The Weekly Florists' Review* 



239 



MISCELLANEOUS 

 SEASONABLE HINTS. 



Summer with the Palms. 

 You are sure to have some benches to 

 spare for the next three months and 

 now is the time to stock up with young 

 palms for fall and winter sales. There 

 has for the past few years been a very 

 slow sale on palms, but they are sure 

 to return to favor, and the representa- 

 tive of the largest palm growing es- 

 tablishment in the country tells me the 

 demand this summer is three times what 

 it was a year ago. Plants that you 

 have had on your own place for a few 

 months are far more satisfactory to your 

 customers than those but recently ar- 

 rived and potted, and they can also be 

 bought to advantage just now, as the 

 growers want the room to shift on and 

 spread out their stock. Palms large 

 enough for decorations should also be 

 procured now. It is a well known fact 

 that large growers of kentias, arecas and 

 latanias hurry up the growth of the 

 plants by heat, shade and moisture. 

 You can't very well blame them; the 

 quicker they can produce a good-sized 

 palm, the more profit for them. But they 

 are not in condition to take out and be 

 subjected to a low temperature, perhaps 

 nearly freezing. So if you need them, 

 get them now and they will have a few 

 months to become acclimated. 



Palms burn easily, either under poor 

 glass or when allowed to get dry, so 

 they are always shaded under glass, but 

 a heavy shade is not what they really 

 should have. The ideal shading would 

 be one that you could apply during the 

 bright, sunny hours of the day and re- 



ve, say, at 4 p. m. and not use at all 



on dull, rainy days. Few commercial 

 florists, however, have such conveniences, 

 and the belt that they can do is 

 to have just shade enough on the glass 

 to keep them from burning, with all the 

 ventilation possible, day and night. 

 While we have settled warm weather, 

 and if the water passes freely through 

 the soil, it is very unlikely that you 

 will ever over-water them. Plenty of 

 syringing is both natural to the palms 

 and keeps the atmosphere humid. 

 Plants for Decorating. 

 Anyone who does many decorations in 

 churches, halls and other places and for 

 various occasions is sure to find on his 

 hands at this time of year, a lot of shop- 

 worn palms. I don't advocate extrava- 

 gance, but you all know that a kentia 

 that has only two perfect leaves left and 

 four or five that are fringed, tattered 

 and torn is no longer any credit to your 

 decorations, and with the best of care 

 and encouragement to grow it will take 

 two years before it is a plant fit to use 

 again, and the room it will occupy and 

 the labor entailed in its care amount to 

 far more than the cost of a perfect plant. 

 Also, there is the upsetting of the "piece 

 of mind." which by no means "passeth 

 our understanding," for we know full 

 well the miserable moments we have en- 

 dured while looking over some scrubs 

 that should have been on the fire heap. 

 So I say, don't hesitate to throw away 

 what is not going to be of use to you 



nit-. 



Boarders. 



To digress a moment, we are not so 

 much bothered with the care of sickly, 

 ruined palms as we used to be, simply be- 

 cause we -peak out more plainly and 

 are less afraid of losing a customer. 

 Still, we are bothered (except the retail 

 storeman) with requests to take home 

 a palm for a month or two "to bring it 

 round." If the palm is in a fair condi- 

 tion and simply needs shifting, do it 

 well and charge enough for it. And 

 there are other cases, as where a family 

 may be shutting up house for a month 

 or two and must ask the florist to care 

 for a few plants until they return. 

 If they are your customers, you can't 

 refuse, hut charge enough. For plants 

 in 5. 6 or 7-inch pots we charge 25 cents 

 each per month. It's worth all of that. 

 And for larger plants we charge 25 

 cents per month for every square foot 

 of bench surface they occupy. That 

 would pay first-rate if we had them for 

 a year, but we don't, and the carting 

 almost always has to be thrown in. 



If a palm is brought to us, or we 

 call for one that is useless, yet which its 

 owner thinks only needs our care to 

 quickly convert it into a "lovely plant," 



Shifting Large Plants. 

 You »ill also have, as well as 

 worn-out palms. some good-sized 

 decorative specimens that are too 

 good in throw away. If they must 

 have a shift, you ran do it now. Re- 

 member that the -mailer the pot or the 

 lull, tlie more handy when the time conies 

 1.. lug them around town. When they 

 need a shift over 10-inch pots, by all 

 means get them into a neat wooden 

 lull. The plants do as well in them, 

 they are light and don't break, and if 

 painted a dark green, need less hiding 

 by other greens in your decorations than 

 the red pots; tubs for all large palms 

 if you please. It is wonderful how 

 large a kentia will thrive in a compara- 

 tively -mall tub. so don't shift unless 

 you are sure they really need it. In 

 large plants they will make such a 

 mass of roots at the bottom of the tub 

 or pot, that the ball of earth and root 

 i- raised considerably. Then they need 

 attention. And in shifting, which in 

 the case of kentias would not be much 

 of an increase in diameter, you can 

 take a sharp hatchet and chop off clean 

 two inches of the bottom roots: they 

 will soon make more. You can also do 

 this with latanias. Arecas are perhaps 

 the most beautiful of all palms for deco- 

 rating, although they are not nearly so 

 good a house palm as the kentia and we 

 -ell nine kentias to one areea. Y'et for 

 decoration they are fine. They will not 

 thrive if cramped at the roots, as you 

 can cramp a kentia or latania, but when 

 they get crowded with roots must be 

 shifted or they will soon have a starved 

 and yellow look. While on the subject 

 of shifting, let me go back to the small 

 plants you may be receiving now. Be 



Pair of Phoenix Canariensis in a California Garden. 



tell him or her, mostly her. that it will 

 take three years to make it a present- 

 able plant and cost twice as much as a 

 similar sized good palm can be bought 

 for. You can't tell what is passing 

 through their thoughts at this valuable 

 information, but if you "be gentle and 

 keep your voice low" they will not argue 

 the question but coincide, and the place 

 is not encumbered and disgraced with 

 runts and scrubs. 



careful not to give any palms too much 

 of a shift, particularly the kentias, and 

 don't, when potting them, get the plants 

 too deep in the soil. I have seen a lot of 

 young kentias stand perfectly still, with 

 no growth, because they were potted too 

 deeply. Once more about any large 

 palms, if they do not need shifting. 

 i In ii a mulch nf an inch or two will he!;:- 

 them very much. Let the mulch be half 

 loam mil half dairy manure, to which 



