APRJL 21. ISSS. 



The Weekly Florists^ Review. 



839 





,^ 



^^•i«=^ 



Boronia Elatior trimmed with pink and white ribbon, in celluloid basket. 

 By Stumpp, New York. 



that sold so well this year that I shall 

 grow them in much increased numbers 

 for another year, and if I know how. 

 the readers of The Review shall know 

 as much as I do. 



WILLIAM SCOTT. 



MISCELLANEOUS SEASONABLE 

 HINTS. 



Poinsettias. 

 If you have not already started your 

 poinsettias, do so at once. It is not 

 late, however, for cuttings struck 

 months after this will make most ac- 

 ceptable plants. Our old plants have 

 been stored away just as they were 

 knocked out of the pots and placed in 

 flats, in dry soil, under a dry. warm 

 bench. The wood will now be ripe and 

 hard. Shake off the old soil, cut back 

 the stems to the sound part; usually 

 an inch or so is dried up; pot into 4- 

 inch pots, and start them growing in 

 a light, warm house. You will get 

 plenty of breaks, which, when 2 or 3 

 inches long, make the best of cuttings. 

 They root easily in an ordinary cut- 

 ting bed. but should neither in the 

 sand nor the first week or two after 

 potting be allowed to wilt for want of 

 water or shading. But remember that 



after the young plants are once well 

 rooted in the pots, not a particle of 

 shade at any time should l)e given. 



It may be entirely immaterial about 

 cutting many cuttings at or just belov.- 

 a joint. In the poinsettia I much pre- 

 fer the cut should be close to a joint, 

 iind when taking the cutting from the 

 old stem, leave at least one joint of 

 the young growth, from which you 

 will get another crop of cuttings. 

 Those propagated as late as August 

 made last winter our best plants, for 

 the earliest propagated were spoilt by 

 mismanagement, while the plant, after 

 flowering, can be treated almost like a 

 dry bulb: it is very different when in 

 full leaf, and in the successive shift- 

 ; ings that you give it the roots must 

 be disturbed as little as possible. 



Lilies. 



Since the great clear-out of Easter. 

 we have to shift and spread out many 

 of our future crops. The lancifoliuni 

 lilies should now be shifted from th." 

 4-inch pots in which they were started 

 to a 5 or 6-inch, their flowering pot. 

 A cool, airy house suits them best, 

 and a little shade, and if kept free of 

 aphis by regular fumigating, will well 

 repay the room and labor, especially 



Liliura 1. album. They make a hand- 

 some bunch, and we have them in July 

 and August, when white flowers are 

 scarce. 



Smilax. 



The flats th:it were sown in .January 

 or February should now be potted off 

 into 2-inch "pots. They will do in any 

 shady corner, and I have seen the lit- 

 tle plants thriving beneath a bench, 

 but the better place you give them 

 the stronger and better they will be. 

 About June 1, those for your own use, 

 at any rate, should be shifted into a 

 3-inch; then they will be stout plants 

 to plant in the new bed very early in 

 July. The difference in results between 

 a spindling little plant and a stout one 

 in a 3-inch would be one crop worth at 

 least 15 cents per string. A strong 

 plant set out in July will easily pro- 

 duce four crops by the following June, 

 if grown in a temperature of not less 

 than 60 degrees at night. 



Geraniums. 



In February we took off the tops of a 

 good many thousand zonal geraniums 

 and put them at once into 2-inch pots. 

 A very small loss has occurred, and 

 they make better plants than those 

 put in the sand. Just as soon as well 

 rooted, they should be shifted into a 

 3. or. better still. S'o-inch pots. They 

 make fine bedding plants and come in 

 finely after your 4-incli autumn struck 

 plants are disposed of. Why I men- 

 tion these simple operations is that 

 several seasons we have been guilty of 

 leaving these spring-struck geraniums 

 starving till the middle of May. and 

 then shifted them. They would then 

 almost stand still. They were stunted, 

 and you had ceased firing, and when 

 you do that, there is a halt for a short 

 time in the growth of all the soft 

 wooded plants. 



Pelargoniums. 



We have rather a large and fine lot 

 of these showy plants. I may be al- 

 lowed to say tnis, as they are not for 

 sale except at home. They are oroad 

 and stout, with leaves like small rhu- 

 barb. You cannot see the pots, which 

 are 5-inch, and the buds are just show- 

 ing color. Cool and almost dormant 

 as these plants have been in the days 

 of winter, in spring they begin to 

 grow, and when flowering must have 

 plenty of room and abundance of fresh 

 air. and in damp, rainy weather, dur- 

 ing the months of April and May. muist 

 never be without flre heat. When in 

 full bloom, one cool, damp night will 

 ruin them, and their petals will drop, 

 rotting the leaves in a few hours, and 

 your work of months is ruined in one 

 night. Greenfly is very fond of them, 

 so smoke often till the flowers are 

 open, then mildly, or the flowers will 

 drop. It's a pity the pelargonium is 

 not more popular and profitable. The 

 wonderful flowers and more durable 

 qualities of the zonal type have taken 

 its place, but it is a real good win'ow 

 plant. 



