MAY I 



The Weekly Florists' Review* 



893 



Chrysanthemums. 



A subscriber. "S W.." sends the fol- 

 lowing: "Which is the best culture 

 for chrysanthemums raised and plant- 

 ed in a greenhouse? It you desire 

 very big flowers, must there be any 

 pinching done, or do you allow just 

 one single stem for each plant? Wlien 

 is the best time for planting them in 

 the bench?" A very few weeks ago 

 there apeared in The Review a rather 

 exhaustive article on chrysanthemums 

 which covered all the points of incpiiry. 

 but evidently "S. W." has not been a 

 "constant reader." Briefly, to answer 

 these questions I would say. plant at 

 once in ."> inches of rather neavy loam, 

 with a fifth of animal manure added. 

 and bone flour in the proportion of one 

 quart to two bushels of soil: plant 

 firmly. No pinching must be done; 

 let the main growth go right up. only 

 keeping all side or lateral growths 

 pinched off. For specific instructions 

 about watering, ventilation, disbud- 

 ding, and other essentials, please look 

 up No. 19 of Florists' Review. 



Spreading and Standing Over Plants. 



After the last shift has been given 

 to geraniums, fuchsias, pelargoniums, 

 cannas, and much other spring stock. 

 your labor is not nearly done by sim- 

 ply watering. This is just the time 

 that many plants, and most plants, un- 

 less hindered by a shady house and the 

 absence of artificial heat, will make a 

 rapid growth. It is the season of vigor 

 that suceeds a semi-hibernating state. 

 Standing over and giving more room 

 to a batch of plants costs so little that 

 it should never be neglected. A very 

 slow man will stand over and space 

 4.(KM> geraniums in ten hours. Sup- 

 posing he received $2 per day. and the 

 boy that helped him $1. that would be 

 75 cents per thousand. By giving them 

 another inch of space, removing a yel- 

 low leaf here and there, and perhaps a 

 too-early flower that you don't want to 

 mature, you have added at the very 

 least .fl per hundred to their value, 

 and most likely much more. Still, if 

 you see a batch of drawn-up. leggy, 

 sickly-looking plants, the owner says: 

 "They would have been better, but I 

 didn't have time to give them a move- 

 over." 



Many of our bedding plants, gera- 

 niums, coleus, cannas and others, 

 should have no shade, but in the ab- 

 sence of shade much watering will be 

 needed, and what will »»elp to dis- 



pense witn much watering, to the 

 great benefit of the plants, is to plunge 

 the pots to at least half their depth 

 in some cheap and easily handled ma- 

 terial. Remember, it takes a little 

 time and a little material to plunge 

 the plants, but the saving is at least 

 one watering a day on the hot days of 

 this month, and the great vigor shown 

 by those plunged compared with those 

 continually dried out will pay over 

 and over again. Sifted coal ashes, tan- 

 bark, old hotbed, and. best of all. spent 

 hops, will do as a plunging material. 

 I don't say this plan is absolutely 

 necessary, but it will save labor and 

 produce a plant much better fitted to 

 stand the sun and wind than one 

 grown in a shady house. 



The Ivy Geranium. 



I spoke above of keeping flowers 

 picked off till they were wanted. Of 

 all common flowers that is most essen- 

 tial in the beautiful ivy geranium, for 

 fine blossoms as they are. they soon 

 exhaust themselves if the flowers are 

 not kept picked. They are beautiful 

 plants, but when planted out make a 

 strong growth and quickly go out of 

 flower. When their roots are limited 

 to a large jar, vase, or veranda box, 

 they are very satisfactory, and will 

 continue to llower for months if not 

 exhausted by old flowers being left on. 

 This is largely true of our common 

 zonale, or bedding geranium. When 

 a plant is allowed to run to seed, it is 

 exhausting its strength more than all 

 the flne expanded petals do. Geranium 

 flowers are some of the most durable 

 of all if placed in water, and for ceme- 

 tery purposes we have never had 

 enough. 



Roses. 



Not much later than this should 

 your stock of young roses receive their 

 last shift, which is a 4-inch; larger 

 than this is not necessary, and to re- 

 main in a ;Vinch till planting time 

 they would get stunted. In a more 

 southern latitude you couid. by the 

 middle of this month, place them in a 

 cold frame, and later remove the sash, 

 which will give them a good, hardy 

 growth. With us the period that they 

 would be benefited by a move to a cold 

 frame would be too short to be of 

 much avail. So place them in a light 

 house, where you can ventilate per- 

 fectly. No shade should be given, and 

 a plunging would be of the greatest 

 benefit to them. American Beauties 



will want the same treatment as the 

 teas. Endeavor to get a good, strong, 

 growing plant by the middle of June 

 or. latest, by first of .July. 

 Hanging Baskets. 



This is a feature of ornamental gar- 

 dening that has been for some years 

 decidedly on the wane, but yet is by 

 no means dead. Hung round a brown- 

 stone mansion, they would be absurd- 

 ly out of place, but on the veranda of 

 the more modest villa, they are quite 

 endurable. We have often thought 

 we would get "stuck" on a hundred 

 hanging baskets, but about the middle 

 of June, sure enough along would 

 come somebody that wanted them for 

 a new summer resort, excursion 

 steamer, or something else. How they 

 are abused and what hideous objects 

 they become before half the season is 

 over is none of our business. If intel- 

 ligently cared for. they have a fresh 

 and pleasant appearance till frosts of 

 autumn gather them in. There are 

 hanging baskets of wood, of earthen- 

 ware and of wire. The latter is the 

 only kind tolerated here, and is in 

 every respect the best. When lined 

 with green moss from the woods, they 

 are sightly in appearance and the roots 

 of the crowded plants find a most con- 

 genial feeding ground if not allowed 

 to get parched. It should be unneces- 

 sary to say that the richest soil should 

 be used in the baskets, for there are 

 ten times as many plants occupying 

 the space as should produce one 

 healthy, growing plant; but with all 

 that they exist, and even grow if faith- 

 fully cared for. 



If in a shady place you can use as 

 center plants fuchsias and Rex bego- 

 nias, but if exposed to sun and wind 

 and perhaps dust, you had better se- 

 lect for the center or upright plants 

 any of these: Geraniums, coleus, 

 achyranthes. Begonia vernon, age- 

 ratum. or almost any plant that will 

 stand the sun and little root room. The 

 chief attraction of a hanging basket is 

 the so-called vines, or. more properly, 

 the plants that will droop and keep 

 green. Even if the center plants should 

 wilt, if the droopers hang down and 

 make a pretty effect, you will hear no 

 fault finding. Of these, there are a 

 number, and when arranging them on 

 the edge of a basket see that those of 

 a shorter growth, like lobelias, are 

 alternated with one of more rampant 

 growth, such as senecio (German ivy). 

 There is lobelia, senecio, money vine, 

 the variegated glechoma, vincas, ivy 

 geranium, gramraanthes, maurandya, 

 nasturtium, double sweet alyssum, 

 Pylogne suavis. sedums, small plants 

 of English ivy, Solanum jasminoides, 

 and others. We fill the baskets about 

 the middle of May. They are then in 

 good condition to be exposed about the 

 first of June. WM. SCOTT. 



A ROSE TWO INCHES TALL. 



A rose bush in bloom, not over two 

 inches tall, was recently shown us by 

 Mr. W. C. Egan, Highland Park. 111. 

 It was a little specimen of Rosa poly- 



