432 



The Weekly Florists^ Review, 



FEBRl'ARY 



1X3S. 



pipes properly graded, as a very small 

 sag will sometimes greatly impair the 

 rapid (and consequently economical) 

 heating of a house. 



R. E. SHUPHELT. 

 Chatham. N. Y. 



VIOLET NOTES. 



Mr. W. Scott, in his article on violets 

 in No. 7, claims, that rooted runners 

 only will give satisfactory results, and 

 that they must be planted in solid beds 

 only, in order to achieve success. Our 

 method of growing is somewhat con- 

 trary to his. and yet our success this 

 winter would be hard to excel, and 

 with the majority of good growers, 

 hard even to equal. 



We grow in both solid Ijeds and 

 benches, both systems having the glass 

 off during the summer, and our plants 

 are the picture of vigor, health and 

 abundance of bloom. Our method of 

 rrojiagation is different from his. In 

 April, when the plants are through 

 blooming, we divide the old plants, 

 making as many as 40 to 50 plants from 

 one. We manage to have a little root 



on each one; any without roots are put 

 in the propagating bed. the crown 

 thrown away and the rooted divisions 

 potted into 2ij-inch pots and placed on 

 the same bench, from which the old 

 plants were removed. Of course great 

 care should be exercised in shading, 

 watering and ventilation, until the 

 roots begin to start, after which they 

 are all right. 



By this method, we have met with as 

 good success. I imagine, as with his 

 rooted cuttings, only, although rooted 

 runners, we admit, are preferable; yet 

 it does not follow, that In order to 

 achieve success we must have rooted 

 runners. Again, we have met with 

 equal success with solid beds as with 

 benches, and. indeed we think better: 

 in fact, we prefer them, and excepting 

 the solid beds we now have, we shall in 

 the future plant in benches only. One 

 great factor in benches is that you can 

 dry them out better in damp, wet 

 weather; also regulate the watering to 

 better advantage, which, to grow vio- 

 lets successfully, means no little meas- 

 ure towards success. 



GEO. F. CRABB. 



Primula Ojcor.ica. 



It is too early yet, midd e of March 

 will do, but as .scon as you can procure 

 fresh seeds of Primula obconica sow it. 

 It takes longer than the sinensis type 

 to make a good flowering plant. They 

 don't poison every one and are so pro- 

 fuse in blooming that they are one of 

 our important midwinter, inexpensive 

 plants. 



There is a demand at Easter for 

 plants to suit all sizes of purses and 

 last year we found that pans of pansies. 

 of good stem and full of flowers, sold 

 ■well. There is also this advantage that 

 the plants, when out of flower, which 

 doubtless they would be in a few weeks, 

 kept in a warm room would recover and 

 give lots of flowers if planted out the 

 end of April. We have plenty of cus- 

 tomers who would not consider this 

 trifling advantage, but there is ;i large 

 number who would; the same class of 

 sweet ladies who ask you "What shall 

 I do with my geraniums in the fall?" 

 Try and answer such questions with a 

 little humor, a little sarcasm, plenty of 

 good nature, the whole seasoned with 

 respect, and you most likely have cured 

 your patron of putting such idle in- 

 quiries unless she is a rural dame, "who 

 loves posies and you ought to see her 

 Begonias to home, what Congressman 



J3oodle brought from Washington and 

 give a slip to her aunt." Don't waste 

 any time or breath on that breed. If 

 you have pansies in a cold frame, dig 

 up some the first occasion that the frost 

 is out of the ground; it is not too early. 

 If in separate colors, so much the bet- 

 ter, for a pan of yellow or blue pansies 

 would be bound to sell; but who ever 

 saw a mixed bed of pansies where the 

 colors did not harmonize! A very light 

 house where the night temperature is 

 about 45 degrees will do well for these 

 little plants. You want them to g;ow. 

 but not grow tall and spindling. I have 

 a bench at present of a thousand or 

 two. The house has been down to 40 

 degrees many cold nights, and being 

 very light the plants have grown very 

 sturdy, but only now commencing to 

 open their lovely, expressive features. I 

 shall lift a lot of these into 6, 7 and 8- 

 inch pans and Iceep them as cool as pos- 

 sible, for being all ready to bloom and 

 much larger plants than those from a 

 cold frame, they will come along plenty 

 early enough with the natural advance 

 of the season. 



Bougainvillea Sanderiana. 



A lot of cuttings of Bougainvillea 

 Sanderiana put in the sand in October, 

 although by no means hard wood, hav? 



rooted but indifferently, not more than 

 50 per cent. Those put into heat weeks 

 ago and now showing their flower buds 

 are also making a young tender growth 

 that will strike as freely as a verbena. 

 You can get a few cuttings off each old 

 plant without in the least robbing to 

 any serious extent. 



Begonia Manicata Aurea. 

 A plant that I had occasion to men- 

 tion and which may appear in another 

 column of The Review, is Begonia man- 

 icata aurea. If anyone has a la;-ge stock 

 I am not aware of it. It is not valuable 

 for Its fine spike of pink flowers as is 

 the type, but for its beautifully mottled 

 foliage. If it were a tender fastidious 

 plant Us mottled green and golden 

 leaves would have little value in the 

 eyes of the commercial florist, but it is 

 not; It is par excellence, one of the 

 very best plants to withstand the dry 

 air of a steam heated room. It grows 

 slowly like most good things and prop- 

 agation by cuttings is slow, but it can. 

 be produced freely by pieces of the leaf 

 as you do the Rex type. A batch put in 

 about October 15 is now showing up 

 with their little leaves. You don't want 

 this for spring sales. Plants rooted in 

 rail or midwinter would not be large 

 enough, but you will have fine plants 

 for next winter's sale. For an amateur 

 conservatory, of which I am glad to 

 say there seems to be quite a revival it 

 IS an ideal plant. I beg to say by "ama- 

 leur conservatory." I don't mean the de- 

 tached conservatory and other houses 

 presided over by a professional garden- 

 er, but the little 8x18 structure that 

 now is attached on the sunny sid- to so 

 many of our luxurious residences. 



Palms. 

 There is at the present time an op- 

 portunity to do up some jobs round the 

 greenhouse that may not appsar abso- 

 lutely necessary, but yet will well pay 

 for the time spent. One of these is to 

 have a thorough overhauling of your 

 palms, big and little. Be caiefiil of 

 overpotting, if you need any at all. 

 Palms, all of them, will thrive in a re- 

 markably small pot. apparently out of 

 proportion to their size, if well cared 

 for with water and a proper tempara- 

 lure. This is net a bad time to shift, 

 if it must be done. As the days are get- 

 ting longer there will be more light, 

 more heat and more inclination to grow 

 top and bottom. But it was not shifting 

 I alluded to. it was sponging. In the 

 best regulated houses mealy bug and 

 white and brown scale make their ap- 

 pearance. Go over them all with a 

 sponge and a tub of water in which 

 you have added one-sixtieth part of 

 Rose Leaf Extract of tobacco. In go- 

 ing over them, small plants especially, 

 it does not take long to knock out a 

 Kentia Belraoreana in a 4 or 5-inch pot. 

 See that the crock and perhaps piece of 

 green moss is in shape to let water 

 pass freely through. Pull out a big 

 worm or two; rub off an inch of the 

 worn-out soil on the surface and re- 

 place with fresh loam. In nine cases 

 out of ten this is .-ill the palm will need 



