772 



The Weekly Florists' Review. 



APRIL 7, 1898. 



the earliest varieties and those will be 

 "crowns." In taking or selecting buds 

 the side growths must be taken out as 

 soon as large enough to rub off with 

 the thumb and the plants kept quiet 

 until the buds are well formed. The 

 crown being an unnatural bud re- 

 quires considerable care to insure its 

 producing a perfect bloom. Terminal 

 buds are the safest and in most varie- 

 ties produce the best flowers, while 

 crowns are earliest and should be used 

 for that purpose if properly under- 

 stood. 



All flowers should be cut and placed 

 in water at least 18 hours before being 

 put on the counter or shipped to the 

 retailer. Varieties that easily drop 

 their petals, as some of the most beau- 

 tiful do. and yet desirable, shou.d be 

 in water .3li hours. This will harden 

 the flowers and hold the petals. If the 

 flowers are to be shipped it is time 

 well spent, to pack with the greatest 

 care so they arrive at their destination 

 as perfect as when they were cut. 



I know of no better way to tie or 

 support the stems of chry.santhemums 

 than by running wire across the bench 

 near every row and a corresponding 

 wire above the plants keep the upper 

 wire well up. From the wire on the 

 bench to the one above run a string for 

 every plant. The cheapest string you 

 can buy is good enough. This is easily 

 disposed of when the crop is cut. You 

 may throw away the bottom wire but 

 the upper one is not likely to be iu 

 your way and wi 1 do duty for several 

 years. Anyone adopdng this plan will 

 never again resort to stakes of any 

 kind, unless it be for late struck 

 batches on side benches. 



Chrysanthemums can be planted 

 much closer than they often are, but 

 that will depend on how many flow- 

 ers you intend to grow to each plant, 

 and that again is controlled by what 

 your tiade demands. Three at the 

 most is all you should expect from any 

 plant, and I bel eve it most satisfac- 

 tory all 'round to grow but one stem 

 and one flower on any plant, and then 

 plant thickly. The rows 8 inches apart 

 and the plants 6 inches will do for all 

 the moderate-s zed flowers; for very 

 large specimen flowers, lO.xS would be 

 better. 



Pot Chrysanthemums. 



For several years the demand for 

 these has not b,en at all satisfactory. 

 I believe there is only one way to 

 profitably grow a moderate-sized, 

 healthy pot plant, that will keep its 

 foliage and really be respectable in 

 November. Choose healthy, young 

 plants, that have been propagated in 

 April. If they have been stopped onca 

 and are in 3-inch pots, so much the 

 better. By the midd e of June you will 

 have some vacant benches to spare 

 by bedding plants which are gone, or 

 you may throw away a bench of car- 

 nations. Five or six inches of soil on 

 the bench will do, and even if it has 

 grown carnations the previous winter. 

 is good enough, with the addition of 

 bone flour and a little rotted manure. 



Plant 15 to 18 inches apart. They will 

 make a fine growth during summer 

 and should have all their growths 

 stopped at least twice before lifting. 

 You have them under perfect control 

 by this method, and can keep them 

 watered and syringed, as well as keep- 

 ing the aphis subJued. The first of 

 September, neither three day's before 

 nor after, is the time to lift them, 

 which should be done with a d gging 

 fork, and by getting the fork down flat 

 on bottom of bench you need not lose 

 a fiber. These plants grow a great deal 

 after lifting, so don't crowd them into 

 too small a pot. We find a 6, 7 and 8- 

 inch suits the difl:erent varieties. A 

 few days of shading and a frequent 

 syringing and they will have taken 

 hold of the new soil, when you must 

 give them a light, airy house. Thes% 

 plants on an average have 12 to 20 

 buds, each bud disbudded to one flower. 

 Most of them can be tied by one stake 

 in the center and thread or raffia lead- 

 ing to each branch; larger plants, such 

 as Lincoln always makes, will require 

 several stakes; but let them be always 

 small and inconspicuous. Only a fevf 

 varieties are adapted to this purpose. 

 The short jointed, dwarf varieties are 

 the ones, and of all varieties that I 

 have tried. Ivory and Lincoln are the 

 ideals. Maud Dean is pretty fair, and 

 so is Bonnaffoa W. S. 



CHRYSANTHEMUM NOTES. 



Early Vaiieties. 



Cuttings should now be rooted of all 

 the early kinds, because if they are 

 rooted in good season it helps on their 

 natural tendency to come in earlier. 

 Of course a grower always grows such 

 kinds as best suit his market, and to 

 the retail florist a few good early 

 flowers are very useful. Personally we 

 don't care to have many of the earlier 

 kinds, though sometimes they sell bet- 

 ter than the mid-season varieties, for 

 at that time the usual glut has forced 

 prices down to bedrock. 



Quite a list of early kinds can now 

 be had to select from. Lady Fitzwy- 

 gram, Mme. Bergmann, Glory of the 

 Pacific, Merry Monarch, Yellow Mon- 

 arch, Marion Henderson, J. E. Lager, 

 and so on. We are content to wait for 

 Mrs. Robinson in the whites. It gen- 

 erally is in good shape for cutting by 

 October 15, and when it does come all 

 other whites fall far behind. Glory of 

 the Pacific is a very good pink. It is 

 vigorous, has a good stem and excel- 

 lent foliage. Henry Hurrell is a com- 

 paratively new early yellow variety of 

 promise, and will be grown quite ex- 

 tensively this year. Among other 

 good points it is an excellent keeper. 

 J. E. Lager is also good in the yellows. 

 The two namesakes of Lager and Hur- 

 rell make as good a team as the orig- 

 inals, who, I suppose, since they went 

 into the orchid business would refuse 

 to acknowledge the poor but honest 

 "mum." 



New Varieties. 



Plants of some of the new kinds are 

 to hand, some good, others spindly 

 and weak enough to cause one to ask 

 with suffering Cuba: "How long will 

 these things be?" Still novelties we 

 must have, or get left in the march of 

 progress, and I suppose with some of 

 these we are liable to get left anyway, 

 so what's the use of grieving. I have 

 read that a man puts the stamp of his 

 own individuality on the plants he 

 grows, and if this be so there must be 

 some consumptive looking, spindle- 

 shanked "mum" growers around 

 somewhere. When plants are received 

 the best thing to do with them is to 

 take off the tops for cuttings as soon 

 as practicable, and send the old plants 

 "where the woodbine twineth." By so 

 •doing you remove the possibility of in- 

 troducing any disease to your own 

 plants, a remote possibility, perhaps, 

 but it is best to make sure, and the 

 cutting, if you root it yourself, will 

 ninety-nine times out of a hundred do 

 better with your system than the old 

 plant would have done. 



Cleanliness is a very important 

 thing to keep in mind around a cut- 

 ting bench. Every morning the bed 

 should be carefully looked over and 

 any dead or decaying foliage should 

 be at once removed. This may not 

 look very important, but if it be neg- 

 lected with some varieties, like Golden 

 Wedding, that are prone to disease, 

 first thing you know it spreads 

 through the whole batch and for all 

 the good they will do you, they may 

 as well be cleared out right away. 



C. TOTTY. 



WINTER IN MEXICO. 



I send herewith a snap shot of a win- 

 ter scene down in the city of Guada- 

 lajara, Mexico, which will show some- 

 thing of the way the park superinten- 

 dent does his work there. 



The railroad journey from here at 

 the frontier down the line of the Mex- 

 ican Central to Irapuato is devoid of 

 any special interest to the traveler, 

 unless it be the miles upon miles of 

 mountains with their untold wealth 

 of gold and silver, the great plains 

 covered with long horned cattle and 

 the quaint Mexican towns perched 

 along the mountain sides and in val- 

 leys, the white "adoOe" (big sun- 

 dried bricks) houses glistening in the 

 bright sunlight most beautifully. Mex- 

 ico is known as the land of the sun; 

 but the trouble is that the sun is so 

 decidedly too much of a good thing ta- 

 ken with the plateau elevation of from 

 4,000 to 8,000 feet, that it knocks the 

 fiorist's dreams into a cocked hat. 



Irapuato is what is known as the 

 "strawberry station." from the fact 

 that one can have there strawberries 

 practically every day in the year. Right 

 here let me say that the Mexican 

 strawberry is the nearest to an ever- 

 bearing plant that 1 have ever seen. 

 I have been over the line several times 



