944 



The Weekly Florists' Review, 



MAY 19. 1S98. 



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If you don't get your own stock 

 planted out before the 5th of May you 

 are not likely to get it done before the 

 1.5th of June. I speak from experi- 

 ence, for those twenty days are so 

 taken up with filling orders that you 

 have no time to think of anything else. 

 You may make up your mind that you 

 ■will have one man "attend to such 

 things," and leave him alone and it 

 •will only be in your mind, for when 

 vou are in the real rush you will call 

 "him to help out and half a dozen oth- 

 ers if you had them. So get out all 

 you can a few days beforp you begin 

 planting for your customers. 

 What to Plant Out. 

 You should have a good number of 

 Stevia serratitolia (sweet stevia). Give 

 them two feet each way. They want 

 no attention after the first watering 

 except hoeing. If you still grow bou- 

 vardias plant them out a foot apart in 

 a rich, light soil. A few Linum trigy- 

 num are desirable; give them at least 

 one foot each way. 



Hydrangeas that are not wanted for 

 Easter forcing should go out at once. 

 If you don't have a deep, rich soil for 

 the hydrangeas within reach of the 

 hose you can plant them later on the 

 bench in five or six inc'aes of soil, 

 where they' will be sure to get atten- 

 tion, but if you have the right place 

 outside there they make the largest 

 plants. 



A lot of English ivy that was propa- 

 gated this spring should go out. They 

 make the best of droopers for vases 

 :and boxes. They make fine plants by 

 the fall, lift so easily and occupy the 

 poorest place you have: even under 

 the benches they will thrive. You will 

 -want a good many vincas. Get them 

 Into the ground at once. They make 

 fine plants for division during the next 

 ■winter. 



Plant out a few of everything you 

 ■need for stock. A few plants of each 

 are enough of many plants, but of oth- 

 ers more, and above all get out your 

 stock of geraniums. The Zonale. varie- 

 gated, bronze and the semi-double are 



much the most important of all and 

 you cannot get thousands of good, 

 healthy cuttings next September un- 

 less you plant out now a fine lot of 

 healthy plants, and now is a good time 

 to buy any new varieties that you wish 

 to add to" your stock. Alphouse Ric- 

 card is turning out a most beautiful 

 large flower of rich, rosy scarlet; just 

 what we want for a bedder. I don't 

 keep account of the varieties now as I 

 did when we could tell forty of them 

 by their leaves without the flower; less 

 varieties will do. Some of the most 

 beautiful flowers make poor growth 

 outside. S. A. Nutt, by no means new, 

 is a grand variety to grow and flower, 

 but a little dark. The variety men- 

 tioned above is likely to become very 

 popular. 



Ten or twelve inches apart is all 

 right to plant geraniums for a flower 

 bed, for a dense mass of flowers is all 

 that is wanted; but for cuttings they 

 should not be so close. Keep the rows 

 eighteen inches apart and the plants 

 fifteen inches in the row. You want 

 air and daylight to permeate through 

 them and the cuttings to grow close 

 jointed and firm. 



You will most likely have added sev- 

 eral new varieties of cannas to your 

 stock; quite right if you did. for there 

 are several fine ones. Get them out of 

 the house and plainly labeled before 

 they are sold by mistake for perhaps 

 less than they cost. Never put out new 

 geraniums and other plants, particu- 

 larly cannas. which you don't know in 

 variety familiarly by sight without dis- 

 tinctly and plainly labeling. You think 

 you will remember them, but you 

 won't, and if you did it would be a 

 foolish tax on a brain that should be 

 better employed. A plainly written 

 label saves all trouble. There is not 

 only a great advantage to the plants 

 in getting them out in good time, you 

 will have less to care for Inside. 

 Dahlias. 

 There is likely to be a good demand 

 for these this spring. 'When their re- 

 quirements are well understood they 



can be grown here to perfection, but 

 not with the same care as you bestow 

 on a canna or salvia. Dormant roots 

 could have been put out a week ago, 

 but the started plants and those propa- 

 gated this spring should not go out 

 till the first of June. Dig a hole eigh- 

 teen inches across and one foot deep, 

 put three inches of manure in the bot- 

 tom, and when filling in the soil again 

 mix at least a third of manure with the 

 soil. Leave the surface cup shaped so 

 that you can water readily and to good 

 effect. Drive a good stout stake into 

 the center of the hole four or five feet 

 out of the ground and then plant the 

 dahlias. 



If you do this labor for your cus- 

 tomers they must pay for it. It is no 

 use trying to grow dahlias unless you 

 go to this trouble, and although I am 

 entirely opposed to watering our sum- 

 mer flowers out of doors the dahlia is 

 an exception. A good soaking twice a 

 week is what it wants. After the plant 

 has started to grow hoe the surface 

 and then put on a heavy mulch; water- 

 ing will then be of the greatest benefit. 



Planting Flower Gardens. 

 Year by year we are expected to do 

 more labor for our patrons without ex- 

 tra compensation, but we must draw 

 the line somewhere, and the plan we 

 adopted last year worked all right. If 

 there is a bed or beds, the order for 

 which amounts to .$10 and upward, the 

 customers will invariably ask you if 

 you won't let your man plant them, 

 "the beds are all ready." Sometimes 

 this is true, and many times they are 

 only ready for the pickaxe and spade, 

 being as hard as seven months of win- 

 ter can make them. Let it be clearly 

 understood that if the beds or borders 

 are really ready your man will plant 

 them, but if they are to be dug and 

 raked, the men's time will be charged 

 for, and charge 40 or 50 cents an hour 

 for their labor; in your busy time it is 

 worth it. An expert will plant a great 

 many plants in an hour. They will be 

 properly done and redound to your 

 credit, whereas if their hired man 

 planted them it would be a botch and 

 you would often be blamed. 



Speaking of proper planting, say for 

 geraniums, coleus, heliotrope, etc., 

 there is only one proper way. I can 

 hear some young men say fiddlesticks 

 and see older men turn up the point of 

 their proboscis; it does not matter, it 

 is the way. Make a hole with the 

 trowel a little larger and deeper than 

 the ball of the plant. Place the plant 

 in and enough earth to hold the plant 

 in place, or say halt fill the excavation. 

 When all the plants are in their places 

 water, not as a shower, but to each in- 

 dividual plant. In a few minutes fill 

 in the surface with the dry earth. That 

 watering will last longer and be of 

 more service to the plants than all the 

 future surface watering you can give. 

 How long would you have to stand 

 with a hose to wet the ground say six 

 inches deep? Think of it; if there 

 was the slightest rounding to the bed 

 you would have the surface soil all 

 washed off before the roots were 



