OOTOEBE 22, 



The Weekly Florists' Review. 



867 



MISCELLANEOUS 

 SEASONABLE HINTS. 



Stock to Keep Benches Full. 



We are usually very glad of the bench 

 room that the throwing out of early 

 'mums affords, and there is always 

 plenty to fill up with. Five to 7-inch 

 Bermuda lilies that have been in the 

 cold frames, and if you have no warm 

 house the 7 to 9-inch plants may as well 

 come in; they will not make much more 

 progress in a cool house for the next 

 month than they would in a frame with 

 the glass on. 



Japan Lilies. 

 Those who grow the Japan longiflorum 

 most successfully, by that I mean those 

 who get them in in good time for Easter 

 and get a good height on them, do not 

 bring them into heat till they are well 

 rooted in the frames, and then when 

 they get them in they give them a 

 strong heat. I have seen Japan longi- 

 florum brought in as late as the middle 

 of December, and, with little or no 

 growth, and they overtook and passed 

 in height and earliness a batch that had 

 been brought in the first of November. 

 Last spring many will remember that 

 there were fine lots of lilies that flowered 

 perfectly, both the black-stemmed " gi- 

 ganteum" and a bulb called "multi- 

 florum" that gave me seven or eight 

 flowers, but they had but ten to fifteen- 

 inch stems. By putting them in pans 

 and azalea pots they all went, but to 

 have them as dwarf as that is not de- 

 sirable. In my own case I think it was 

 bringing them into a house at the end 

 of October and keeping them about 50 

 degrees at night, when they were but 

 poorly rooted. They were in plenty of 

 time for Easter; in fact, you might say 

 that with their dwarfness they flowered 

 prematurely. Now I don't want to pre- 

 tend to be an unquestioned authority on 

 this subject, but 1 do think that the 

 best way to treat the Japan longiflorum 

 is to keep them in the cold frame pro- 

 tected from hard freezing, till the mid- 

 dle of December, and then, after two 

 weeks in a cool house, after being 

 brought in, give them a brisk heat of 

 60 to 65 degree at night. 



Begonia Gloire de Lorraine. 

 The Lorraine begonia is likely to be 

 as great a favorite again this winter 

 as for the past four or rive years. Not 

 only as a single plant is it desirable, 

 but for basket and mantel decorations it 

 is most valuable. Those who have then: 

 now in a healthy state need fear no 

 mishap; and froin now till Christmas 

 they do a lot of growing. Any small 

 plants that need shifting should be at- 

 tended to at once. There is no more 

 shading necessary. Keep them about 55 

 degrees at night,' and when watering do 

 not wet the leaves. Plants in 5 and 6- 

 inch pots might with benefit be raised 

 up on inverted (3-inch pots. They ran 

 be watered more carefullv and the 

 lower gr 



rth 



ill be all 



Poinsettias. 



I have often said that you must not 



disturb the mots of poinsettias after 

 the middle of October au.l that I know 

 from experience, so I hope you have 

 all the plants in 6-inch pots fixed some 

 weeks ago. fans of th se are now wlial 



in 2%-ineh pots they can still be put 

 in pans because you need not disturb 

 the roots and the plants are so small 

 they will not suffer as a plant two feet 

 'nigh would. It should not be neeessarv 

 to say that the poinsettia wants at all 

 times a high temperature, but 60 de- 

 grees at night keeps them in excellent 

 leaf and develops their bracts. The 

 yellow leaf is more often caused by 

 starved roots than cold, and if you have 

 any in 5 or 6-inch pots and 'later on 

 they begin to show the slightest sign 

 of the foliage going, give them liquid 

 manure twice a week. 



Cyclamen. 



Another of our favorite Christmas 

 plants is now about a pronounced suc- 

 cess or a failure. If the cyclamen foli- 

 age is healthy and perfect buds showing 



'lii 



ings 



Antirrhinums. 



■rhinum (snap dragon) has 

 ir for several years as a 

 it flower. They can sue 

 ysanthemums. As they are 

 ng plants, the same soil 

 the addition of a little 

 '. or a sprinkling of bone 

 that you have now in 

 ■it her from cuttings or 

 I soon be in flower, 

 o digress a moment, the chrysan 

 tie nium is a most fascinating flower to 

 grow, but if your houses are too far 

 away from a market for pot plants, such 

 is lilies, azaleas, Easter roses, etc., or 

 bedding plants, then the beautiful 'mums 

 leave you with a lot of vacant bench 

 room, more than you need for young 

 stock of carnations and roses, and there 

 is sometimes an unprofitable interval of 

 a few months The antirrhinum is a 

 plant that will fill up till you need the 

 bench, in April and May. 



Sweet Peas. 



I was quite an old man before J 

 learned how to grow sweet peas, to have 

 them in flower at the holidays and dur 

 ing the succeeding dark winter months. 

 We used to sow them at the posts in a 

 carnation house in October, or plant 

 them there from 2 or 3-inch pots. They 

 would send up a growth which was paid 

 little attention and we always waited 

 for the lateral growth which started at 

 the base of the one or two plants. That 

 lateral growth came along slowly and 

 it was April before any flowers were 



up, you need have no failure after this. 

 After good, bad and indifferent success 

 with these plants, we have about 1,000 

 in 5, 6 and 7-inch pots that some good 

 friends have pronounced about perfect. 

 I still believe in plunging them in a 

 few inches of tobacco stems and spray- 

 ing them on bright mornings and giving 

 them plenty of room on the bench; no 

 more shade is required. Just now 50 

 degrees at night will do nicely for them 

 and after December 1, when the bulk of 

 the flowers are showins; above the foli- 

 age. 55 degrees should be given them. 



cut. The original growth from the seed 

 had long ago perished. Now I would 

 not go at length into this "has been" 

 story, only I know others have not 

 flowered sweet peas in any better way. 

 If you have plants now in 3-inch pots, 

 two plants is enough in a pot; plant 

 them now in four or five inches of soil 

 on a bench. Let the two plants be eight 

 or nine inches from another two, and 

 the rows of plants one foot apart; train 

 them up just as you would smilax. Per- 

 haps a string for every vine would be 

 ideal, but the two vines on a string 



