910 



The Weekly Floristf^^ Review. 



March 21. 1904. 



did blooms of leading sorts. Outside 

 florists filled the other table with their 

 new and special varieties and these were 

 fine. F. K. Pierson Co., Tarrytown, N. 

 Y., sent Adonis. Enchantress, White 

 Lawson and Daheim. Adonis is behav- 

 ing splendidly with them and Enchant- 

 ress acts superbly. We all fell in love 

 with the White" Lawson. As a dark 

 crimson their Daheim is a stunner. 



H. Weber & Sons, of Oakland, Md., 

 sent some of their New Iteybreak, a 

 fine flower and of the most chaste and 

 delicate pink imaginable. W. J. Pal- 

 mer, Buffalo, sent the Ked Lawson. It 

 took our eye and our heart. What a 

 splendid trio this Lawson family is, red, 

 white and pink, identical in everything 

 except color, and all colors excellent. 

 Fred Burki got up in meeting and de- 

 clared that the Lawson was the best all 

 around carnation ever raised. 



John E. Haines, of Bethlehem, sent his 

 namesake, also Juno, Imperial, Star of 

 Bethlehem and No. 77. The variety 

 named John E. Haines is a magnificent 

 scarlet, big, perfect flowers, of firm, last- 

 ing texture and on stiflT, long stems. Im- 

 perial is a variegated, large, of good 

 form and texture, long, stiff stem and 

 excellent keeping qualities. The Star 

 of Bethlehem is a pretty yellow. 



E. Witterstaetter, of pincinnati, 

 showed his magnificent Cardinal; it is 

 a beauty. Charles Frueh & Son, Sagi- 

 naw, Mich., showed their pretty seed- 

 ling. No. 115. The Thompson Co., Joliet, 

 sent big blooms of Estelle and Fisher. 



Bassett & Washburn, Chicago, sent a 

 great sheaf of as fine IMme. Chatenay 

 roses as one could wish to see. The 

 flowers were superb, stems stiff as pokers 

 up to the neck and foliage excellent. It 

 is now Sunday night, and three of these 

 roses on my table are still fresh, beauti- 

 ful and firm, but their stems have been 

 shortened. 



And now for disappointment. Don't 

 swear; we already have done that. 

 Three of the finest "exhibits didn't reach 

 Pittsburg until Wednesday morning, the 

 day after the club meeting. These were 

 from Peter Fisher, the Cottage Gardens 

 and Dorner & Sons Co. Peter Fisher 'a 

 box contained fine blooms of Nelson Fish- 

 er and Mrs. M. A. Patten. From the 

 Cottage Gardens came The President, 

 Ethel Ward, Judge Hinsdale and a large 

 number of seedlings. From Dorner & 

 Sons Co. came The Belle and Lady Boun- 

 tiful. Every bloom in these three lots 

 was simply perfection. 



But they were not lost, ^^'e unpacked 

 the boxes and cared for the flowers, and 

 on Thursday evening exhibited them at 

 the meeting of the Botanical Society of 

 Western Pennsylvania in the large lecture 

 room of the Carnegie Institute. All of 

 the other carnations from distant grow- 

 ers that were at the Florists' Club and 

 in sood condition, likewise the Chatenay 

 roses, were also exhibited before this so- 

 ciety. Fortunately, it was the biggest 

 meeting we ever had of the Botanical 

 Society, completely filling the large lec- 

 ture room. The members simply "went 

 wild" over the flowers. At 10 o'clock 

 a committee was appointed to distribute 

 the blooms among the audience, and if 

 you ever saw happy people in your life 

 these were they. 



At the botanical meeting the subject 

 was "Ferns." Every species indigenous 

 in Pennsylvania was shown. Henry H. 

 Negley collected and sent north to us 

 over forty species from southern Florida. 



The Phipps Conservatories furnished 

 plants of every genus within its walls. 

 Henry A. Dreer sent the rare water 

 fern, ceratopteris, and from Fairmount 

 park and the University of Pennsylvania 

 came filmy ferns. Miss Oberly, an artist, 

 'exhibited some of her handiwork in cera- 

 mics and Madge Irvin, the artist, had a 

 beautiful study of ferns and carnations 

 in oil painting for this meeting and 

 presented it to the president. 



Di-. J. F. Shafer, of 1044 S. Negley 

 avenue, an interested member, has invit- 

 ed the society out to his home next 

 Thursday evening, March 24. to see his 

 orchids and have a good time. And 

 ,you bet we are going. The doctor has 

 the largest collection of orchids between 

 the Alleghanies and Chicago, particular- 

 ly of curiosities among orchids, and a 

 great many of them are now in bloom. 



F. 



PROPAGATING THE DAHLIA. 



As the dahlia has now become one of 

 the principal flowers, the subject of the 

 best method of propagation seems to 

 have become a burning question with the 

 trade. Different growers seem to have 

 their own particular ideas, but beneath 

 the facts of the case are oftentimes dis- 

 cerned some particular reason for the 

 diverging views. I shall, therefore, try 

 to give the plain facts based on nineteen 

 years ' experience. 



The first method, of course, was by 

 seed. This was the quickest and cheap- 

 est method, and as there were no double 

 varieties, very satisfactory results were 

 given; but as particularly /fine sorts 

 were developed these were saved and 

 were increased by division of roots, and 

 where these divisions could not be made 

 to a single eye, the extra shoots were 

 carefully removed and grafted on to 

 tubers of less desirable varieties. Later 

 it was found that it was not necessary 

 to graft these young shoots on to other 

 tubers, and the method of grafting, 

 therefore, fell into disuse, as it was a 

 much quicker operation to simply smooth 

 the cutting off and place in sand. 



I would state, iowever, that for many 

 years after grc ' "g shoots into tubers 

 of less desiraK Enchieties had been prac- 

 tically abandontroit byes and portions of 



tubers were st-^^ serted on very large 



tubers in order t, g«t a stronger growth. 

 Even this practite tas now been aband- 

 oned, excepting Jot experience and pleas- 

 ure. Propagation by seed has also been 

 abandoned, except to produce new vari- 

 eties. We therefore come down to the 

 two principal methods of propagation, 

 by division of roots and by cuttings. 



Division of Roots. 



The dahlia is really a tuberous-rooted 

 plant and not a bulb or tuber in the 

 strictest sense of the word, the eyes being 

 formed on the crown to which the tubers 

 ai-e attached. In many cases the necks 

 of the tubers are so short that in break- 

 ing off, or being pulled apart, eyes are 

 attached to the end of the tuber. In 

 other cases, the crown enlarges and ex- 

 tends in the form of a shoulder on the 

 end of a tuber, and in this case the 

 tuber can easily be removed with eyes, 

 but generally the division must be made 

 right through the crown, removing a sec- 

 tion of the crown containing an eye or 

 eyes. In dividing care must be taken 

 that the neck connecting the tubers with 

 the crown is not broken or twisted, so 

 as to obstruct the passage of the nour- 

 ishment from the tubers to the eye, as it 



is the duty of the tuber to keep the 

 crown and eyes nourished. If the tubers 

 are all removed from the crown, the 

 eyes will shrivel and wither, while if the 

 tuber is detached, it will keep itself in 

 perfect condition under almost all con- 

 ditions. In many varieties of dahlias, 

 particularly in many of the single vari- 

 eties, the tuber is connected by long, 

 slender necks; sometimes a heavy tuber 

 weighing a half-pound will be connected 

 by a slender stem or neck several inches 

 long, to the crown, in which case they 

 are very hard to handle, as all tubers 

 with broken stems or necks are abso- 

 lutely worthless and might as well be cut 

 off. ■ 



The division of roots can be done at 

 any time after harvesting in the fall un- 

 til planting time in the spring, by experi- 

 enced growers, but amateurs or begin- 

 ners should wait until the eyes become 

 prominent, which will insure every divi- 

 sion having eyes. A great many disap- 

 pointments have had their origin in the 

 belief that every portion of the crown 

 contains eyes, and all that is necessary is 

 to divide up the clumps with simpl,y a 

 section of the crown attached to the 

 tubers. Tliis is a policy, however, that 

 will never be tried the second time. The 

 number of divisions to be made on each 

 clump depends entirely upon the variety. 

 Some varieties make but few eyes, and 

 of course the number of divisions would 

 depend entirely on the number of strong, 

 uninjured tubers and the number of eyes 

 on the crown. 



The divided tubers can be planted 

 at any time after the danger of freezing 

 is over, as they are placed in the ground 

 and covered completely from two to six 

 inches, according to the ideas of the 

 grower. As the propagation by division 

 of roots is comparatively slow, that is 

 in the way of producing large quantities, 

 or for new varieties, it is only used on 

 the standard sorts; but to offset this, it 

 is by far the cheaper method. 



Propagati'^n by Cuttings. 



This method is the exact reverse of the 

 preceding. While all that is required in 

 the former being a sharp knife and a 

 sharp hatchet or cleaver to cut through 

 the heavy stems, this method is a science 

 in itself, as the result depends entirely 

 upon the care, attention and ability of 

 the propagator. The roots are placed 

 in the stock bench in soil about one- 

 third well rotted manure, and the other 

 two-thirds should be well rotted sod, 

 these being well mixed together, and an 

 application of bone thoroughly worked 

 through. This is to supply strong, 

 sturdy, vigorous cuttings without ex- 

 hausting the bulbs. 



As feeding roots are sent out from 

 the bulbs, this is accomplished and if 

 they are kept fairly dry, the cuttings 

 will come strong during the entire sea- 

 son. That this stock is not weakened by 

 propagation, we bear out in practice 

 every way, by showing as fine a crop of 

 blooms on our old stock roots as can be 

 found in the country. We are aware 

 that many propagators use poor soil in 

 their stock benches, but this will not give 

 the best results. The very best houses 

 are also required for the cuttings, and 

 pure sand about three inches deep should 

 be placed on the benches, firmly packed. 



When the cuttings have developed 

 about three pair of leaves, they should be 

 cut, the leaves shortened, and planted in 

 the sand of the cutting house or cutting 

 bench with a dibble. Here, again, jiWg- 

 ment must be exercised, as the large 



