334 



The Weekly Florists^ Review, 



January 20, 1898. 



Bevond the bed of gomphreiias and in 

 front of the bed of <;eraniunis seen in the 

 back<j;round is a bed of Cope's Pet agera- 

 tnin bordered with rvrethruin aureum 



(Golden feather). The ageratums are 

 bedded out about a foot apart and will 

 then soon fill up the intervening space. 



PROPAGATION. 



With the new year well under way the 

 thoughts of the iiuun grower lightly turns 

 to propagating stock for the ccmiing 

 season. Our system, as has previously 

 Ijeen stated, is to root the strongest 

 suckers as soon after the Howenng season 

 as possible and plant them out in a bench. 

 Kiom these we shall soon be able to 

 propagate, and they throw good healthy 

 cuttings that strike easily and come away 

 much better than cuttings taken from the 

 olrl stools. When the stock is limited 

 this cannot l)e done, and space, too, is not 

 always obtainable, so doubtle.ss the old 

 plants form the basis that most llorists 

 have to work on. If these old .stools have, 

 as too often happens, been relegated to 

 some out-oftlie-way place or under the 

 benches, tliev should be brought up to 

 the li,ght. There is probably a space 

 somewhere that has been cleared out by 

 the Christmas trade that can be thus 

 utilized. If the plants are in boxes or pots 

 it should be seen to that the drainage is 

 perfect, and a slight topdressing of light 

 soil, as leaf mould or rotten manure, be 

 given to encourage new growth. 



It should be reniemV)ered that the roots 

 are yet comparatively donuant and conse- 

 quently the plants do not need nuich 

 water, but a good syringing bright days 

 will help them to s-tart away. Golden 

 Wedding at this sea.son of the year is 

 more impatient of water than any other 

 variety and it is now generally that the 

 foundation is laid for the disease and yel- 

 lows that so often attacks this magnificent 

 kind. The temperature should be kept 

 up to about 50° at night, for if too low a 

 temperature is maintained, the cuttings 

 come hard and stunted and take a good 

 deal longer to root. Air should be freely 

 given in the day time as this is the best 

 preventive of mildew and the nnmi hates 

 to be coddled. 



Varieties of slow growth like Major 

 Bonnaffon, Mrs. Jerome Jones and Mrs. 

 Robinson may be rooted any time now, 

 the sooner the better in the case of Mrs. 

 Jerome Jones, as the stem is short if not 

 started in good time. Mrs. Robinson, too, 

 does not like to be rushed at any time, for 

 if this practice is followed a weak-necked 

 flower generally results. Strong, vigorous 

 growers like President Smith or Frank 

 Hardy need not be bothered with yet. 

 They will have lots of tiiue to make a 

 good stem if rooted any time up to June. 

 Cuttings should be permitted to get a 

 nice size for handling before they are 

 taken off and the practice of ru.shing in 

 big and little, good, bad and indifferent 



cuttings into the bench together cannot 

 be too strongly condemned. 



I believe more can be done in the 

 way of raising the standard of any 

 variety (and while you are doing that 

 you are also necessarily raising your 

 own grade of flowers) by care- 

 ful selection than by any other means. 

 This will be seen in the case of novelties 

 very frequently. The plants are propa- 

 gated to death to work up a big stock and 

 it takes a couple of years before their po- 

 sition in the list is settled. No matter 

 how many successive batches you may 

 have to make don't put in a cutting till 

 it is ready and your reputation as a 

 grower will be all the better for it. 



C. TOTTY. 



New Jersey. 



THE NATIONAL CHRYSANTHE- 

 MUM SOCIETY OF ENGLAND. 



On pige four Mr. E. G. Hill asks for 

 information respecting what I suppose 

 nuist be considered the premier chrysan- 

 themum society of the world. Mr. Hill 

 says, "judging by the printed report this 

 year's exhilnlion has eclipsed all former 

 efforts " 11 he will look up his English 

 gardening papers containing reports of 

 previous exhiljitions, he wil', I regret to 

 say, find very similar reports, "always 

 excelling;" still little progress seems to 

 be made. One or two of the trade ex- 

 hibits, as we are annuallj- told, surpa.ssed 

 everything yet staged. If blooms in- 

 crease in size at the rate which several of 

 the horticultural papers expect us to be- 

 lieve, the entrances to the exhibition 

 building would have to be widened to ad- 

 mit them. Candidly, the late Novetnber 

 exhibition was not on a par, either in 

 quality or quantity of exhibits, with 

 many previous ones. Some of the pro- 

 vincial societies are enabled to offer 

 much larger prizes than the N. C. S. and 

 several of the best growers sent their 

 flowers to these, rather than to the N. 

 C. S. 



Mr. Hill says, "nothing has been said 

 in any of the various reports as to the 

 attendance, the admission fee, the adver- 

 tising, the decorations, or any other feat- 

 ures so absolutely necessary to an Ameri- 

 can chry.santhemum show." As to the 

 admission and attendance, owing to what 

 many consider a peculiar arrangement 

 made with the proprietors of the building 

 in which the exhibition is held, the N. 

 C. S. has nothing to do with this item. 

 The "Aquarium" proprietors pay the N. 

 C. S. /.300, find tables and a portion 



of the advertising, and take the whole of 

 the gate money which amounts to very 

 considerable. 



Now as to the "attractions." The 

 Aquarium is really a music hall with a 

 large number of side shows, such as 

 "Wonderful women," prize fighters as 

 shown by a magic lantern arrangement, 

 fire-eaters, sky climbers, sensational 

 ilivers, shooting and a hundred and-one 

 other performances accompanied by 

 bands of nm.sic, .shouting and the play- 

 ing of a large organ. If these are the 

 "attractions" which Mr. Hill considers 

 necessary, the greater p>ortion of the 

 members of our N. C. S. would very 

 much like to get rid of them. 



In decorations, so to speak, there were 

 but few. Several tables of wreaths, 

 crosses, harps and other designs of a very 

 ordinary character and a few tables of 

 cut flowers from trade growers, but con- 

 taining nothing remarkable, with a few 

 groups of plants, coiupleted the decora- 

 tions. Ves, all the enthusiasm is among 

 the I2S, 24s and 4SS of blooms on hard 

 anil brightly painted green boxes. Foli- 

 age, stem, color and form, what have 

 tliese things and particulars to do with 

 chrysanthenmms on this side of the 

 "herring pond?" 



The first thing we must have is 

 size, and after that, still more size, and 

 then when we have this we look for color 

 and form, but such things as stem and 

 foliage are never considered. Chrysan- 

 thenmms here are grown principally to 

 win prizes, and are not admired for their 

 general beauty. Why, at the last floral 

 committee meeting of the N. C. vS , it 

 was decided not to award certificates to 

 market varieties, by which is meant com- 

 mercial varieties. Exhibits of blooms 

 arranged in vases are gradually increas- 

 ing here, but very little interest is taken 

 in this manner of exhibiting, especially 

 at the N. C. S.'s exhibitions, for the 

 Aquarium is about the worst place in 

 England to make such a display; insuf- 

 ficient and distorted light, and a general 

 "stuffiness" which makes the blooms 

 soon droop and fade. Steiu and foliage 

 count as nothing in theseva.se exhibits, in 

 fact the stems and Idooms are generally 

 .supported by a wire arrangement. 



In spite of what folks may say, I think 

 and feel sure, we have much to learn 

 from our American cousins as to judging 

 and exhibiting chrysanthemums, especi- 

 ally if flowers are grown for what they 

 ought to be— beauty. Forward. 



CHRYSANTHEMUM MERRY 

 CHRISTMAS. 



We present herewith an engraving 

 from a photograph of four flowers of this 

 new late white chrysanthemum. It is a 

 seedling raised by Mr. Fred Dorner, 

 Lafayette, Ind., and will certainly be 

 ver}' useful in view of the fact that the 

 flowers can be cut for Christmas sales. 

 The blooms illu.strated were cut on 

 Christmas day and were shipped to us a 

 few days later. We were so favorably 

 impressed with them that we had the 

 photograph taken. Mr. Dorner writes 

 that the plants of Merry Christmas were 

 growing in the same house with the 

 earlier varieties and that when the latter 



