The Weekly Florists' Review. 



63 



MISCELLANEOUS 

 SEASONABLE HINTS. 



Stock for the Future. 



,\s sunn as yum illslomel's Mower Hells 



and gai 1ms are tilled you have time to 

 think about yum own Btock— some to 

 give you cuttings in the Call and some- 

 thing for next winter's use— and a word 

 en- two about these will be seasonable. 

 It may appear late for Mime, but the 

 man who grows bedding plants seldom 

 lias lime to prepare for his future crops 

 U for, the middle of the month. 



Chrysanthemums. 



If you have any call for chrysanthe- 

 mums in pots in October and November, 

 they should be planted on a bench in 

 four or five inches of soil in the full 

 light of an unshaded house. Plant them 

 fifteen inches apart, and for this pur- 

 pose choose tile propagated plants that 

 are now growing freely and about need 

 their lirst "stop." These will make much 

 better plants than those that were propa- 

 gated three months ago. When they 

 have made a growth they will need one 

 more pinching and by the end of August 

 will be bushy plants. If watered over 

 night they will lift from the bench with- 

 out losing a fiber and make lots of 

 growth after being lifted. Very sorry 

 to .say that few of these pots of mums 

 sell with us nowadays, but they may 

 somewhere, and this is the way to do 

 it. About the last week in August is 

 the time to lift them from the bench. 

 Few varieties are suitable for making a 

 small, compact plant. Choose varieties 

 that make a short, bushy growth. Ivory 

 and W. H. Lincoln, cannot be equaled 

 in their colors for this purpose, but 

 there are others. 



Azaleas. 



You should soon put your azaleas out 

 in the field. Years ago it was thought 

 best to give them the shade of trees or 

 some artificial shading, but that is not 

 what they want. Plunge them to the 

 rim of the pots in refuse hops, old rot- 

 ted manure, tan bark or some material 

 easy to handle. If liberally supplied with 

 water twice a day on hot, sunny days 

 and given a good spraying every even- 

 ing they will grow finely, and you will 

 notice that although you may give them 

 plenty of room when you first plunge 

 them out, they grow- and crowd before 

 September. So give them plenty of 

 room, and make up your mind to give 

 them a stand-over in August. Acacia 

 armata, metrosideros and old plants of 

 cytisus can be plunged under the same 

 conditions, and don't have these plants 

 standing on ground that is liable to re- 

 tain water, for you have to water heav- 

 ily and we get heavy rains. Don't put 

 young cytisus out of doors. Plants prop- 

 igated last winter will do better shift- 

 ed on and kept under glass. These plants 

 are very liable to be troubled with red 

 spider, so spray them often. 



Hydrangeas. 



Hydrangeas are grown in different 



ways. If vou want large plants for next 



year, choose some of the plants that 



have the least flower now. Cut the 



lbs 



member that they become white ele- 

 phants it you don't -ell them and that 

 they are considerable trouble in winter. 

 Young hydrangeas propagated in the 

 winter might have been planted out two 

 or three weeks ago, but it will do now. 

 I hese are what make the 6-inch pot 

 plants for next Easter. Give them a 

 good, rich soil within reach of the hose. 

 Some growers may have them in 4-inch 

 pots now and plunge them out in frames 

 and later shift them into 6-inch. Vet 1 

 think the best blooms are those produced 

 by the plants that are put into the 

 ground and lifted in October. They need 

 only one stopping after being rooted, 

 but that has been done some time ago. 



Stock Plants. 



Another class of plants are those that 

 you want a few of to produce cuttings 

 next winter. Such are the lemon ver- 

 bena and the lantana. A dozen plants 

 of each in 4 or 5-inch pots plunged out 

 in a frame will give you plenty of cut- 

 tings next winter, and they lift poorly 

 when planted out. Plant out a few of 

 everything that you find necessary to 

 your business and don't trust to your 

 neighbor's helping you out, or to getting 

 a few cuttings fioru your customers. If 

 you do, you are liable to have bother. 

 Of many of our common bedding plants 

 you need but very few. Of such plants 

 as salvias and ageratums, half a dozen 

 plants lifted in the fall will give you all 

 you want; while there are others, and 

 notably the zonalc geraniums, thai you 

 must plant out in quantity or \ mi can- 

 not have a good stock to sell next 

 spring. 



Put out plenty of the glorious old 

 geraniums ana not too great a variety. 

 This year in our city the two varieties 

 in greatest demand are S. A. Nutt, deep 

 scarlet, and Francis Perkins, pink. 

 Everybody wants them. A big lot of 

 half a dozen of the best varieties of 

 geraniums is infinitely better than the 

 same quantity in twelve or twenty vari- 

 eties. The sweet person who wants to 

 walk through and select one each of a 

 dozen varieties can then be dispensed 

 with. If you disappoint, them it is not 

 serious. But the one who wants 200 

 plants for one bed is worth catering to. 

 I suppose all are worth accommodating, 

 yet I see this spring the same old weak- 

 ness — thousands of geraniums that the 

 people don't want occupying space that 

 would give what thej do want. Give 

 your stock geraniums lots of room; fif- 

 teen or eighteen inches is close enough, 

 and then you will get good, hard cut- 

 tings. 



Plant out plenty of spring struck vin- 

 eas, both the variegated and green. They 

 are the great standby for boxes and 

 vases. The English ivy planted out now 

 will make a good plant by fall and can 

 lie lifted, potted and put beneath a bench 

 in winter. They are good foi rase! 



and for windy and exposed places, but 

 our customers think they are stiff, and 

 so they are. 



Besides the great and important ear- 

 nation, which is so important that I 

 hope you don't neglect it for anything 

 else, and which with most of us are 

 growing in the field, there are a few 

 other things to plant out. The sweet 

 stevia (S. serrata) can't be dispensed 

 with, ai least by many of us. Give 

 it n, , l over rich' soil or it will grow 

 too rank, and plant it two feet apart 

 each way. It needs two or three pinch- 

 ings during the summer. It is much 

 less labor planted out than grown in 

 pots, and it is the only species of the 

 stevia and eupatoriums worth growing; 

 the rest are too cheap looking. 



Bouvardias, which may still be in 24- 

 inch pots, should have the best and 

 richest piece of loam in the garden. 

 The little, slim growth they have made 

 since they were propagated from the 

 tiny pieces of root does not amount to 

 anything. Thej- will make strong 

 growths from beneath the ground, which 

 is the flowering wood for next winter. 

 It pays well to water the bouvardias. 

 I am no advocate of this outdoor water- 

 ing unless done with discretion and 

 gumption. There is about as much harm 

 as good done with this foolish and use- 

 less sprinkling. Hoe, hoe, hoe in dry 

 weather if you can't water, and if you 

 can water them once a week, such 

 plants as bouvardias may get a soaking, 

 and then before the ground is baked hoe 

 them and leave them all alone for an- 

 other week. This sprinkling without 

 hoeing is far worse than drought. 



William Scott. 



CHRYSANTHEMUMS. 



Single Stem Pot Plants. 



Single stem pot plants, in G-inch pots, 

 are one of the most attractive features 

 of an exhibition when well grown. I 

 notice the C. S. A. makes a fair pro- 

 vision for them in its prize list for this 

 fall, and they are always much in evi- 

 dence at the Philadelphia show. While 

 some growers propagate their stock to- 

 ward the end of May for this style of 

 pot plants, any time in June is really 

 early enough if one has good cuttings; 

 in fact, I prefer a June cutting, be- 

 cause if propagated too soon the plants 

 get too tall, and the lower foliage dies 

 away, leaving a bare stem next the pot. 

 The ideal plant has foliage hanging over 

 the pot and right up to the flower and 

 is not over two feet high. The offi- 

 cial scale of points in judging this class 

 gives a preference, if I recall correctly, 

 to plants under three feet in height. 



Varieties that grow dwarf and sturdy 

 are best adapted for this work. In 

 the novelties Marie Liger, C. J. Salter, 

 Mrs. T. W. Pockett and Lord Salisbury 

 can be depended on, if their growth last 

 year is anything to go by. Among the 

 standard sorts Robinson, Nellie Pockett. 

 Appleton, Bonnaffon (if you can still 

 get it good), Merza, Viviand-Moiel and 

 E. J. Balfour can all be depended on. 

 One of the prettiest sights 1 ever saw- 

 was a batch of Merza at an exhibition 

 last year. They were not over a foot 

 high, each plant the same height, and 

 each flower apparently east in the same 

 mold. 



It has often occurred to me that there 

 ought to be money for the florist who 

 grows and sells his ,wn stock over the 

 countei in handling i his par! icular class 



