The Weekly Florists' Review, 



427 



C. C. Poll worth. President. 

 Officers of the Milwaukee Florists' Club. 



healthy growth, good drainage and prop- 

 er cultivation, a scarcity of rainfall can 

 be met by judicious watering without 

 danger of stem-rot. 



J. Y. Lambert. 



BEGONIA SEMPERFLORENS. 

 Please tell me the time to sow the 

 Begonia seniperflorens to have nice 

 plants for early spring sales. M. G. 



Sow it at once, or at the latest in the 

 early part of .September. We are often 

 too late in sowing this variety, and also 

 in sowing Vernon and several of its 

 type, which are some of our most pleas- 

 ant flower garden plants. Sow them 

 early and keep them in a night temper- 

 ature of 50 degrees, with the fullest 

 light during winter, and they make bet- 

 forced along rapidly. All begonias ex- 

 cept the Rex species want more daylight 

 than is usually given them. 



William Scott. 



ASTER TROUBLES. 



I have about a thousand aster plants, 

 Simple's Branching, planted on a piece 

 of ground which was first broken last 

 season. At least three-fourths of them 

 seem to be turning yellow, as if with 

 disease. The ground seems to be soft 

 enough and has been kept stirred. I 

 can discover no parasites on either roots 

 or leaves, even with a glass. Can you 

 suggest what may ail them? Had a few 

 of the same sort last season, so changed 

 them to a new place and procured new 

 seed. P. W. J. 



As. P. W. J. can discover no "para- 

 sites," it is hard to say what the 

 trouble can be. Wire worm, or the larva 

 of the May bug, is often most trouble- 

 some in soil that has been lately brok- 

 en up from sod, but their work on the 

 roots would be quickly discovered. The 

 aster beetle, so troublesome this year, 

 would merely destroy the shoots and 

 flowers. Xow, in addition to the beetle 

 trouble, we have lost quite a percentage 

 of plants of a batch of Truffaut's peony 

 flowered aster. We pulled up several 

 plants and found a good bunch of 

 healthy roots, but on cutting open the 



stem it was black in the center for two 

 or three inches above the ground. The 

 plants just wilt and die. The trouble 

 was a mystery until at last we discov- 

 ered a small worm that had eaten his 

 way into the very bottom of the stem 

 beneath the ground. The worm is about 

 half an inch long and as thick as a pin 

 or a little stouter. That, of course, is 

 the trouble, as the worm had destroyed 

 the tissue of the stem and all above it 

 soon decayed and the plant quickly- 

 died. I don't believe that auy remedy 

 can be applied this year. The ground is 

 rich and has grown asters two previous 

 years. Next spring, after plowing, we 

 will harrow in a good dressing of air- 

 slaked lime, and that is all I can recom- 

 mend P. W. J. to do. 



William Scott. 



A REMEDY FOR ANTS. 



Will your correspondent who recom- 

 mends sugar and arsenic on bread as a 

 destroyer of ants please state the propor- 

 tions he uses in this mixture? 



A. S. 



We did not make a careful 

 ment of the mixture, but took about 

 what arsenic could be picked up on the 

 point of a pen-knife and, after mixing 

 with a teaspoon of granulated sugar, 

 spread on a slice of bread. 



S. A. P. 



POINSETTIAS. 



Please tell me about the rooting of 

 poinsettias; all mine rot. The morning 

 temperature is about 72 degrees, noon 

 94, night SO. There is lath on the glass 

 and one-third the roof is open as well as 

 the sides and ends. The cuttings are 

 started in 8-ineh pans in washed plaster- 

 ing sand; no bottom heat. I can root 

 them in spring with bottom heat. 



Florida. 



^ The temperature quoted is most as- 

 suredly higher than we have been ex- 

 periencing of late, but that, we think, 

 should make no difference in rooting this 

 tropical plant. It is true that they root 

 easily and surely in the spring when wo 

 have some bottom heat and a lower day 

 and night temperature. There is little 



doubt that the trouble with our friend 

 in Florida is simply that he doesn't keep 

 the sand wot enough. Some fifteen years 

 ago we made the same mistake ourselves. 

 Keep the bed saturated. If a bright 

 day, water twice a day and keep well, 

 shaded and you will have no trouble in 

 rooting them. The open sides and ends 

 of the house I think liable to give them 

 too much draught and that wilts them. 

 When rooted and potted be sure to keep 

 them shaded and not exposed to a 

 draught for the first week. 



William Scott. 



CHICAGO TO MILWAUKEE. 



Arrangements have been completed 

 with the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul 



tibule cars, including buffet car, to leave 

 Chicago from Union Passenger Station, 

 Canal and Adams streets, at 10 o 'clock 

 Tuesday morning, August 18. The equip- 

 ment throughout will be the finest that 

 the road can furnish. Speeial will arrive 

 at Milwaukee at 11:50 a. m., three hours 

 before the time set for the opening of the 

 convention. Special rate of one fare and a 

 third for the round trip on certificate 

 plan has been granted all those attend- 

 ing the convention. The entertainment 

 committee has arranged for return move- 

 ment, Milwaukee to Chicago, by steamer 

 for those wishing to make the lake trip. 

 When purchasing your ticket to Milwau- 

 kee, be sure that it reads via the Chi- 

 cago, Milwaukee & St. Paul railway, also 

 ask ticket agent to furnish you with a 

 certificate receipt, as this insures you a 

 return ticket at one-third fare. 

 Important Notice. 

 Those from a distance traveling via 

 Chicago must bear in mind that, by what- 

 ever way they may travel from Milwau- 

 kee to Chicago after the convention, it 

 will be necessary to buy return tickets at 

 Milwaukee to get the one-third fare for 

 the return journey. Tickets home can- 

 not oe purchased in Chicago except at 

 full fare. Those who come to Chicago 

 without having provided themselves with 

 tickets to their homes will be compelled 

 to return to Milwaukee to avail them- 

 selves of the one-third fare. 



Shreveport, La.— Ike E. Myer has 

 opened a flower store here. 



