Jasuakv 20. 1898. 



The Weekly Florists^ Review, 



HI 



Armstrong's Everblooming Tuberose. 



Ventilation. 



Last week we had almost the weather 

 of April. When such days occur you 

 should never lose a chance to give air 

 and lots of it to the plants you are win- 

 tering in cold frames. Carnations, roses, 

 clematis, pansies will be greatly benefited 

 by fresh air, especially if it is warm. If 

 tire weather is cold and the ground cov- 

 ered with snow, they will go for weeks 

 without harm, but whenever the tempera- 

 ture gets near 32°, open the sash and 

 brush off the snow, or the latter first. 

 Wm. Scott. 



AN EVERBLOOMING TUBEROSE. 



The accompinying engraving shows a 

 field and some individual spikes of bloom 

 of the everbloatning tuberose that origi- 

 nated with Jlr. Luther Armstrong, St. 

 Louis, Mo. There is a continuous forma- 

 tion of flower buds around the old flower 

 stalk, the same bulb continuing to bloom 

 from year to year. The flowers are sin- 

 gle, pure white during the hottest and 

 driest weather, and the buds open after 

 being cut and placed in water like the 

 gladiolus. All the bulbs in the field illus- 

 trated had bloonie<l the previous season. 



This tuberose was awarded a certificate 

 of merit at the Providence convention of 

 the S. A. F. and won the Shaw gold 

 medal at the last St. Louis exhibition, of- 

 fered for a plant of merit not before in 

 commerce. It will undoubtedly prove ex- 

 ceedingly useful as a summer cut flower 

 and take the place of all other varieties 

 of the single tuberose. 



THE HARRISII DISEASE. 



Mr. E. Buettner, Park Ridge. 111., be- 

 lieves the trouble is entirely due to a little 

 insect which can be readily seen under a 

 strong hand magnifying glass, and he has 

 found this insect on longiflorums from 

 Japan and Spanish irises from Holland as 

 well as on Harrisii from Bermuda. He has 

 found as many as 500 of these insects on 

 one bulb and rarely less than 20 to 30. He 

 believes that a diseased shoot of the lilv 

 is evidence that this mite had reached the 

 center of the bulb, and that the spots on 

 the leaves are where the insect has bitten 

 through the tissues of the shoot in the 

 heart of the bulb. In bulbs that failed to 

 grow the center was rotten and full of 

 these mites. He believes that the deca}'_ is 

 simply the natural resultof the injury done 

 to the tissues by the mite. In the scales of 

 the bulb were found cavities containing 

 the mites. He has never seen a diseased 

 bulb that did not contain these mites. 



The mites are about the size of the red 

 spider and under the naked e)-e are apt to 

 be confused with the fine grains of white 

 sand that generally adhere to Harrisii 

 bulbs when received. Under the magnify- 

 ing gla.ss they are seen to be a transluc- 

 ent white, nearly round in shape and slow 

 in their movements, color turning to 

 brown with age. 



In the future he will have each bulb in- 

 spected under a hand magnif3'ing gla.ss 

 and each bulb having any of these mites 

 will be rejected. He hopes that the Ber- 

 muda growers will take steps to check 

 the spread of this insect and establish a 

 system of inspection which will prevent 



the exportation of affected bulbs, as other- 

 wise their market in this country will be 

 destroved. He says he cannot afford to 

 pay a high price for bulbs and then lose 

 from twenty-five to fifty per cent, of 

 them. If this continues he must stop 

 growing Harrisii lilies, and has already 

 reduced his orders for bulbs simply on 

 account of the losses due to the insect. 



Mr. Buettner notes a great difference in 

 Japan longiflorums. Some with broad 

 leaves seem to flower well and others 

 with narrow foliage seem to be coming 

 blind. He presumes that the bulbs are 

 grown largely from seed in Japan and 

 that the difference is due to seed varia- 

 tions. 



LONG ISLAND NOTES. 



Mr. Bisold. of recent carnation fame, 

 being the grower and introducer of the 

 new variety, Mrs. Frances Joost, met me 

 at the Miueola depot with his 2:40 horse 

 and a smile. 



After a drive of about a n ile over a 

 typical Long Island road we arrived at the 

 greenhouses and I was there introduced 

 to Mrs. Frances Joost (no rhyme in- 

 tended) for the first time. My first im- 

 pression was that it was a very strong up- 

 right growing variet\-, and not a stake is 

 used. Some were grown in solid beds 

 and some on benches. Mr. Besold prefers 

 the solid bed for this Variety, or for any 

 carnation for that matter, if set out in the 

 house by the first of June, or earlier if you 

 can spare the room. A description ap- 

 peared in our columns recently'. It is all 

 the introducer claims for it and it will, I 



