MARCH 17. 1S9S. 



The Weekly Florists^ Review. 



643 



spite of the rust some splendid flowers 

 are produced but ttie blooms are not 

 frequent enough to make the variety 

 proflcable here. Mrs. Bradt is con- 

 sidered the most profitable variety on 

 the place. The blooms are certainly 

 grand and have stems amply strong 

 enough to carry the flower. lu fact the 

 stems on these flowers seem even 

 stronger than on blooms grown by Mr. 

 Dorner. They find sale for all the 

 flowers they can cut at $8 per 100. 



Flora Hill is doing grandly, but Mr. 

 Bassett believes that Mary Wood, one 

 of Mr. Dorner's seedlings, will excel it 

 at their place. Mary Wood is a white, 

 which shows pink in the petals when 

 first expanded, but later turns to pure 

 white. The flowers are very large, 

 freely produced, with good stem, and 

 certainly make a splendid showing 



here. Mayor Pingree produces some 

 splendid blooms, but seems rather shy 

 in blooming. Scott no longer does well 

 here and is about to be discarded. 

 Rose Queen and Minnie Cook were 

 tried this season but didn't pan out. 

 Triumph also failed to do well. Lily 

 Dean and Maud Dean had a moderate 

 share of space. The former made a 

 very good impression but no place is 

 seen for the latter. 



The young carnation plants here are 

 planted out in the benches instead of 

 in flats or pots. Mr. Bassett says he 

 has much better success with them in 

 this way. 



As to varieties to grow for next year 

 Mr. Bassett says they will conflne 

 themselves to the fancy varieties that 

 will bring a good price, and will let 

 some one else grow the common sorts. 



CHRYSANTHEMUM NOTES. 



Just at this time, when all the flot- 

 sam and jetsam of plant life that has 

 been drifting round the houses all win- 

 ter is being rounded up and propagat- 

 ed for spring sales, it is well to re- 

 member to leave lots of room for the 

 "mum" cuttings. Overcrowding them 

 in the cutting bench saps the vitality 

 out of them, weakens them and ren- 

 ders them susceptible to anything that 

 comes along. Also be careful what cut- 

 tings you select for propagating. The 

 suckers that come up out of the ground 

 around the old stem are the best and 

 as useful to the mum grower as the 

 sucker of another species is to the 

 bunco steerer. The shoots that form 

 on the old stem, stem cuttings as they 

 are usually termed, are of little use 

 because they begin to throw buds as 

 soon as they get to growing. Just as 

 soon as the tip of the cutting begins 

 to grow it will be found that the roots 

 are about an inch long and they should 

 be at once taken up and put into flats 

 or pots. When cuttings are left too 

 long in the sand after rooting they 

 invariably make a spindly, wiry tip 

 which never gets to growing freely 

 and the object to aim at above all 

 things is to keep your plants on the 

 move right from the cutting bench till 

 the flower is developed. Whoso doeth 

 this thing will never fail. 



All the cuttings it is possible to get 

 of the slow growing kinds, like Mrs. 

 Jerome Jones or Major Bonnaffon, 

 should be put in this month. They do 

 not make auch a quick growth as the 

 others and consequently take longer to 

 develop. We have had some very fine 

 flowers of Bonnaffon with a stem of 

 only about 9 inches, but such a flower 

 has hardly stem enough to sell well. 

 Rooted now and grown right along 



Bonnaffon will give a stem two to 

 three feet in length. Mis. Jerome 

 Jones also is mighty slow and this va- 

 riety must be given lots of time, for if 

 you attempt to rush it the flower is 

 deficient in petals and mighty insig- 

 nificant compared with what it should 

 be. 



If you are growing any plants for 

 specimens they should be watched and 

 potied on from 2'^ to 5-inch pots as 

 soon as they are ready. Never let 

 them become rootbound, as such treat- 

 ment only means a check. Use in pot- 



ting good fibry loam mixed with a lit- 

 tle wood ashes or burnt refuse, which 

 will put a healthy gloss and dark col- 

 or on the foliage. The top should be 

 pinched out as soon as the plants are 

 growing good and the object from now 

 on should be to encourage the plant to 

 make as many "breaks" as possible. 



Black fly should be fought right 

 from the first and the best means we 

 have found to accomplish this is to 

 burn tobacco dust in the house. We 

 make four or five heaps in a house 100 

 feet long and light it by means of a 

 little kerosene poured on top of the 

 heap. It is better to have a few large 

 heaps than a dozen small ones because 

 the idea is to keep up a little smoke 

 nearly all night which is much more 

 effective and not so likely to injure 

 any foliage as filling the house quick- 

 ly with a dense smoke as is done in 

 the old way by the use of tobacco 

 stems. 



The weather is beginning to get 

 springlike, and artificial heat should 

 be dispensed with as much as possible 

 now. Give all the air you can in mild 

 weallier to keep the young plants stur- 

 dy and vigorous. C. TOTTY. 



BUFFALO. 



Reunion of Florists' Club. 



There have been some events this 

 past week that are worth mentioning, 

 chief among which was the annual re- 

 union of the Buft'alo Florists' Club. 

 The club has been simply hibernating 

 for the past year, not dead but sleep- 

 ing, and this has been through no 

 fault of their ofl^cers, but a lack of 

 interest by the members. First there 

 was a short business meeting at which 

 it was decided we should hold a fall ex- 

 hibition; with or without theco-opera- 



Giant Live Oak in Audubon Park, New Orleans. 



