S2 



The Weekly Florists^ Review. 



December 9, 1897. 



the pots ought to be quite full of roots. Is 

 it right to bring them into the greenhouse 

 anil excite top growth with so little root 

 growth ?" 



It is not easy to e.xplain why your later 

 potted lilies have made no roots. Either 

 you potted them very late or 3'ou have 

 kept them dry and they have never got a 

 start. It will do them no harm to start 

 them growing in the greenhouse. Many 

 lilies that are forced are never put outside 

 at all. They are potted and started in the 

 greenhouse. This treatment would be 

 fatal to a hyacinth or tulip, but with a lily 

 it is all right. The\- will make growth 

 and roots together. Don't give them too 

 much heat at first; 45° at night will do 

 nicely till the>- are well rooted. 



"In the matter of rust on carnations 

 would you advise keeping every leaf 

 picked off as soon as it shows traces of 

 disease ? We have been doing that and 

 the result is plants quite bereft of lower 

 lea\es. The -v-arieties are Daybreak and 

 Silver Spray, and not yielding many or 

 strong stenmied flowers' Does it weaken 

 the plant more than the disease if al- 

 lowed to run its course? Would \-ou ad- 

 vise propagating from our own plants? 

 We had quite an outbreak of the rust soon 

 after housing, scarcely a plant or variety 

 escaping some trace." 



I have seen instances within a few 

 years where the rust has been allowed to 

 have full swing, nothing done to check 

 it, and in two months it utterlv destroved 

 the plants. To denude the plant of !;its 

 leaves must weaken the plant, and how 

 can you expect good flowers from a plant 

 that has lost a large part of its leaves. 

 The two varieties mentioned are unfor- 

 tunately the worst of all for rust. Day- 

 break we cannot do without and with 'it 

 the rust must be fought. Poor old Silver 

 Spray is pla\ed out. In most parts of the 

 country it has lost all vitalitv. Wise men 

 from the East as well as the West have 

 come to the conclusion that all the cures 

 for the rust yet discovered are al)0ut as 

 bad as the disease and depend more on 

 keeping the plants healthy in the field, 

 lifting early, cleanliness, and care inside, 

 with heat and air in abundance, etc., than 

 they do on any of the antidotes for kill- 

 ing the rust. 



In your case I would say pick off all 

 leaves showing traces of rust and weekly 

 syringe with one of the copper mixtures. 

 The ammoniacal mixture is as good as 

 any and easily made. This will certainly 

 hold the rust in check. Sulphur painted on 

 your hottest steam or hot water pipes will 

 also help to prevent further spread of the 

 rust. By all means get a clean stock of 

 Daybreak for your next winter s crop, 

 and throw Silver Spray awa\-, there are 

 others so much better. Flora Hill is a 

 grand white, is with me free of rust and a 

 wonderful flower, "and there are others." 



"How would stone walls be for green- 

 houses in this climate?" If you have 

 plenty of good building stone that would 

 cost you little they would make a most 

 substantial wall. But even the building of 

 it would be expensive. You cannot build 

 a stonewall less than fifteen inches thick 

 and it takes a lot of material to lav it up. 

 If the stone was small I would rather 

 break it up, gathering all the small rub- 

 ble stone to be had, and make a concrete 



wall; one foot would be thick enough, 

 using two-thirds of sand to one of ce- 

 ment. That would be cheaper, warmer, 



neater and a better wall in everj- respect 

 than one made of large stone laid up with 

 lime. William Scott. 



OUR ANIMAL FRIENDS. 



The Lonesomehurst potting-shed as- 

 sumed quite a festive appearance the 

 week before Christmas, when the "old 

 man, " who had a fiugal mind, brought 

 in from the woods great loads of laurel, 

 hemlock aud cedar, to be made into 

 wreathing. Consequently all hands spent 

 the evenings in making up evergreens, 

 instead of spending the time, as usual, in 

 harrassing the unfortunate night fire- 

 man, and educating the parrot. This 

 evil bird which bore the name of Marma- 

 duke, had lately returned to the potting- 

 shed after a brief promotion to the house. 

 He had formerly been free of the palm 

 houses until, one morning, the boss was 

 amazed at the sudden disappearance of a 

 batch of speciosum lilies. The pots were 

 there and the soil was there, neatly 

 smoothed over the surface, but the Inilhs 

 were not. It was obviously impossible 

 for the parrot to have eaten them, but the 

 guileless manner in which Marmaduke 

 .sat upon a cycas stump, while the "old 

 man" with many horticultural obser\-a- 

 tions. hunted for the missing bulbs, 

 aroused suspicion. The bulbs were dis- 

 covered sometime afterwards, carefully 

 interred in the tanbark surrounding some 

 palm pots, " showin', " as Jaggs observed, 

 "as that there blessed bird had his own 

 notions about forcin' bulbs. " Marma- 

 duke did not long remain in the house, 

 his conversation being regarded as rather 

 unsuited for polite society, and he was 

 returned to the potting-shed coterie. 



"The missis says to me," observed 

 Jaggs, as he tried to get the kink out of 

 a length of wire, " as that there bird must 

 'a' been 'round with some chap as used 



language' and I says to her, ' what could 

 you expect, ma'am, when the boss went 

 around huntin' for them bulbs and sayin' 

 just what he thought, with INIarmaduke 

 right there, hearin' every word? 'Course 

 the poor bird thinks as how it must 

 be all right.' So .she says as I'd better 

 take the bird where he belongs. Hey 

 Marmaduke, old chap?" 



Marmaduke responded by hanging 

 head down from a gates ajar frame 

 hooked to the rafters, at the same time 

 eliciting a sudden howl of anguish from 

 the night fireman, by plowing up the 

 victim's scalp with his iron bill. When 

 the temporar\- excitement had subsided, 

 Jaggs observed, thoughtfully, "Strange, 

 aint it, how much them birds will learn. 

 Not as a parrot is ever up to a talkin' 

 inina, like that bird as I had when I was 

 gardener to the Rajah." 



"That was where you tried to give that 

 athletic tournament with the Rajah's 

 white helephant for a side partner — sort o' 

 'Rabian Nights gymkhana, wasn't it?" 

 inquired Tommy Atkins with a grin. 

 Tommy always insisted that his name 

 was Talbot Smythe, but as he had upheld 

 the honor of the British army in several 

 quarters of the globe, finally retiring 

 from Halifax without consulting the com- 

 :nander-in-chief, he was affectionately 

 chri.stened Tommy Atkins, a name more 

 in harmonj- with his character than that 

 of Talbot. 



"As I was sa\-in," observed Jaggs, -with 

 a withering glance at his interrupter, 

 "them there minas is as .smart as they 

 make 'em — 'andsome, velvety black birds, 

 with big yellow wattles and j-ellow legs. 

 'Course I give him a good eddication. 

 The Rajah saj's to me, when he see what 



