledons, which includes the 

 vast majority of our flowering plants. 

 So, when above the ground, the fullest 

 light should be given them. A tempo- 

 rary shade during the brightest hours of 

 a sunny day is of benefit, for it prevents 

 a sudden and severe drying out which 

 would not be at all desirable, but you 

 don 't want them under glass that is 

 whitewashed. 



Asters, marigolds, phloxes, balsams, 

 ten-week stocks, dianthus and all that 

 class of annuals you will be sowing now 

 and if you have sown thickly, which we 

 are all so guilty of doing, the little 

 plants, in spite of all the light and air 

 you can give them, will quickly run up 

 an inch or so above the soil before the 

 seed leaves are expanded. As soon as 

 the character leaf begins to show, it is 

 time to transplant them into the flats 

 from which they are sold or planted out 

 of doors. The more room you can giv- 

 them when transplanted, the stouter win 

 they grow. Some may want an inch and 

 a half apart, some two inches. This is 

 when your asters begin to take up sonic 

 space in your benches, but it is after 

 Easter by that time and your congestion 

 is over and cold frames and hotbeds have 

 come into use. 



Transplanting. 



Just a word about this operation of 

 transplanting the seedlings. In that well- 

 known book on market gardening, "Gar- 

 dening for Profit." by Peter Henderson, 

 he impresses on the gardener the neces- 

 sity for what he calls "firming" the 

 soil round the roots of such plants as 

 cabbage and cauliflower when putting 

 them into the field. Transplanting these 

 little flowering annuals into flats of 3 

 inches of soil, or maybe a bed or bench, 

 is the same in miniature. It is no use 

 to elaborate on hon- senselessly this is 

 often done, or how not to do it. Make 

 the hole in the sod large enough so that 

 the roots can go down straight, and deen 

 enough so that the roots and stem will 

 go down and leave the seed leaves al- 

 most lying on the sod. Don 't squeeze 

 the soil at the surface tight around the 

 little, succulent stem, the watering will 

 do that, but get your dibbling stick 

 down where the roots are and be sure 

 the soil is compact round the roots, where 

 they can at once take hold. I have seen 

 several thousand little asters pine and 

 grow yellow, because a big tall man 

 punched the soil around the stem at the 

 surfare~tind let the roots hang in va- 

 cuum. 



Excuse me for alluding to cabbage and 



laiiliflower in tlicse notes, but iir. Peirce, 

 of Waltham, Mass., says that cauliflower 

 is simply a cabbage with a college edu- 

 cation and the great Dr. Johnson said it 

 was his favorite flower. 



The Cobaea. 



There is that free growing summer 

 rlimber, or vine, that we have to grow, 

 Cobiea scandens. With us April 1 is 

 plenty time to sow it. When it gets 

 growing it grows so rampant that we 

 lose control of it and it is none the 

 better for planting out with too much 

 growth inside. If you don 't know which 

 end of the seed to squeeze into the 

 ground, then sow it edgewise, not flat. 

 Push each seed into the soil till the top 

 edge of the seed is even with the sur- 

 face and keep in a house at .5.5 to 60 

 degrees. When the true leaf begins to 

 show, pot singly into 2 or 2^4-inch pots 

 and later shift into 4-inch. There is 

 always a demand for this quick-growing 



empty space in your sand should be al- 

 lowed now, for cuttings put in now will 

 not bother you till after the Easter rush, 

 when bench room is available. If you 

 need them, put in all you can of coleus, 

 achyranthes, ageratum, santolina, lemon 

 verbena, heliotrope, lantana, in fact all 

 that class of plants that enter into your 

 spring trade. 



If you grow Hydrangea Otaksa as an 

 Easter plant, you will have propagated 

 some young stock, perhaps two months 

 ago. Don't leave them in 2%-inch pots 

 to draw up into lanky plants. The foun- 

 dation of a good plant for forcing is 

 laid now. Shift them into 3% or 4-inch 

 pots and pinch out the crown of growth 

 and give them room to make lateral 

 growth as they need it. A light bench 

 and 45 degrees at night is enough. 



Easter Plants. 



Easter is getting so near that it is 

 uppermost in our minds and a few words 

 about the principal plants for that all- 

 important time seem unavoidable. We 

 fully expected after three and a half 

 months arctic winter that March would 

 be mild and winter would be gone, or 

 going. It is not so with us. Snow, ice 

 and cloudy days are still with us and 

 this makes all the difference with our 

 crops. It is too late now to give any ad- 

 vice, for everything is under glass. 

 Early as Easter is, it seems after all to 



New Form of Boston Fern Originating with A. E. Mauff, Denver. 



climber and the price we get for it makes 

 it more profitable than many things. 



High Time to Propajate. 



As the season advances there will be 

 more sun heat, with the temperature of 

 your houses higher, and less fire heat, 

 with the sand of your propagating bed 

 cooler. This is the reverse of favorable 

 conditions for propagating nearly all 

 soft-wooded plants and therefore no 



suit the majority of the crops quite as 

 well as if it was fifteen days later. I 

 can only mention some plants whose con- 

 dition I notice and think about right at 

 this date, March 14. If the largest buds 

 of the Crimson Eamblers are just show- 

 ing color they are all right. If the buds 

 of the Japan lilies are beginning to point 

 downwards they are none too soon and 

 don't put them into a cool house until 

 the buds are about ready to expand. 



