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The Weekly Florists' Review. 



919 



■when they are offered for sale, but we 

 usually try to steer clear of the varieties 

 that keep themselves hidden up to Jan- 

 uary and then spring forward and cap- 

 ture high scores, and cups, and medals. 

 They seldom pay for their keep, to say 

 nothing of making you any money. So 

 watch the reports regarding the new va- 

 rieties, but don 't conceive the idea that 

 a variety that is shown at all the shows 

 is better than a variety which makes an 

 equally good impression at one or two 

 shows. The fact that a variety is wide- 

 ly exhibited does not prove it's superi- 

 ority, but rather the hustling quality of 

 its owner. 



To the seedling raisers and dissem- 

 inators these shows are just as interest- 

 ing and important, as they give them an 

 opportunity to show us just what you 

 want to know. There are a few firms in 

 this country who can introduce a variety 

 successfully on the strength of their own 

 reputation, and these fall shows are not 

 a necessity to them, but there are a 

 great many more who find it necessary to 

 prove their assertions before you are 

 willing to invest in their seedlings. To 

 these the fall shows are a necessity. The 

 comparatively unknown young seedling 

 raiser will find that a decisive victory for 

 his variety at one of these shows will 

 boost the value of his variety only a lit- 

 tle less than the same victory at the A. C. 

 S. convention. If you have a pet seed- 

 ling and wish to advertise it, you should 

 take advantage of these opportunities, if 

 it is in shape to show. All experienced 

 exhibitors know that it is one thing to 

 have a fine lot of blooms on the plants 

 and quite another thing to stage them in 

 good condition 1000 miles away. Care- 

 ful handling and expert packing are es- 

 sential, and to pack carnation blooms so 

 that they will not become crushed is a 

 problem that has bothered the very best 

 growers and packers. A bloom that lies 

 on its petals twenty-four hours or more 

 and is shaken around a good deal be- 

 sides, is not very apt to have a perfectly 

 round form when it is unpacked. When 

 simply packed in layers this is apt to be 

 the result even if you only pack one 

 layer in a box. I have seen many blooms 

 packed with cardboard collars around the 

 calyxes, just below the petals and just a 

 trifle wider than the blooms, and in most 

 cases they traveled well. You must fasten 

 the stems so that the blooms cannot move 

 the least bit, else the cardboard is liable 

 to injure the blooms next to it. Some 

 make use of small pillows, made by roll-- 

 ing tissue paper into rolls thick enough 

 to hold the blooms up off of the bottom. 

 This is all right, too, if you fasten the 

 pillows so they cannot move or weight 

 down the tiers below. 



It seems to me the best way is to tack 

 a light stick across the box for each row 

 of blooms to rest on, and you can tie 

 each bloom in place if you wish to do so. 

 Drive the nail through the side of the 

 box and into the end of the stick. This 

 will make each row of blooms inde- 

 pendent, of all the others and there can 

 be no crushing and you can put in row 

 after row until the box is full to the top. 

 A slight crushing would not prove very 

 serious if the blooms could have a few 

 hours' time to freshen up after being 

 unpacked, but this is in most cases de- 

 nied them and they must face the judge 

 just about in the shape they were in 

 when unpacked. If the journey is only a 

 few hours it will be enough if you place 

 moistened tissue paper between the stems. 

 providing, of course, that the Mooms 

 stood iii water at least ten hours after 



Chrysanthemum Wm. Duckham, bloomone-half natural size. 



being cut. If the journey is long you 

 should use Kift's little flower bottles. 

 When packed with the stem stuck into 

 one of these bottles a bloom is almost as 

 well off as it was in the vase in your 

 cellar. A. F. J. Baur. 



ERADICATING THE RUST. 



Enclosed find some specimen leaves of 

 Daybreak carnation affected with some 

 kind of rust. Last year we were trou- 

 bled by the same thing on the Crane, 

 but they are clean so far this year. Can 

 you tell the trouble and advise a rem- 

 edy? E. S. P. 



The sample leaves show clearly that 

 the carnation plants are infested with 

 the common carnation rust or Septoria 

 dianthi. This disease is usually brought 

 on through too much syringing overhead 

 and not enough ventilation, resulting in 

 a stagnant, moisture-laden atmosphere. 

 To eradicate it is not quite so easy as it 

 is to bring it onto your plants, but 

 growers as a rule do not consider it such 

 a dangerous disease as they did a few 

 years ago, and if it does not make too 

 much headway on the place we do not 

 let it worry us much. Pick off all the 

 diseased leaves and burn them. Then 

 dust your plants thoroughly with lime 

 into which you have mixed about one- 

 fifth its bulk of sulphur. If you have 

 some grape dust on the place if will be, 

 perhaps, a little better than the lime. 

 After a few days, on a bright morning, 

 you can syringe it off, and in the even- 

 ing, after the plants have dried off 

 again, you should repeat the dusting, 

 leaving it on again for a few days. 

 Throw some lime around under the 

 benches or in the walks and keep the 

 ground dry, so as to keep a dry atmos- 

 phere. When you water, run the hose 

 between the rows and let the water soak 

 into the soil without wetting the foliage. 

 Of course the water should run slowly 

 from the hose so as not to wash the 

 soil. You will find that some varieties 

 are very prone to take this disease, 

 while others seem to be almost entirely 

 proof against it. Old Daybreak always 



ilid seem to be a great favorite with this 

 disease, and unless it does better with 

 you than it does with most growers who 

 still hold on to it, you will do well to 

 drop it and secure stock of some of the 

 newer varieties. For instance, En- 

 chantress has not shown a sign of any 

 kind of disease with us, and it is far 

 and away ahead of Daybreak in every 

 respect. The growth is stronger and 

 more upright. It comes into bloom 

 earlier and produces a better bloom in 

 September than the old variety ever 

 produced in midwinter. Enchantress is 

 as far ahead of Daybreak as Daybreak 

 was ahead of its predecessors of that 

 color. A. F. .T. Baur. 



PACIFIC COAST. 



PLANT NOTES. 



There is no reason why Dutch bulbs 

 will not succeed as an ordinary garden 

 flower in California if a few simple, 

 common-sense rules are followed. Three 

 seasons ago 1 planted the remains of 

 1,000 Eoman hyacinth bulbs in the month 

 of April out in the open field. The 

 foliage had all died down and I had 

 taken them from flats that had received 

 no water since taken from the forcing 

 house. In April, bear in mind, every- 

 thing in California is dry and dusty, and 

 l 1m Imllis which had shriveled to about 

 one-third of the size they were when 1 

 boxed them, although each one had three 

 or four smaller bulbs clinging to it, were 

 planted out in rows in the thoroughly dry- 

 soil. 



They did not get a drop of water until 

 the following November, when the rains 

 began. The leaves showed themselves in 

 January and about the middle of Febru- 

 ary I cut about 1,000 spikes of flowers. 

 I gave the bulbs no attention whatever 

 and the following year they produced 

 about 1,500 good stems of bloom. Last 

 spring I cut about 4,000 strong spikes 

 and I dug up the row in July. Where 

 I h.ol originally planted 1.000 discarded 

 Roman hyacinth bulbs I found about 



