Makch 31, 1904. 



The Weekly Florists' Review. 



985 



MISCELLANEOUS 

 SEASONABLE HINTS. 



After the Stoim, the Sun, 



Few floi-ists ■nill have much time to 

 read until the Easter rush is over. Then 

 there will be breathing time, extreme 

 satisfaction -nith the general result, we 

 hojie, and a new order of work and crops 

 will engage each one's mind and energy. 



Utilizing Left-Over Stock. 



Very few of the plants we grow for 

 Easter that may be left unsold are worth 

 the room and care to carry them over for 

 another year, yet there are some which 

 are. Let us look over the list. It will 

 depend somewhat on conditions. If you 

 have an abundance of deep, rich, easily 

 worked land at your service you might 

 save the bulbs of tulips, hyacinths and 

 narcissi. After drying them off in the 

 flats, store them away till next October 

 or November and then plant them out. 

 The.v will give you flowers of a certain 

 quality, yet the.y are now cut off so close 

 to the bulb, just when the foliage shouM 

 be nourishing a formation of the new 

 flowering bulb, that it is hardly worth 

 bothering with these old forced bulbs. 

 For .years we have dumped the flats in 

 the back yard, where a small army of old 

 women bring their fingers and a basket 

 and leave the soil in good condition t(' 

 sell for surfacing lawna. 



We have never tried planting out thf 

 bulbs of the Japan longiflorum, but w? 

 have often done this with LUium Har- 

 risU, that is, with plants that were not 

 cut down too close to the pots, and they 

 have thrown up a good flowering stem in 

 July or August. 



Some Useless Plants. 



Primula obconica has with us been j 

 most useful late winter and Easter plant. 

 This ends them; unless they are plants 

 of phenomenal color or size of florets 

 don 't think of saving them. They are 

 better in every way, particularly in cost, 

 when raised from seed. And just now is 

 a good time to sow. Remember I am 

 speaking of plants only that you may 

 have left over, from one cause or an- 

 other. 



Rhododendrons are perfectly useless to 

 us. In many localities they could be 

 planted out as hardy shrubs. There is 

 so much lime in our soil that the only 

 use we could make of a once forced 

 rhododendron, kalmia or Azalea mollis 

 would be to present it to a customer we 

 had a grude against. The cytisus is too 

 cheap a plant to carry over, unless it be 

 a very few, and if you do that let them 

 be entirely out of flower and then cut 

 back quite hard. Cut them back into 

 shape and give them a night tempera- 

 ture of 50 degrees and they will mak.'> 

 large plants for next year. 



A Plant Worth Saving. 



Acacia armata is worth saving when 

 the flower is quite gone. Say in three 

 or four weeks cut the last summer's 

 growth back to within three inches of 

 the previous year 's growth and they will 



break and make a new growth that will 

 make the flowering wood for nest year. 

 The metrosideros, or bottle brush, re- 

 quires just about the same treatment. 



In treating these shrubs (for shrubs 

 they are, in their native clime) after 

 flowering we must not starve them for 

 want of heat or water, for after the 

 cutting down they make the growth 

 which is to produce the flowers of next 

 season, as do our hardy shrubs, such as 

 the lilac, in the months of June and 

 July. 



I scarcely like to say anything about 

 Crimson Rambler roses, yet there may 

 be a few plants of these left and if cut 

 down the.v will make several strong 

 growths from the base of the plant, which 

 if encouraged to grow and given a shift 

 two months later, would make great 

 plg^ts for another year. 



1 have seen Astilbe (Spiraea) japonic.^ 

 planted out in several places but it does 

 not amount to anything. Perhaps if you 



any unsold plants, cut them down to 

 within five or six inches of the pot, give 

 them light and heat and they will make 

 a growth and with plenty of root room 

 will make large plants for another year, 

 too large for any greenhouse forcing un- 

 less you have an unusual demand. The 

 hydrangeas rooted this last January or 

 February are the plants for Easter. 



The Azaleas. 



And now we come to the azalea, I think 

 today the most popular plant we have 

 and the one above all others that it pays 

 to give the best of care to the left-over 

 plants. Year after year our finest flow- 

 ered plants, particularly the large sizes, 

 are plants that we have had one or two 

 years. The azaleas we import from Bel- 

 gium are all grown in peat and are potted 

 when they reach here in quite a different 

 soil, for peat is found only in a few 

 localities. But peat is not essential to 

 azaleas, only that being grown in that 

 soil they do not take quickly to the loam 

 that we of necessity have to give them. 

 If given a mixture of loam and leaf soil 

 when received in the fall, and the drain- 

 age of the pot is air right, they will 

 thrive in the same pot for three or four 

 years. When the bloom is gone and the 

 foliage is healthy and abundant, shorten 

 back all the growth about half its length. 



If you wish the plant to have that 

 rcnuided shape, which almost all the im- 



Brtardiff Greenhouses' First Prue Vase of Beauties at Philadelphia. 



had a cool, moist, black muck you might 

 make it a profitable herbaceous plant, 

 but I have never seen it such, and cut 

 down plants, which you are sure to have 

 plenty of, should be consigned to the 

 diunp pile. 



Hyrlrangea Otaksa soon grows to be 

 young "white elephants" and they must 

 be well-grown and sell at a good price to 

 be profitable. If you want to grow on 



ported plants have, then you cut back the 

 growths to an even surface. But a good 

 many prefer a plant of an irregular or 

 more natural form. If the plant is in a 

 healthy, vigorous state very little cutting 

 back or pinching of the shoots need be 

 done. Merely pinching out the old seed 

 pods will suffice. To repeat, the growth 

 that the azaleas are now making is what 

 later will terminate in a flower bud and 



