The Weekly Florists' Review. 



163 



MISCELLANEOUS 

 SEASONABLE HINTS. 



Too Much Rain. 

 Many parts of the country that experi- 

 enced a severe drought, have, for the past 

 two weeks, had almost too much rain 

 and a low temperature. Look out for 

 plants like azaleas, acacias, etc.. which 

 are plunged in frames in pots. See that 

 they do not stand in an inch of water, 

 nor yet let the pots fill up with water, 

 because it does not pass off. These con- 

 ditions would be most harmful to any 

 so-called hard-wooded plants, and if ag- 

 gravated would be death. 



With land that is not actually flooded, 

 the excessive rains do no harm, except 

 that it is hard to keep weeds down. Last 

 year we read of many large growers, not- 

 ably around the big city of Chicago, hav- 

 ing great difficulty hi preparing their 

 rose and carnation compost in June and 

 July, and we in a small way are experi- 

 encing some of these troubles just now. 

 Soil handled when wet or in a sticky 

 state is in very poor condition for good 

 root action, and no treatment that can 

 be given it after it is once in the house 

 can restore it to its proper natural con- 

 dition. 



The Compost Shed. 

 This leads me to believe that in all es- 

 tablishments, large and small, a soil shed 

 is a most essential feature of a grower's 

 plant. It need not be boarded up on the 

 sides; in fact, it is all the better nut to 

 be so. I use a good, sharp pitch to the 

 roof and Irtive it high enough for a wagon 

 to pass under it, and wide enough so 

 that rain storms cannot drive through 

 ii. The floor of the shed should, of 

 >e a few inches higher than the 

 surrounding ground. Here men can work 

 i In pping and mixing the compost in any 

 (feather. There is always plenty of fine 

 weather in fall or spring to haul your 

 -nil to the shed and plenty of opportun- 

 ity to cart it to the houses, but when en- 

 tirely unprotected there are often serious 

 and annoying delays. Such a shed for 

 piling Up a thousand loads of sod I re- 

 member seeing at the Dale Estate, in On- 

 tario. 



Sod for Roses. 

 It is a little out of season to go into 

 the question as to whether sod is better 

 ploughed and piled up in the fall or in 

 the early spring. You will notice in very 

 large establishments that soma of the 

 rose beds show little evidence of the 

 sod, it being pretty well rotted, and in 

 other beds the grass from the sod is 

 growing lively, or trying to, having re- 

 cently been ploughed and carted into the 

 beds. And in results there has been lit- 

 tle difference except that the fresh sod 

 has given you much labor to keep down 

 the grass. I will venture my humble 

 opinion that sod procured in very early 

 spring is better for roses than that 

 stacked up six months earlier, for in the 

 decomposition of the fibre and roots there 

 is a chemical change going on that is 

 beneficial to the roots of the roses and 

 many other plants. If this is not the 

 case, then all the benefit there is in sod 

 is purely mechanical. It is raining hard 



■)gain as I write, so I repeat, whetl 

 if for sod, well rotted compost, 

 01 leaf mold, let us have a roof over it 

 so we can work. 



Asparagus. 

 Last week I meant to say a little more 

 about plants that furnish us with green 

 sprays, which are almost as necessary 

 nowadays as the roses and carnations. 

 Next in importance to the graceful ferns 

 are the several species of asparagus. Grow- 

 ing A. plumosus is rather confined to the 

 specialists who have 'ofty houses, giving 

 it more height to grow than many of our 

 houses afford. Still, when you have from 

 nine to ten feet from the surface of the 

 bed to the glass, it is profitable enough, 

 llcth A. plumosus and A. Sprengeri are 

 simple plants to grow if their principal 

 eqr.irement, root room, is remembered. 

 Hut to return to the beautiful plumosus. 

 for it is the most graceful of them, if 

 strings are desired, it should have six or 

 eiyht inches of soil on the surfa.'e of the 

 house, with no boards, tile, or stone be- 

 tween it and mother earth. If the natu- 

 ral soil of the house is dug and heavily 

 manured a foot below the surface, you 

 will have a still stronger growth. But 

 whether you raise the bed a foot above 

 the surface or prepare the soil of the 



good growth it ceases to send out its use- 

 ful and profitable sprays. If given a bed 

 with 18 inches of rich soil (I should pre- 

 fer it raised above the surface < f the 

 house) and planted in July, you can cut. 

 grand sprays continuously for the next 

 twelve months. I have more than once 

 alluded to a rose grower in central New- 

 York who has a connecting range of rose 

 houses with no partitions, and beneath 

 the gutters he has a lot of imported glass 

 boxes. You know, perhaps, that Euro- 

 pean glass comes 100 feet to a box. So 

 these boxes, which held 10x24 glass, are 

 two feet long, sixteen inches deep, and 

 nine or ten inches wide. These are filled 

 with rich, heavy soil and three plants of 

 A. Sprengeri are planted in each. The 

 roots can go down sixteen inches and 

 won*t get exhausted in a few months. 

 It is a great success and goes a long way 

 toward paying the fuel bill. It is en- 

 tirely an extra crop, without in the 

 slightest detracting from the welfare of 

 the roses. You mav not have such a 

 place at your disposal, but you are sure 

 to have some ends and corners that can 

 be utilized. A heavy loam with at least 

 a fourth of manure and lots of room for 

 the roots grows Sprengeri profitably. 

 And plumosus, when wanted for sprays, 

 should do in the place. 



William Scott. 



CHRYSANTHEMUMS. 



Planting. 



i umting on the benches will very prob- 

 ably be delayed this year, in many sec- 

 tions, because of the weather, but if any 

 way possible get your plants set out uiis 

 month, especially if they are gelling pot- 



A Pillow Which Was Made Up to Sell for $75.00. 



house, have nothing to prevent its roots 

 going down to China. Anywhere between 

 55 to 60 degrees at night will grow both 

 plumosus and Sprengeri profitably, but 

 don't give it less than that. Plumosus is 

 no more useful as a long string or vine 

 than it is in sprays for use with bunches 

 of roses and carnations, and for this pur- 

 pose it is grown on raised benches, but 

 does much better if it is in a solid bed or 

 bench. 



And this brings to us the useful A. 

 Sprengeri. You see handsome hanging 

 baskets of this and vou see it grown in 

 pots and shallow benches, but after one 



bound. The drought this spring kept 

 back much work that ordinarily is out 

 of the way by June, and now for a 

 week or so the soil, owing to excessive 

 rains, has been too wet to handle, at 

 least in the eastern section of the coun- 

 try. While chrysanthemums will be 

 planted for six weeks yet. the early and 

 midseason varieties are better set out in 

 June, if you are figuring on growing the 

 top grade of flowers. This is, of course, 

 assuming you have from three to six feet 

 of head room. If the house is low the 

 onlv thing you can do is to plant later, 

 which is far easier than pulling and 



