1206 



The Weekly Florist?' Review. 



April 2S, 1904. 



prices those that he is compelled to lose 

 more than counterbalance his profits. 

 He will find that if he has a small house 

 of his own for immediate use he can 

 make them pay their general averajje 

 in his profits on the whole establish- 

 ment. It will be necessary for him to 

 bestow the same constant care on his 

 violft house as he does on his rose, car- 

 nation and other houses, being ever alert 

 that they are in no wise necrlected or un- 

 cared for, as they will be more certain 

 to show it than the other houses do, if 

 possible, although they all must have the 

 care in order to have the best results. 



A General Grower's Beginning. 



If you have come to the cletermiuation 

 to grow a house for yourself, it is 

 time that you were planning for it, get- 

 ting any repairing done that may be 

 needed, all the old woodwork removed 

 and old soil cleared out. Then treat 

 the paths and borders to a good liberal 

 coat of fresh lime, too heavy to be called 

 a dusting, and syringe heavily enough 

 to slack the same, letting it lie several 

 days. If it is possible close the house 

 tightly and fumigate heavily with sul- 



phur, once at least, and twice would be 

 better, with a few days intervening. 

 Then give all the woodwork a good 

 painting. All of this in order that the 

 house may be in the best of shape for 

 your violets when you get ready tc 

 plant the house. 



What I have said refers to the grower 

 who has to convert to violets a house 

 that he has been using for other pur 

 poses. Of course, where you can do so 

 I would by all means advise building 

 a new house especially for them, one 

 great reason being that they seem to de- 

 light in new quarters. However, I should 

 not hesitate to try the other quarters if 

 this were not possible. 



Do I hear you say that you have no 

 house suitable? Perhaps, still we have 

 tried them in nearly all styles of houses 

 and find that vou can grow them with 

 care in any of them, only you will have 

 to adapt your cultural care to the ex- 

 posure and style of house, and if I 

 wanted to grow them I should not let 

 this stand in my way, only be sure that 

 you take a house that has plenty of 

 ventilation, as this is very essential. 



E. E. Shuphelt. 



CARNATION NOTES.- WEST. 



Indoor Summer Culture. 

 I just want to say that if you aie 

 going to grow some of your carnations 

 inside this summer, it will pay you to pet 

 them planted just as soon as you can. 

 The end of April or the first half of 

 May I consider the best time to plant 

 them. It is not so hot then as it is in 

 June or later and there is no doubt 

 about the carnation liking a cool tem- 

 perature to take hold and start growing. 

 If you put up your soil last fall you vrill 

 have good soU to plant in, but if you 

 neglected it last fall, and had none left 

 last summer, you will hardly be in shape 

 to give your carnations a good show. 

 Better plant them in the field and house 

 them as early as you can. 



A few years ago, when Jubilee first 

 came out we planted our JubUees on 

 the benches in the spring. It worked so 

 well that we jumped to the conclusion 

 that indoor culture was the proper way 

 of growing 'lamations, regardless of va- 

 riety. We tried other varieties but found 

 that in most cases our success was not 

 so good as when the plants were out in 

 the field a couple or three months. They 

 get a sturdy growth on them in the field 

 that we have never been able to get 

 inside on most varieties. After that we 

 confined the indoor culture to such vari- 

 ties as Jubilee and Bradt and a few oth- 

 ers that transplant poorly. Most of them 

 have been discarded and now we plant 

 only Mrs. Lawson on the beds in the 

 spring. 



I do not think that we will ever plant 

 all our carnations inside from pots, but 

 only such varieties as transplant poorly. 

 That it pays to handle such varieties in 

 that maimer I am sure, but I feel equally 



certain that if there is any gain in indoor 

 culture for most varieties, it is not 

 enough to compensate you for throwing 

 out all the old plants before June in 

 order to replant. And if you want to 

 give your plants the very best show, 

 you should have them aU planted by May 

 20. The advantages in indoor culture 

 would have to be quite considerable to 

 make us willing to sacrifice the blooms 

 we cut during May and June and for 

 which we find a ready sale. Just now 

 our bed of Lawson is giving us a big 

 cut of as fine blooms as any we could 

 ask for and we would hate to throw them 

 away for at least six weeks yet. 



A. F. J Bauk. 



RUST AND THRIPS. 



I send with this a Lawson carnatiou 

 bud, also some leaves affected with some- 

 thing I win call rust. The leaves are 

 from our Glacier plants. These plants 

 have not done at all well this winter, tho 

 stems being short and weak and the 

 foliage very bad. We have Lawsons 

 next to them in the bed which are not 

 affected at all. The cuttings taken front 

 them are the same way, only getting 

 worse. As a remedy we have put on two 

 or three strong applications of Bordeaux 

 mixture besides giving them a good 

 spraying with kerosene emulsion just a 

 day or two ago. We also notice that 

 about fifty feet farther down in the 

 house, which is 100 feet long, there are 

 some Daybreak that are getting the 

 same disease. Also on the side bench in 

 same house our young stock of Glacier, 

 Peru, Enchantress, Daybreak and others 

 are coming to the same thing. Now 1 

 want you to tell me what can be done 

 for these carnations in order to clear 

 the house of this rust, for we think we 

 have a pretty bad case. 



And about the Lawson bud. you will 

 notice that its petals have white spots on 



them similar to those described in your 

 valuable paper as made by thrips. Our 

 entire Lawson crop shows the work of 

 thrips, if that is what it is. In order to 

 cheek this we tiied smoking six times a 

 week for three weeks, except one night, 

 and burning cayenne pepper in the house 

 for half a dozen nights, besides, using 

 three eighteen-pound packages in the 100- 

 foot house. After this was aU done our 

 regular weekly smoking was continued till 

 now. We could see no marked improve- 

 ment in our blossoms. There are other 

 varieties in the same house which seem to 

 be hardly affected at all. We would like 

 to know if there is any way of getting 

 rid of this pest. The smoking was made 

 very strong, using three pans. We spray 

 the entire bed often, have good sun and 

 good ventilation. J. W. M. 



The leaves you sent are badly affected 

 with common carnation rust. Glacier 

 seems to be quite a favorite with this 

 disease, and so does Daybreak. The 

 latter was always sure to have some rust 

 on it as long as we have grown it. This 

 disease is not feartd so much, by the 

 expert carnation grower, as it was ten 

 years ago. Bordeaux mixture and ker- 

 osene emulsion will not help you much 

 in fighting it, but dusting your plauts 

 with air slaked Hme and syringing only 

 enough to keep off red spider will check 

 it materially. Pick off all the badly 

 affected leaves before dusting the plants. 

 Unless the plants are too weakened they 

 will grow free from it in a little while 

 after being planted in the open ground. 

 If you could keep the plants dry overhead 

 all winter you would have very little trou- 

 ble with this disease, as it remains dor- 

 mant as long as it is kept perfectly dry, 

 which of course is impossible to do in a 

 greenhouse in the winter. Excessive 

 syringing will aggravate it, and especially 

 if the plants are in a weakened condition. 



The bud of Lawson showed those white 

 and brown spots we too often see on 

 this variety at this time of the year. 

 While I believe that Mr. Thrips is re- 

 sponsble for these to a certain extent, I 

 a.lso think that the hot sun is responsible 

 for at least half of the damage. During 

 the winter there may be many thrips in 

 your house, and they will cause white 

 spots on your Lawsons and some of the 

 red varieties, but the spots do not turn 

 brown like they do at this season. The 

 thrips bruise the petal and then the hot 

 sun burns the bruised parts. J. W. M. 

 does not say just when he did the smok- 

 ing, but I presume it was while the pres- 

 ent crop of buds was on the plants. If 

 it was as recent as any time during this 

 month it is too early to expect the blooms 

 to be free from the spots. The half open 

 bud may have been bruised several weeks 

 ago, as the thrips are very tiny and they 

 work themselves between the petals long 

 before the buds begin to show color. I 

 would smoke only a couple of times each 

 week, and put a good shade on the glass 

 over the Lawsons and see if that does 

 not help matters a good deal. Do not 

 make the shade too dense, but just 

 enough to break the force of the sun. 

 Give them plenty of water and ventila- 

 tion. " A. V. J. Baitr. 



CRICKETS ON CARNATIONS. 



Please tell me how to get rid of the 

 crickets that eat my carnations. They 

 are very active and difiicult to catch. 



T. T. 



We have never been troubled by crick- 

 ets eating our carnations, but if they 



