The Weekly Florists' Review, 



5S7 



MISCELLANEOUS 

 SEASONABLE HINTS. 



Fall Propagating. 



An old reminder of this date is that in 

 early September is a good time to put in 

 all the cuttings of zoDale geraniums that 

 you can get. If you have an abundance 

 of stock to take euttings from, then you 

 can defer operations until the end of the 

 month, and the euttings will rout rather 

 more surely, but it' short of stock, these 

 euttings taken off now will allow the 

 old plants to break and give you another 

 lot of euttings before frost kills them. 

 Don 't put the euttings in the propagat- 

 ing bed in sand; it is waste of labor. 

 Pot them firmly in 2 or 2%-inch pots 

 and give them a light bench. This has 

 been with us such a wet summer that the 

 zonule geraniums have. made a soft growth 

 and there is growth without much flow- 

 er; so look out that you don't overwater 

 or they will rot. A good watering when 

 first potted will do for several days. In 

 fact, keep them rather on the dry side 

 until they make roots. The scented- 

 li-aved, variegated and bronze section, 

 and. at course, the ivy-leaved, we i ■ i ■ - t - i 

 to put in sand. Xo hurry about this, 

 except That you can't do everything in 

 one week, and toward the end of Sep- 

 i. ml,,, sve occasionally get a killing 

 trust. 



This is a month of important work to 

 the man who caters to the bedding plant 

 business, and several things must be 

 propagated, perhaps not important 

 plants, but to be without them would be 

 annoying next May. The trailing vincas 

 should be put in the sand this month. 

 They don't root quickly, but you need 

 not lose one. The long growth now 

 spreading on the ground gives 

 amount of cuttings without using the 

 very tender tips of the growth or the 

 hard, woody end near the base of the 

 plant. The vinca is perhaps our most 

 reliable ''vine" or drooping plant for 

 vases and veranda boxes. Another plant 

 used as a drooper is Abutilon vexillar- 

 ium. Take neither the very young 

 growth nor the hard part of the stem, 

 and with plenty of water and shading 

 on bright days they root surely, if not 

 quickly. 



The Cutting Bench Fungus. 



-.onetimes during September we get. a 

 spell of weather as hot as any week of 

 the year and the "fungus of the cutting 

 bed" makes its appearance. If condi- 

 tions are right for the life and growth 

 of this minute fungus it will appear and 

 reappear, no matter how often you re- 

 new the sand. It is most easy to real- 

 ize that if a cutting bed has once been 

 infested with it that clearing out the 

 sand and painting the side boards or tile 

 with kerosene, lime or sulphur will not 

 kill all the germs in the house, and after 

 such precautions with new washed lake 

 sand I have seen it appear again in a 

 week. There were plenty of tie spores 

 roosting around, ready to begin opera- 

 tions directly conditions were favorable, 

 and it is where conditions are right for 

 the life of the fungus and wrong for the 



health of the cuttings that we are vexed 

 and losers by its ravages. 



I don't know that there are any more 

 correct conditions for a propagating bed 

 than those described by Peter Hen. hi— .11 

 in his "Practical Floriculture." pub- 

 lished thirty-six years ago. That chap- 

 ter dispelled a "lot of fog and myths 

 and bell glasses. Let me just say hen 

 that large growers, either of roses, car- 

 nations or mixed plants, can and do 

 have a propagating house especially 

 adapted for the purpose, and there is 

 no excuse then for failure, but with 

 the thousands who grow a little of many 

 things for the local trade the propagat- 

 ing bed is in most cases a bench in a 

 house where other things are grown, and 

 for ; hose I am writing. So the ti mpi 



ature of the house should not 1 ret ■ 



degrees at night. Whether a large or a 



the path side, so that on a cold night 

 when hard firing is necessary, the hinged 

 board can be opened, letting the heat 

 into the house and preventing the sand 

 from getting too warm. To go into the 

 question of what is the best relative 

 heat of atmosphere and sand would be 

 :i long chapter, but I can safely say that 

 if the temperature of the house at night 

 is 50 degrees and the sand 60 to 

 grees, it will suit admirably a whole lot 

 of our soft-Vi led plants. 



Governor Roosevelt will tell you that 

 hi does not believe in any bottom heal 

 for carnations, while Governor Wolcott 

 will tell you that he prefers to keep his 

 propagating bench for carnations 10 de- 

 rmer than the temperature of 

 A. i oleus will certainly be 

 longer rooting in the sand at 60 and ton 

 .t 50 degrees than at. SO and 70 degrees, 

 respectively, but what I quoted above, 

 60 degrees for sand and 50 degrees for 

 atmosphere, will root almost anything. 

 A low temperature, with pure air by 

 veutilation, is what the fungus won't 

 thrive in. so choose a house for propagat- 

 ing where you are sure you won't be put- 

 ting lilies," Ramblers or azaleas in to 

 force out for winter. 



Formula for Copper Solution. 



Several times last winter I was asked 





Jno. Breitmeyer's Sons' New Pink Seedling Rose. 



small house, there should be plenty of 

 ventilation at the ridge in ease you need 

 it. The bottom of the bed should be 

 tiles. Slates give a greater heat to the 

 sand, but that is no advantage. Be- 

 neath the bed should be either one or 

 two steam pipes or three or four hot wa- 

 ter pipes, and if these pipes are con- 

 trolled by valves, it is a great advantage. 

 The bed' should be boarded in at back 

 and front, so that the heat is confined 

 beneath the bed. with a hinged board on 



by correspondents to give the formula 

 of a copper solution which is death or 

 prevention to the cutting bed fungus, and 

 as I don 't answer any more personal cor- 

 respondence, I will give it once more. 1 

 will only say that I am not sure that 

 this is just as I got it from some learned 

 professor, but in practice it works O. 5. 

 The trouble is that after we know these 

 things we lack the energy to practice 

 them — the best among you, present com- 

 pany not excepted. Two quarts liquid 



