S92 



The Weekly Florists' Review. 



Mauch 24, 1904. 



which you line a box to receive a dozen 

 Bridesmaid roses. To deck out plants 

 with frills and tucks and riblxuis that 

 ■were going into a conservatory or pri- 

 vate grceulunise would he absurd, in 

 fact outrageous, but our plants .Ion t 

 go there; tliey go to the drawing-rooms 

 and living-rooms of our honu'^'. and 

 some pretty embellishment is only in 

 keeping with their surroundings, anil 

 what will charm and phase the re.-ipient 

 of an Easter gift will most satisfy the 

 one who sends the greeting. We must 

 cater to this nmst laudal:K' sentiment. 



Green the Safe Color. 



Green for a pot covering wi:i suit 

 any plant, for it is in harn ony with 

 the foliage. Some plants can be asso- 

 ciated with a shadf of the color of the 

 flower, but the paler-colored blossoms 

 best suit themselves to this and on tlii' 

 more brilliant and deeper colors it would 

 be found rather too dazzling an ar- 

 rangement. A few instances I can offtr. 

 A Crimson Rambler rose, if well flow- 

 ered, should ha\e a green mat or paper, 

 which might be tied with a ribbon, and 

 another ribbon near the base of the 

 plant, both of the same shade as the 

 flowers. Some of the lighter-colored 

 azaleas may be matched with their own 

 shade, with ribbon of the same shade as 

 the flowers, but wh.^re they cannot, stick 

 to green mats or green and white tissue 

 paper, which harmonizes with the blos- 

 soms of all plants. It is evident that 

 a brilliant Van der Cruyssen azalea with 

 a pot covering of the same shade would 

 be altogether too heavy and the eye 

 would soon tire, therefore a green and 

 white covering or a green mat with a 

 deep iiink ribbon and bow would be th? 

 thing. I will just say, don't Itt two 

 shades of pink come together. 



A sheet of green and white paper is 

 all a single lily needs, but with the in 



covering. There are a tew yellow blos- 

 soms, tnt cytisus an\l acacia, anu here 

 are two plants that nothing so adds to 

 their beauty as a pot covering of the 

 e.xact siiade of their flowers, and even 

 some tasty ribbon arrange meiit among 

 the branches. l'"or you will not get tired 

 of this color; it is one of nature's. D"o 

 not our fields and hedge rows, our oaks 

 and maples, give us gold and orange 

 and yellow Uirough the fall months, 

 much to our delight ; 



Another pretty plant is Azalea mollis, 

 with its yellow and orange and orangj- 

 1 ink blossoms. TliPic is nothini; like 

 its own shades to adorn it, and as it is 

 almost bare of leaves it must have some 

 ribbon scattercil tiirough the plant. No 

 plant pays better for the trouble. Large 

 pans of hyacinths, if all of one shadi', 

 can be associated with mats, or paper 



of the same color, but if mixed in color 

 you can only use the green or green and 

 white. I have said about all I can oJi 

 this subject. Green will go with any 

 shade of flowers and so will green and 

 white. White and pink is harmony, or 

 it is pleasing at any rate. 



For the past few years we have sold 

 more lilies in 10 and 12-iuch pans con- 

 taining five or six plants, than singly. 

 You could not get five plants grown in 

 a 6-inch pot, or even o-inch, into the 12- 

 incli pans or pots if you left the balls 

 of earth entire. Take a big. sharp 

 knife and slice the ball down to three 

 or four inches. Don't do it till the lilies 

 are in bloom and they will last just as 

 long as if they were undisturbed, with 

 plenty of water. 



For balmy, salubrious weather let us 

 be good and pray. William Scott. 



CARNATION NOTES- WEST. 



Seasonable Work. 



After Easter has come and gone we 

 generally look forward to spring and 

 planting out. Easter comes early this 

 year and at least two or three weeks will 

 elapse before we can really go to work 

 at planting out, but it is not too early 

 even now to prepare for it all we can, so 

 as not to be bothered after we do com- 

 mence with preparations that might have 



Hyacinths in Basket, Trimmed with White Ribbon 



and 12-inch pots of these that may con- 

 tain five or six jdants, a white mat with 

 a broad green ribbon, or the opposite, a 

 green mat with a white ribbon, will be 

 found all right. Plants with white 

 flowers, such as the deutzia and lilac, 

 are best set oif with simply a green 



' been made beforehand. If you put your 

 young plants on a bench or in flats you 

 should pot them up now at once, as a 

 plant from a pot is nearly always prefer- 

 able to one that is dug up and has most 

 of the soil shaken from the roots and 

 many roots toin. What size pot to put 



tiieni in will depend largely on how long 

 they have been growing where they are 

 anil how strong they have grown. They 

 will not have very much time to grow be- 

 sides merely establishing themselves and 

 rooting through thoroughly. 



Shifting Young Stock. 



A pot just hirgi' enough to hold them 

 nicely, which would in most eases be 

 about a 2i4-inch, will be better than a 

 larger one. I like them to be pot-bound 

 enough so the ball of soil will not break 

 and fall from the roots, and most likely 

 if you pot into .3-inch pots they will not 

 have time before planting out to get into 

 that stage. The same may be said re- 

 garding the repotting from smaU pots 

 into larger ones. If you potted into 2- 

 inch pots in .January the young plants 

 will be thoroughly pot bound and will 

 begin to suffer unless they get a shift. 

 They may not show any signs of suffer- 

 ing yet. but wait until the days get 

 warm and those dry winds come along and 

 you will find v^our pot-bound plants dry 

 three-fourths of the time unless you will 

 keep busv watering them. rrom2to2Vi- 

 inch is a small shift, but it will suffice 

 to keep the plants in fine shape for a 

 month or six weeks and they won 't take 

 up such a terrible lot of liench space. 



Handling Cutlirgs. 



If you have some in sand be sure you 

 pot them up just as soon as they are 

 ready. A good, strong cutting that is 

 potted up early enough to get well es- 

 tablished before planting out time stands 

 a good chance of making a first-rate 

 plant for planting medium early. For 

 extra early planting we prefer a cutting 

 that is potted xip between January 15 

 and February 1.5. These can be topped 

 some time in March and will start the 

 eyes that are to make the plant later on. 

 Sometimes we hear a grower say that he 

 bought a hundred of some novelty and 

 later on took a cutting off each one and 

 rooted it and that these cuttings made 

 better plants than the ones he bought. 

 Now it seems to me any man ought to 

 be ashamed to tell that he was unable 

 to grow as fine a plant from an early 

 cutting as he could from a cutting taken 

 two months later. Whenever that hap- 



