864 



The Weekly Florists^ Review. 



APRIL 2S, 1S98. 



it grows taller than he supposes, aver- 

 aging ir> to -II feet in full-grown trees 

 here in Florida, where it is native. 



It is extremely graceful, having 

 slender, bending stems and shining 

 leaves of particularly neat appearance, 

 hut it is so very slow in growth that 

 many are discouraged with it. We 

 have grown it for several years, and 

 sent it out to hundreds of customers, 

 and find that the larger ones give sat- 

 isfaction. Ten-year-old specimens are 

 in 4-inch pots, and even with frequent 

 change of soil and every advantage in 

 heat and situation, make hut trifling 

 gi'owth. This species grows very 

 abundantly on the lower Florida keys 

 and forms dense groves near the 

 beaches. 



There are also two other species, the 

 T. argentea and T. excelsa, which are 

 just as common in the same region. 

 The argentea is the smaller of these 

 two sorts and has more elegant leaves, 

 richly covered on the under side with 

 a thick, silvery coat. The excelsa is 



much larger than either parviflora or 

 argentea, having a trunk four to six 

 inches thick and reaching a height of 

 -'i feet. All sorts are of extremely 

 slow growth. There are miles of nar- 

 row, sandy beaches backed with these 

 various Thrinax palms, forming beau- 

 tiful views, rising up from dark blue 

 water, views which the average Amer- 

 ican never even dreamed of as belong- 

 ing to our own "fair Florida." 



In this connection I wish to state 

 that the following palms are all native 

 to Florida: Sabal palmetto, S. Adan- 

 sonii. Serenoa serrulata, Chamaevops 

 hystrix, Pseudophoenix Sargentii, Ore- 

 odoxa regia. Thrinax parviflora. T. ex- 

 celsa, T. ar.gente'a, T. Garberi. Cocos 

 nucifera, an unnamed slender palm we 

 have found in the Everglades, and pos- 

 sibly one more species of thrinax, 

 making thirteen well-defined species, 

 contained under at least eight genera. 

 E. N. REASONER. 



Oneco. Fla. 



Advising Customers. 



There is often a great misunder- 

 standing with your uninformed cus- 

 tomers about when to pl.-int out many 

 of their summer flowering p'ants, 

 many of them leaving the planting of 

 "their flowers" until the end of May. 

 It is your duty to educate and cnlti- 

 vate knowledge among those who by 

 neglect of their education do not know 

 the gardening art as you who are to 

 the manor born. I am a little late 

 even now on some things, but a re- 

 minder for those who have been neg- 

 ligent even if it benefits only one will 

 be of service. 



Hardy Plants. 



As soon as the ground is dry you 

 should plant gladiolus. If you grow 

 them in a small way. inches apart in 

 the rows and the rows 1 toot apart 

 will do very well, planting in drills 4 

 inches deep. If you grow them in 

 large quantities and have to cultivate 

 between rows with a horse, then throw 

 out a shallow drill 2 feet apart and G 

 inches deep and cover the bulbs with 

 a hoe. The gladiolus does not make 

 much growth till warm weather be- 

 gins, and it you live in a latitude 

 where frost is likely to appear at the 

 end of September, you may as well 

 plant them all now, for there will be 



plenty of stragglers continue flowering 

 till frost comes. If you do not get 

 frost till earl.v in November, then you 

 can reserve your last planting till the 

 first of .Inne. 



Hollyhocks should be planted now 

 or before. Don't say these majestic 

 plants cannot be grown here, for they 

 can. Our experience is they delight in 

 a heavy soil, with a large quantity of 

 animal manure. Two years ago we had 

 a lot, and of course nobody wanted 

 them. This year there is quite a call 

 for them, and of course we are with- 

 out them, and it is something you can- 

 not bu.v. It is entirely out of season 

 for me to tell you now how to have 

 them, but they should bo sown in Au- 

 gust or September and wintered over 

 in cold frames. Even with pansie.s the 

 great majority of people do not ask 

 for them till we have hot weather, 

 when the pansy, like all the viola fam- 

 ily, prefers to make leaves and not 

 flowers. Tell your customers now is 

 the time to buy and plant pansies. 

 Pansies should now be in full bloom, 

 and May is the month to enjoy them. 



Herbaceous plants should, of course, 

 be divided several weeks ago, but still 

 not too late. Your customers will ask 

 you for Anipelopsis Veitchii. which is 

 so overdone in sofne cities. You 

 should have dormant plants and plant 



at once. Never mind how small they 

 are if they have two or three live eyes 

 and good roots they are better than 

 plants with 3 feet of vine, for al the 

 growth begins at the bottom. 



Carnations. 



With all due deference for that most 

 worthy of men from the Hoosier state, 

 allow me to say, without any diver- 

 gence from his most excellent advice, 

 which I believe is given with as much 

 candor and sincerity as my own, that 

 I advised in the autumn that you 

 "strike" a few thousand cuttings of 

 the leading varieties of carnations. I 

 said Daybreak. Portia. Scott and 

 Alaska was a good selection (although 

 these are by no means the pick of the 

 flock today), and get them into 3-inch 

 pots by the first of March, Whether 

 you have them in that size or not is 

 not of great consequence, only plant 

 out a thousand or more, and plant 

 them in one bed. You can pinch them 

 once and then let them flower. By Au- 

 gust they will be in flower and what a 

 blessing to you. and will pay for dis- 

 budding just as much as those grown 

 inside. The latter end of .luly and all 

 through August and September and 

 even October is when there is a great 

 scarcity of carnations. Why I said 

 plant them all together is because let 

 it be a bed of a thousand given over to 

 flower and not at all interfering with 

 your plants that you want to lift for 

 winter flowering. 



Spiraea Astilbcidts. 



A friend from Wisconsin wishes me 

 to impart my knowledge of how to 

 keep this plant in order so it can be 

 forced another year, or what to do 

 with it. It is so absurdly cheap nowa- 

 days that the very best answer to these 

 inquiries is, "throw it away." More 

 than forty years ago I can remember 

 that Spiraea japonica (it had no alias 

 in those days) was grown from year 

 to year in the same pot and flowered 

 profusely, but can you altord to water 

 a plant all summer and store it away 

 in a frame till forcing time for "> cents? 

 If so, your time is not worth much, 

 and then it would not be half so good 

 as a freshly imported plant. The 

 spiraea is one of the most hardy 

 plants of which we know, and if room 

 permits can be planted out. It makes 

 a very acceptable hardy border plant 

 and flowers in June. 



WM. SCOTT. 



INSECTIVOROUS PLANTS. 



Plants that obtain their nitrogenous 

 food from insects were the subject of 

 an exhaustive talk by Mr. A. Herring- 

 ton at the last meeting of the Morris 

 County Gardeners' and Florists' Club 

 at Madison. N. J. He described in 

 great detail the different means by 

 which the several families of this class 

 of plants achieve the same object, il- 

 lustrating his remarks with specimens 

 and large drawings. The droseras or 

 "Sun Dews," a genus almost world- 



