April 21, 1004. 



The Weekly Florists' Review, 



1149 



MISCELLANEOUS 

 SEASONABLE HINTS. 



The Use of Cold Frames and Hotbeds. 



From now till the end of May all our 

 linns that deal in bedding plants will 

 lie gradually growing more congested 

 and every week will see them seeking 

 more space for the rapid growth of the 

 soft-wooded plants at this time of year. 

 In the torpid and hibernating winter- 

 time all nature takes a rest and when 

 the melting snows are welcomed by 

 mother earth and the blue bird and 

 robin tell us with melody that spring 

 is with us again, then also takes place 

 a most marvelous division and subdi- 

 vision of the protoplasm and then, 

 ngain, the poet sings: 



A young man's fancy lightlv turns 

 To thoughts of — soft lioiled eggs. 



Some ancient scribe said that in the 

 springtime the young man's fancy 

 turned to love. He was partly wrong. 

 The young man, and the old man ditto. 

 is, and always will be, susceptible of 

 love at any time of year, and the 

 writer has experienced that the lower 

 the quicksilver in the thermometer the 

 higher was the warmth of his whole 

 being and his ardent wish to do a fel- 

 low being a good turn. 



This is, however, not what I was in- 

 tending to say, except that when spring 

 comes there is a marvelous awakening 

 of all nature. But it is not marvelous 

 simply because it is nature. If the 

 awakening began in the. fall it would 

 be marvelous, but we intelligent beings 

 have sufficient appreciation that it is 

 good _ and blessed. If we were born 

 to exist in steam heat we should think 

 that was blessed. The Eskimo thinks 

 there is no climate like the frigid north. 

 The European born in Calcutta or Cey- 

 lon, when on a visit to temperate Eu- 

 rope, pines to return to his or her na- 

 tive torrid zone, and so you have tl\.' 

 whole world satisfied. 



And Now to Business. 



I don 't relish descending from philos- 

 ophy to cultural notes of our common 

 plants, but I must. You can help your 

 crowded houses very much by the judi- 

 cious use of cold frames and, better 

 stiU, by hotbeds. Before the wide- 

 spread use of hot water or steam- 

 heated houses for the forcing of early 

 vegetables, the hotbeds were made great 

 use of and were a most important aiii 

 in that branch of gardening. I do not 

 advocate any such laborious arrange- 

 ments as those that a vegetable grower 

 of thirty years ago used to practice, 

 when he began to collect his material 

 in February and early in March started 

 his lettuce or cucumbers and for many 

 succeeding weeks had to keep a most 

 vigilent care of them. 



But I do believe in a foot or eighteen 

 inches of Tvell trodden down stable 

 manure, with five or six inches of loam 

 over it, as a grand place for several 

 of our important bedding plants for 

 the month of May. Stable manure is 

 as good as anything. If leaves of the 



last fall are mixed with it, well and 

 good, and, if your neighbors don't ob- 

 ject, there is no fermenting material 

 better than refuse hops from a brewery. 



What to Put in Hotbeds. 



We seldom make use of these hot- 

 beds before May 1, about the time we 

 feel the greatest need of more bench 

 room. There is something about the 

 condition of a mild hotbed that makes 

 many plants actually jump, but not all 

 plants need that stimulant. What to 

 put there and what to keep in the houses 

 is the question. Broadly speaking, plants 

 that want a high temperature and 

 which are slow to grow without it are 

 those that should go into the hotbed. I 

 know of no soft-wooded plants that 

 would not be greatly accelerated in their 

 growth by being plunged in the warm 



like the zonale geranium, should not go 

 into a hotbed, for it would make their 

 growth so rank that they would be very 

 \infit plants for any flower gardening 

 liurpose. 



There is not only a blessing in re- 

 lieving your crowded benches in the use 

 of these primitive greenhouses, but you 

 have the great advantage of removing 

 the sash entirely on warm days, so that 

 the plants become inured to the freer 

 air and sun, wliich the}' will luive to 

 endure in a few weeks. 



The Cold Frame. 



The cold frame is also a most valu- 

 able help at this time of year, and not 

 half as much made use of as it might 

 be. Any plant that will grow and 

 thrive in a night temperature of 50 de- 

 grees will do very well in a cold frame 

 after May 1. Where is there a better 

 place for tea or hybrid tea roses that 

 have been dormant or nearly so all win- 

 ter? Now you want to grow them 

 along slowly before planting out. 



1 don't think I am intruding on either 

 east or west earnationists. all glory to 

 theni. when I say that there will be 

 more houses of carnations planted this 

 year with plants that never saw the 

 fieM than ever before. It is coming, 



Snapdragons on Four-foot Stems, Grown by John Breitmeyer's Sons, Mt Clemens, Mich. 



material of a hotbed, but with many it 

 may force a growth that would unfit 

 them for future use. I have in mind 

 several plants that are by no means 

 tropical and yet when the" fires are let 

 out in May and perhaps the glass madf 

 opaque with whitewash, just linger and 

 stunt. 



In the month of May I would put into 

 these hotbeds, alternantheras. acaly- 

 phas, coleus, tuberous-rooted begonias, 

 iresine and. among the colder-blooded 

 plants, the variegated geraniums, 

 verbenas, lemon verbena, mignonette, 

 heliotrope and others will occur to you. 

 Plants of a strong, succulent nature. 



and many leading growers will not put 

 a plant in the field. They will keep 

 them in 3 or 4-inch pots till the end of 

 May or June and then plant them on 

 the bench, or, better still, beds, and now 

 is not the cold frame a great essential 

 in this case? It is the o'nly place for 

 them. William Scott. 



GIANT ANTIRRHINUM. 



The accompanying illustration is from 

 a photograph of some remarkable snap- 

 dragons grown by John Breitmeyer's 

 Sons at Mt. Clemens, Mich., and cut 

 April 14. They have them in three col- 

 ors, white, yellow and pink, the lattei 



