September 24, 



The Weekly Florists' Review. 



709 



s being introduced from time 

 to time. Some do fairly well, while oth- 

 ers prove unsatisfactory, but for a re- 

 liable, free growing aiK i f ree setting va- 

 riety for general use, I have not found 

 anything to surpass the old. Sterling 

 Castle is good, though the fruits are not 

 6o large. It is a free grower and abund- 

 ant bearer and is not very susceptible to 

 the attacks of fungous diseases, which 

 render many otherwise good varieties un- 

 profitable. W. S. Croydon. 



TEMPERATURE OF CUTTING BED. 



What method is usually employed to 

 keep the temperature down in the propa- 

 gating beds) Ours, although shaded, have 

 stood from five to ten degrees higher 

 than the temperature of the soil. We are 

 losing a high per cent, of the rose cut- 

 tings put in. B. N. 



From an inquiry at this time it is 

 evident that B. X. is propagating now 

 and using beds under glass, and also, 

 presumably, without any lire heat. If the 

 glass is siuuled with lattice or a white- 

 wash of some sort, and ventilation is 

 given, that is about all you can do. The 

 day temperature will go up in spite of 

 all you can do and it will affect the tem- 

 perature of the sand. To explain more 

 definitely what I mean, if the temperature 

 of the house ran up to 70 degrees every 

 day and receded to 50 degrees every 

 night, the sand would be found to remain 

 at about 60 degrees. As long as you have 

 no heat beneath the sand it is impossible 

 to keep it as warm as the atmosphere on 

 a warm day. These are not the ideal COD 

 ditions for propagating, except it be for 

 some tropical plants. I don't know any- 

 thing about the climate of Oregon ex- 

 cept what I read, but I fancy that the 

 same methods which we follow in the 

 east would be successful in the mild and 

 beautiful climate of the north Pacific 

 coast. In the east August or early Sep- 

 temberwouldlie considered a very unfavor- 

 able time for propagating roses, from the 

 fact that it is too warm. By the middle 

 of October we can begin fire heat and 

 warm the sand while the atmosphere of 

 the house is cool, and then we have the 

 conditions that give us good results. I 

 have seen hybrid perpetual roses propa- 

 gated very "successfully at the end of 

 June and in early July in hot-beds heav- 

 ily shaded, just as all the hardy shrubs 

 will propagate from the young spring 

 growth. As I don't know whether it is 

 hybrid perpetual or tea roses that B. N. 

 is propagating, I had better not enlarge 

 on that and will conclude by saying that 

 tea roses from the middle of October un- 

 til the middle of May are, in the east, 

 about as sure and easy to root as any 

 plant we grow. William Scott. 



TROUBLE WITH FERNS. 

 A subscriber, whom we will call "Mr. 

 Altoona," sends a portion of frond of 

 Cyrtomium falcatum which was too much 

 dried up before it reached me to tell 

 much about it, yet I could see that tin- 

 edges were more withered and dried up 

 than the middle portion. Ho <iis ho 

 has eighteen varieties of table terns 

 and most of them have the appearance 

 of having been burnt by the sun. lie 

 says he shades from bright sun and 

 waters daily. Gardeners don't water 

 daily; they water when a plant needs it. 

 It may be every day and it may be that 

 they want water only once in three days. 

 Yet over watering, unless it were car- 



A. Kuhl, Pekin, 



ried to great excess, would hardly ac- 

 count for the condition he describes. Al- 

 toona adds that on examination lie 

 found "small green bugs the size of a 

 pin head, ten to fifteen close together on 

 different leaves, also hundreds of little, 

 long, narrow, black bugs that cannot fly, 

 but crawl on the under sides of the 

 leaves. ' ' These green bugs are not aphis, 

 he says. He can find none on any of 

 the. plants except the ferns mentioned. 



Now, I am sorry 1 cannot help Mr. Al- 

 toona, for I know of no crawling crea- 

 ture that troubles ferns. Scale, which 

 does not crawl, infests some of the larger 

 ferns, and the common aphis or greenfly 

 is sometimes troublesome on the adian- 

 tums, but I have never seen or heard of 

 "crawling bugs" on ferns, and the leaf 

 sent was not injured by anything eating 

 it. You must look to some other cause. 

 Is your soil what it should lie.' The 

 best adiantums I ever saw grown on a 

 bench were planted in good rose soil, a 

 heavy loam with a fourth or fifth of cow 

 manure. A good, fresh loam will grow 

 almost any ferns. 



Mr. Altoona savs he used a formula 



[as that was published 

 July, in a house 20x80, 

 > closed all night, and 

 s surprised to find that 

 still very much alive 

 If 



for hydrocyanic 

 in the Review la 

 keeping the hoi 

 in the morning 

 little white th 



among his heliotropes, fuchsias, etc. 

 he had read that formula carefully he 

 would have seen that the five ounces of 

 cyanide, one quart of sulphuric acid and 

 one quart of water was the quantity for 

 2,000 cubic feet of atmosphere in the 

 house. He does not give height of 

 house, but if it is eighty feet long, twen- 

 ty feet wide and of ordinary height, side 

 walls, say four to five feet, this house 

 would have 12,000 cubic feet and would 

 need six times that quantity. Measure 

 the gable end of your house, find out 

 how many square feet there are in the 

 end, and then simply multiply by the 

 length and you have the cubic ail 

 of your house. And for every 2,000 feet 

 of air space the formula quoted above 

 is safe, except it he for such plants as are 

 easily hint by tobacco smoke. I'm those 



ii- M-half quantities and operate on 



two successive evenings. 



Wll l.I \ M SCOT! 



A TRIP TO THE GAS BELT. 



Having finished planting and estab 

 lishing our carnations, I had a few days 

 to spare and I took a living trip up to 

 the "gas belt" to see how the boys 



up there are behaving themselves and 

 what improvements have been made since 

 1 last visited that neck of the woods. 

 My first stop was at Anderson, where 

 Stuart & Haugli are doing a fine busi- 

 ness. Both of the proprietors were out 

 of the city, so their able foreman, Mr. 

 Hyatt, showed me around. Their stock, 

 from beginning to end, looked the picture 

 of health and showed the careful grow- 

 ing it has received. Their carnations 

 had just been housed and were taking 

 hold nicely. The plants are fine. Avon- 

 dale, which originated on their place, is 

 their favorite pink variety, although 

 they grow a bench of Lawson and a few 

 hundred of several other pink ones. A 

 couple of hundred plants of McKinley 

 were in fine shape. They still find a 

 limited use for those two old varieties, 

 Daybreak and Lizzie McGowan. The 

 rose houses were showing some fine 

 growth, both of young plants and sec- 

 ond-year stock. Only the teas are grown 

 here; lack of room forbids the growing 

 of Beauty. Exhibition 'mums have 

 been given up, as they did not pay as 

 well for the room they took up as other 

 crops do. Not that they do not win any 

 premiums though; they always won their 

 lion's share and we shall miss them at 

 our show this fall. There is, of course, 

 the usual variety of miscellaneous stock 

 found on every retail place, which needs 

 no special mention. This firm believes in 

 expansion, as is shown by ground they 

 have leased next to their own place. 



From there I moved down to New 

 Castle, which has been named the "rose 

 city of the west," and after looking 

 through the several ranges you can but 

 say that the name, has been well chosen. 

 The first place I struck out for was that 

 of our good friends, the Heller boys, and 

 a warm welcome is always in store for 

 any stranger who happens out there. 

 They take great pleasure in showing 



The American Beauty range is a sight; 

 strong, healthy growth all the way from 

 two feet high up to the tall, blooming 

 shoots five and six feet high, and not 



