774 



The Weekly Florists^ Review. 



APRIL 7. 1S9S. 



roots and soil in the new situation. 

 Tliis needs to be done at tiie expense 

 of food already in tiie plant, and be- 

 fore the soil water can be absorbed 

 and sent up to the drooping foliage. 



During this period the leaves are of 

 very little use to the plant and often a 

 positive damage, because the exposed 

 surface is too large and the whole 

 plant may dry out so much as to be 

 beyond recovering when the roots 

 have made their active union with the 

 soil. The foliage therefore of a plant 

 to be transplanted, as a rule, should 

 be reduced, provided the surrounding 

 conditions are not under control, for it 

 is possible to reduce the loss of water 

 from the leaves in small potted plants 

 by having them in a cool, moist place 



where they will not dry out. But with 

 out-of-door plants this is not usually 

 possible and then the leafage needs to 

 be reduced. In short, if one system is 

 suffering, the other needs to suffer 

 with it, and if thfe roots have been 

 pruned the branches bearing leaves 

 need to be pruned to establish the 

 proper relations between the two. 



In this connection it should be 

 borne in mind that frequent watering 

 of the soil of a newly set plant may 

 be injurious. It does not need floods 

 of water so much as time to make new 

 roots and root hairs under the most 

 favorable conditions, which are not in 

 a water soaked soil. 



BYRON D. HALSTED. 



Rutgers College, April 2, 1898. 



EARLY AND LATE PLANTING 

 OUT. 



The time for propagating soon ends. 

 It becomes rather a difficult task to 

 root cuttings successfully in a higher 

 temperature, as we have to expect 

 now, and in fact have already experi- 

 enced. Two or three days of dry, 

 warm weather, which will make it im- 

 possible to control the temperature in 

 the house, will give them a setback 

 that will very much lengthen the 

 usual time to root, and diminish the 

 percentage of the crop of well rooted 

 cuttings. This will not very material- 

 ly change the quality of them, as they 

 come from the sand, but the advan- 

 tage of an early planting for a success- 

 ful summer growth cannot be overes- 

 timated, and these delayed cuttings 

 can certainly not be equal to the 

 earlier propagated ones, now growing 

 on in flats or pots, or planted out on 

 shallow benches, ready for an early 

 transfer to the field. Of course much 

 depends on circumstances, an early or 

 late spring, moist or dry weather. In 

 my experience I have had as good 

 success with these late propagated 

 plants as with the early ones, but 

 these are exceptions. 



In an early planting we are often 

 confronted with many aggravating 

 circumstances injurious to the freshly 

 transplanted plants that often vary 

 with each season. Our planting time, 

 as a rule, is the month of May, but it 

 is preferable if we can accomplish it 

 earlier; if we can get them out in 

 April so much the better. But even in 

 May we may still encounter severe 

 frosts, and as early as in April we may 



have to endure some hot. dry days, 

 which is certainly not to the welfare 

 of the newly transplanted plants, and 

 results often in serious consequences. 

 So in an early planting-out, all de- 

 pends on the condition the young 

 plants are in; if they were kept in a 

 well ventilated, sunny house and in 

 rather a low temperature, just warm 

 enough to keep them in a growing 

 condition, they will be well hardened 

 and neither a late frost nor early 

 warm, dry days will affect them very 

 seriously. This is the advantage of 

 early propagated plants and well kept, 

 hardened plants, thus being in time 

 to take advantage of chances as they 

 may present themselves. 



But there often occur circumstances 

 that deprive us of this advantage; we 

 have to do with later propagated 

 plants; our stock is not large enough 

 to furnish us the desired quantity of 

 suitable cuttings at one time: we have 

 to depend on a later growth. Delay 

 may occur from a hundred and one 

 different sources, and we may be com- 

 pelled to use plants of a late propaga- 

 tion. To alleviate conditions of this 

 kind the best way is to treat such 

 plants the same as you necessarily 

 treat your early plants. Pot them up 

 in 2-inch pots and transplant from 

 these pots. This may seem a delay and 

 additional work, but this work is well 

 repaid in their advanced growth, in 

 their more fitting condition for the 

 transfer. Use a light, rich soil that 

 contains well decomposed, ready food, 

 and keep them in the pots, if only for 

 12 or 14 days. This will enable them 

 to take up some nourishment and 

 cause the roots to start and fill the 

 little pot. You have them under your 

 control, can shelter them from inclem- 

 ent weather which they would have to 



endure unprotected. To say the least, 

 to transplant from the sand to the 

 open field is a very hazardous under- 

 taking. 



I very much prefer to transplant 

 from pots; the little balls are a net- 

 work of roots and remain intact, the 

 transfer being hardly noticed by the 

 young plants, if care has been taken 

 not to grow them too soft. If the roots 

 appear matted they should be loosened 

 and partly torn away, but without 

 breaking the ball. All the stock in- 

 tended for our own use is potted up as 

 it comes from the sand, and if of early 

 propagation, shifted into larger pots it 

 necessary. It often occurs with us that 

 in many varieties, when orders have 

 to be filled and stock runs short, that 

 our lot is the last batch of cuttings, 

 and to my experience with careful 

 treatment I have found no other detri- 

 ment than a later blooming in the fall. 

 When these little plants have no 

 chance to make much growth in the 

 spring, they have to make it up in the 

 fall, and hence the delay in maturity 

 and freedom in blooming; they will 

 most always establish themselves to 

 endure the summer heat if treated 

 properly. 



With this I would not like to be un- 

 derstood as encouraging late planting, 

 for it will never prove so profitable as 

 an early planting, but as I have said 

 before, circumstances may compel one 

 to do it. Anybody can grow plants and 

 flowers if conditions are at all times 

 as they should be, and it is just as im- 

 portant to know what to do under ad- 

 verse circumstances, for this makes 

 the skillful grower. 



The assertion that late propagating 

 and planting out will help to degener- 

 ate the stock, I do not believe, and it 

 should not be confounded with the re- 

 sults of early and late planting, as far 

 as profit is concerned. Early plants 

 have the advantage of a spring 

 growth, mature earlier in the fall, are 

 of larger size when housed, and are 

 consequently earlier in blooming, 

 while late plants have to make their 

 principal growth in the fall, come later 

 into bloom, and consequently canuot 

 bring so many blooms through the 

 season and are therefore less profita- 

 ble. Now according to my experience 

 there is one other important point: 

 The late plants furnish me the best 

 and healthiest cuttings at the right 

 time. FRED DORNER. 



AMERICAN CARNATION SOCIETY. 



Efforts are being made to increase 

 the amount of subscriptions to the 

 permanent fund, the interest of which 

 is to be used to pay the running ex- 

 penses of the Society. About ?400 was 

 subscribed at the Chicago meeting in 

 sums of $25 each. Secretary Herr in- 

 vites others interested to add their 

 names to the list of subscribers. 



The committee appointed to investi- 

 gate the legislation on plants, etc.. 



