312 



The Weekly Florists' Review. 



think, give you larger flowers. In 

 addition to the six or seven inches of 

 soil which you remove and replenish, 

 dig down another six inches and work in 

 a lot of well-rotted manure. The roots 

 will go down to the cool depth and pay 

 you for the labor. Don't use much ani- 

 mal manure and only that which i- very 

 well rotted in the surface -nil. but use 

 fine bone meal. We pu1 a let of Im- 

 perial violets out of door- in Hat- early 

 in June and the almost continual show- 

 -i.iiiii. night* have given them a 

 tine let oi spot. Those kept under glass 

 are perfectly free from it. and so it goes. 

 However spot is not such a formidable 

 enemy. They quickly recover from it; 

 only it weaken- the plant The misera- 

 ble little black aphis i- the violet's great- 

 est curse and he succumbs to the right 

 kind of tobacco dust or the cyanide gas. 

 William Scott. 



CHRYSANTHEMUMS. 



Watering and Syringing. 



Planting i- finished with most growers 

 and the usual routine of work is now in 

 order. The young plants when they are 

 established and growing freely will take 

 lots of water, though at no time should 

 they have so much that the soil gets 

 sour and a green scum forms on it. With 

 some soils that are heavy in texture this 

 scum forms much more quickly than on 

 lighter and more porous soil, though it 

 can be obviated by lightly scratching up 

 the surface of the beds once a week, 

 which will keep things sweet and allow 

 the air to penetrate. 



The plants should be sprayed over two 

 or three times a day during hot weather 

 and the paths and roof should be sprayed 

 at the same time, to keep down the tem- 

 perature. If the weather has been cloudy 

 for several days, it will be noticed that 

 the plants will wilt more or less when 

 the sun comes out again. At such a time 

 it will pay to syringe frequently, to keep 

 the foliage from scalding until the plant- 

 are again accustomed to the bright sun- 

 light. 



Ventilation and Supports. 



Always leave the full air on, night as 

 well as day. Prop the doors open, and if 



Running strings up to a wire, strung 

 along well up over the plants, i- the 

 method quite generally adopted and it is 

 a cheap and fairly satisfactory method. 

 Personally we prefer to use wire stakes, 

 supporting them by wires running length- 

 wise of the house, catching the stakes 

 about half way up. With the stakes tied 

 to these wire's you have a support that 

 will not sag with the weight when the 

 plants get large and heavy, nor will it 

 get tangled or upset, no matter how 

 heavy you may syringe. The first cost of 

 the .stake- is a large item to the average 

 grower, but once bought they will last 

 practically for a lifetime if taken care of. 



Disbudding. 



Many varieties are producing bud- 

 and these, of course, must be rubbed oil. 

 When this is done, the plant produces 

 three or four shoots from the tip, and of 

 these the best looking shoot may be re- 

 tained, to continue on, and form the stem. 

 The others should all be removed. It is 

 best not to keep the shoot that comes 

 right next to the bud. as this sometimes 

 makes a short growth of several joints 

 and then produces another bud. The sec- 

 ond shoot will generally make the best 

 stem, if retained. Do not let the super- 

 fluous shoots get too long before pinching 

 them off and pinch them off close; then 

 the retained shoot comes away clean and 

 straight, and a slightly thickened joint 

 is the only indication after the growth 

 is completed that a bud was produced at 

 that point. 



Side shoots and suckers should be kept 

 closely removed from the plants. It is 

 simple work and often neglected, but it 

 should be remembered that every super- 

 fluous shoot a plant produces means that 

 a certain amount of energy has been di- 

 verted from its proper channel. If this 

 work is done often it takes little time, 

 comparatively. The suckers should be 

 removed as one runs over the bed loosen- 

 ing the soil and with this, as with any 

 other job. it pays to keep ahead of your 



wirk. 



Insects. 



Insects are. as usual, putting in an 

 appearance, and from now on consider- 

 able watching is necessary to keep every- 



you have side or bottom ventilators, and 

 sit to have them in a chrysanthe- 

 mum house, leave them open also. The 

 cool night air is just what the plants 

 love, as one can tell by the way the leaves 

 stand out from the stem, and their crisp, 

 leathery feel to the touch. 



Before the plants begin to lay around 

 they should be supported in some manner 

 or the stems will get crooked, and it is 

 a hard job to get them into shape again. 



thing in shape. Caterpillars are perhaps 

 i he wor-t. as they disfigure the foliage so 

 much. When they are so numerous that 

 hand picking is too much of a job, Paris 

 green diluted down to a small teaspoon- 

 ful in a pail of water may be sprayed on 

 the undersides of the' leaves. Paris 

 green is best applied in the evening or 

 on a dull day, as if applied in the sun- 

 light it will burn the tender foliage. 

 Much work can often be avoided if one 



keeps a close watch, and where a leaf is 

 just beginning to get eaten up the young 

 colony of caterpillars can be removed be- 

 fore they have scattered over the plant. 

 There is a green striped bug looking 

 something like the cucumber beetle that 

 causes havoc on the young foliage in some 

 sections. A weak preparation of whale 

 oil soap sprayed over the tips of the 

 shoots will make thing- so unpleasant 

 that this bug will often take his depart- 

 ure elsewhere. Brian Boru. 



CARNATION NOTES-EAST. 



Syringing and Watering. 



In connection with the housing of 

 stock, it is well to stud}" the change which 

 the plants must undergo in getting es- 

 tablished in their new quarters. Plants 

 fresh from the field where they have been 

 subject to heavy rains, dews and more 

 or less handling in planting have a cer- 

 tain raw appearance, due to the foliage 

 lacking that bluish bloom so necessary 

 to their perfect health. 



Syringing and watering play an im- 

 portant part in reaching the desired end 

 and these operations must be done intelli- 

 gently and not in a careless, routine way. 

 In syringing as a help to the establish- 

 ment of plants, do not use the amount 

 or force of water you would to dislodge 

 red spider, but let it be in the form of 

 a heavy mist, descending evenly over the 

 plant. " This leaves undisturbed what 

 bloom is on the foliage and no plants are 

 toppled over. Use no more water than 

 is needed to give the appearance of a 

 heavy dew having fallen. It is not the 

 amount of water but the way it is used 

 that produces the right effect. 



The practice of watering a newly- 

 planted bench to the point of saturation, 

 or so that water runs through the bot- 

 tom, is not to be commended any more 

 than the shifting of plants from 2- inch 

 to 8-inch pots. Remember the course of 

 water when applied to soil is not only 

 downward but by capillary attraction is 

 carried outward in the natural direction 

 taken by the roots. Thus it will be seen 

 it is only the soil immediately surround- 

 ing the stem of the plant that needs to 

 be watered, or at most a narrow furrow 

 across the bench. As soon as signs of 

 growth appear, the depression or furrow 

 should be filled in with loose soil from 

 between the rows. 



In the case of varieties known to be 

 susceptible to stem-rot during this try- 

 ing period, we have found that when cov- 

 ering in around the plant with loose soil 

 it is a good plan to make a furrow be- 

 tween the rows and water in this only 

 until the plants are well on their way. 



Weather conditions here have some- 

 what delayed our planting, but those 

 housed early in July have come along 

 nicely, especially Enchantress, which with 

 us has taken hold of the soil very quickly 

 after benching. Its behavior thus far has 

 been all that we could ask, but the end 

 is not yet. Geo. S. Osbor>\ 



CARNATION NOTES- WEST. 



A little experience we had two years 

 ago, which may be of interest to some 

 and which may save you some time, hap- 

 pened about the end of our planting. The 

 summer had been very dry. as all those 

 in this vicinity will remember, and many 

 delayed planting until we might have 

 some rain to freshen up the plants, which 

 looked wilted every day. We waited, along 



