904 



The Weekly Florists' Review. 



March 24. 1904. 



teries, etc., and what of the small flow- 

 ered varieties are wanted can be grown 

 the same way. 



When long stems are wanted, or a 

 finer class of flowers needed, it is al- 

 ways best to plant in a house and give 

 the' same general treatment as that given 

 the large flowering chrysanthemums, ex- 

 cept the disbudding, of course; pinching 

 back to produce about five or sis branches 

 to the plant, when they should make 

 stems from two to three feet long. 

 When the object is to get tall sprays, 

 from three to four feet, it is best to 

 keep them to single stems, giving plenty 

 of room that they may bloom all the 

 way up the stems, with plenty of foliage. 

 There is nothing finer for general decor- 

 ative work, in fact thfy promise to equal 

 if not become more popular than the 

 larger flowers for this purpose, as soon 

 as ♦he people become more acquainted 

 with the many different, wonderful and 

 beautiful shades in the new creations. 

 And it will be well for those in a posi- 

 tion to make the best use of public taste 

 to prepare for a demand all along this 

 line in the near future, as there promises 

 to be a change with a large class of buy- 

 ers of the queen of autumn. 



For Autumn Bedding. 



When the hills have laid q& their man- 

 tle of green and all nature tells us of the 

 approach of winter, who but has watched 

 with saddened heart the beautiful flower 

 beds take on a very desolate ana dreary 

 appearance: at the first advent of the 

 chilly nights? When the bedding plants 

 have lost their leaves and show only bare 

 and unsightly stalks, somewhat worse 

 than nothing, who but has wished for 

 something to take their place and extend 

 the days of life and usefulness for a 

 greater length of time? 



The pompon chrysanthemum is just the 

 thing, having been grown ir the garden, 

 along the hedges or among the shrub- 

 bery; in fact. Some should be grown to 

 leave there and bloom. They cafi be 

 transplanted very nicely if taken up with 

 care and well watered and, while they 

 perhaps w:ll not make as fine flowers as 

 those grown under more favorable cir- 

 cumstances, yet they will make a credit- 

 able appearance and will look consider- 

 ably better than the bare stalks of the 

 summer bedding plants. If some protec- 

 tion is given on severe cold nights, or to 

 keep off the rough winds and winter 

 rains, thev will look good late in the 

 fall. 



The small or button types are the best 

 for outside bedding, as they wiU stand 

 the rough treatment and look better than 

 the aster types; such varieties as Gold- 

 en Pheasant, Little Pet. Labanah and i 

 host of others. There is an old-fashioned 

 yellow, Drin Drin, with small flowers not 

 much larger than the end of your finger, 

 that does very well, planted among shrub- 

 bery. The foliage is a beautiful glossy 

 green and the flowers will stay on until 

 they almost dry up, holding their color 

 way into the winter months. 



The larger varieties are best for cut- 

 ting and when it is not convenient to 

 grow them in a house they will do very 

 well planted along the protected side of 

 a building or hedge. They do well and 

 look nice planted along the edge of a 

 porch and will, as a general thing, come 

 quite perfect. 



Is there anything that can give a sub- 

 nrbanite more pleasure than to carry a 



bunch of fairly magnificent chrysanthe- 

 mums, cut frcm his own garden to the 

 city with him to give or show to lii- 

 friends or fellow employees ? And there 

 is nothing to keep the city man from en- 

 joying them in his own yar<l. as they are 

 a thing that can be enjoyed by all who 

 have a few feet of ground space. They 

 can be brought from the field all ready 

 to bloom, and where there is no ground 

 at all they can be planted in pots or 

 boxes. 



Having occasion to cross from Jersey 

 City to New York one morning last fall, 

 at the time when the crowds were going 

 to their daily occupations, I was sur- 

 prised at the number of people carrying 

 hardy chrysanthemums, some of them cer- 



Agave Americana in Flower 



tainly a creelit to their producers, and 

 yet they had been grown without any of 

 the expensive paraphernalia of the prac- 

 tical florist. Taking all in all there is 

 no reason why everybody should not have 

 some of these to help extend the summer 

 as long as possible. E. A. Vincent. 



Dawson, Al.\ska. — Daily. Edwards & 

 Wallace have built a greenhouse on the 

 second high dome back of Dawson and 

 have young stock started. 



The blue spruce, one of the hand- 

 somest of evergreens, has been so largely 

 grown that prices are variable ; the in- 

 quiry is now- for the Koster variety, 

 which is not so plentiful. 



AGAVE AMERICANA IN FLOWER 



The possibilities of the outdoor gar- 

 den in such a magnificent climate as that 

 of southern California must be very 

 great, and one of these decorative pos- 

 sibilities is shown in the accompanying 

 engraving, in which is depicted a very 

 fine specimen of the common century 

 plant. Agave Americana, in full flower. 



Just what the dimensions of this par- 

 ticular specimen were we are unable to 

 state, but the flower stem of this agave 

 has been knnwn to rcai-h a total 

 height of forty feet, and frequently 

 grows to twenty-five or thirty feet. The 

 individual flowers of this plant are rath- 

 er insignificant, being quite small and 

 yellowish green in color, but the immense 

 size of the flower spike with its many 

 branches and multitude of flowers makea 

 it a conspicuous object and one of much 

 interest. 



The popular idea that the American 

 aloe is really a century plant and conse- 

 quently does not bloom until it is 100 

 years old, is of course a fallacy, the age 

 at which such a plant will bloom being 

 largely governed by the conditions un- 

 der which it is grown, and being seldom 

 less than fifteen to twenty years, and 

 sometimes not until the plant is sixty 

 or seventy years old. But when a speci- 

 men of Agave Americana does start to 

 flower its progress is remarkably rapid, 

 the flower stem pushing up from the 

 center of the plant like a gigantic stalk 

 of asparagus, and growing at the rate 

 of five or six inches per day. 



There is, however, some truth in a 

 portion of the popular belief regarding 

 this agave, for the tremendous effort of 

 the plant in producing so great a flower 

 stem is fatal, and soon after the flower- 

 ing is completed the plant dies off, 

 though usually succeeded by some young 

 growths from the root. But though the 

 flowering of this species is fatal, yet 

 the rule does not hold good for all the 

 agaves, some of them flowering several 

 vears from the same plant. 



W. H. Tapun. 



ANTS IN PEONY BUDS. 



For the last two years I have lost 

 most of my peony flowers because the 

 buds were eaten or sucked by black ants, 

 not the very large kind but a medium 

 sized black ant. I would find at least 

 one in each bed and the bud never devel- 

 oped, stayed right theie and finally with- 

 ered. What can I do to get rid of 

 these ants? W. H. S. 



The ant in itself does not do much 

 liarm to the peony buel, but by taking 

 away the moisture which exudes from 

 the bud, leaves the outside very dry and 

 it is therefore more readily affected by 

 the air drying it out. The fact that the 

 bud is in a condition to be affected by 

 the taking away of the small amount 

 which the ant would absorb, shows that 

 the soil is in an impoverished condition. 

 If the plant had plenty of good rich 

 earth to draw from, this condition of 

 affairs would never be. The only way 

 to treat these plants is to place around 

 the stems of the plants some foreign 

 substance, such as cotton saturated with 

 tar, to keep the ants from climbing up 

 the stems. B. S. Gage. 



Bryn Mawr, Pa. — The private green- 

 houses of James Rawle were damaged 

 by fire ilarch 13 and considerable stock 

 was destroyed. 



