290 



The Weekly Florists' Review, 



jAXtTAUY 15, 1903. 



will cite a few facts in my own experi- 

 ence with it. 



For nearly thirty years I had grown 

 "this stately old flower" successfully and 

 had never heard of anyone having trou- 

 ble with it, but five years ago our stock 

 of roots (I dare not say bulbs for fear 

 of those "terrible tawse") being low we 

 purchased some California grown ones, 

 potted some and benched the remainder, 

 using exactly the same method of culture 

 which had "proved so successful in for- 

 mer years. 



After the plants had acquired five or 

 six leaves these began to show withered 

 blotches along the edges, which grad- 

 ually spread inward. An examination of 

 the plants showed plenty of healthy feed- 

 ing roots, |but the edges of the leaf 

 stems, just where they entered the soil, 

 were covered with a brown colored slime, 

 and alongside of the crown there was 

 a small hole filled with the same kind 

 of slobber. This kept increasing in size 

 until it reached the crown, when the 

 leaves toppled over. The under part of 



the joot remained fresh for a long time. 

 From the Californians the trouble spread 

 to our own grown roots, until by the end 

 of the season four-fifths of the whole 

 stock was dead. 



The next season we purchased a fresh 

 consignment from a different dealer, and 

 had, if anything, a worse experience, and 

 had practically given up the idea of 

 trying again. 



As remedies we tried sulphur in its 

 various forms, lime (hot and air slaked), 

 wood ashes, salt, etc., but nothing 

 seemed to have the least effect. 



At this time we had an opportunity 

 of purchasing 300 home grown roots, 

 of which we availed ourselves. Follow- 

 ing our usual mode of culture, the first 

 year we had a very fine show ; this sea- 

 son they are simply magnificent and are 

 "the pride o' the place and its neigh- 

 borhood a'." This is not an isolated 

 case, as "Father William" can find out 

 if he sends out a few tracers. 



Kibes. 



MISCELUNEOUS 

 SEASONABLE HINTS. 



Seeds, 



There are a few seeds that should be 

 sown now. Ccntaurea gymnocarpa, if 

 you grow it at all, but less every year 

 do we find a use for this once popular 

 foliage plant. 



If you are well supplied with canna 

 roots you don't want to bother with 

 seedlings, yet if your stock is low and 

 you want to increase it cheaply you can 

 raise excellent plants by sowing at once. 

 Cannas come largely true from seed, 

 and if you get your supply of seed from 

 a good firm you will be unlikely to get 

 inferior varieties, because only approved 

 varieties are now grown by any good 

 firm. There is often but a small per- 

 centage of canna seed which germinates. 

 It's because it is old. I believe they 

 should be sown as soon as ripe. Sow in 

 flats of half sand and half leaf mold, and 

 plunge the flats into the warmest part 

 of your propagating bench, or you can 

 sow them in a drill in the sand of the 

 propagating bench. Some soak the seed 

 in almost boiling water for a day. Others 

 with a strong, sharp knife cut off the 

 smallest piece of the thick covering of 

 the seed. This lets in the moisture and 

 starts germination. Neither will hurt 

 the seed and may help, but if you are 

 sure the seed is of last summer's saving 

 it is unnecessary. 



Cannas. 

 While on the subject of cannas. don't 

 forget to look over your stock of roots 

 just now to see that they are not start- 

 ing. You don't want to start them yet 

 for two months. If they are on boards 

 beneath a bench where little or no drip 

 reaches them they should be doing all 

 right, but if showing signs of making a 

 growth move them all over. That will 

 check their growth. 



Begonias. 



Tlie bedding begonias of the Vernon 



type can now be sown and will make 

 very satisfactorj- plants by bedding out 

 time. The Ix'gonias make beautiful flower 

 beds and are a change from llie much 

 used geraniums and cannas. The seed 

 is very minute, and if sown on the 

 smooth surface of a pan of leaf mold 

 and sand only wants pressing into the 

 soil. Be sure to sow thinly. It is so 

 easy to let ten times as much slip out 

 of your fingers as should be sown of 

 these minute seeds. As soon as large 

 enough to handle transplant into flats 

 an inch apart, and wlien they have 

 grown to crowding pot into 3inch, which 

 is as large as necessary, for these bed- 

 ding begonias do much better when 

 planted out if small thrifty plants. 



"Verbenas. 



Sow verbenas early in February. They 

 make healthier plants than the cuttings 

 from named varieties and the colors 

 are nowadays just as good, and a mixed 

 bed is just as pretty as a mass of one 

 color. 



Hollyhocks. 



We were told recently by a man who 

 travels that the hollyhock was a very 

 favorite flower at the fashionable water- 

 ing places of the East the past summer. 

 I don't blame them. It's a most pic- 

 tiiresque decorative flower and a vase 

 of majestic spikes has an attraction out 

 of the common. We sowed in Septem- 

 ber and have plants in 4-inch pots in a 

 house that is seldom over 38 to 40 de- 

 grees during winter. If the disease lets 

 us escape these should be fine plants and 

 flower early, for they can be out as soon 

 as the soil can be dug. Still they can be 

 sown now and you can have them in 

 flower by August. Obtain the best strain 

 you can hear of, keep them in 50 degrees 

 until they are in 3-inch pots, and in the 

 very lightest position. Keep them grow- 

 ing and by the middle of April they 



should be good plants in ^-inch pots and 

 almost all of them will flower the first 

 summer. 



Pansies. 



Ninety per cent of all the pansies sold 

 in the spring are sown in July and Aug- 

 ust and wintered in the field with some 

 covering of straw or hemloc-k boughs ; or 

 if wanted still earlier for tilling vases, 

 then they are better in a cold frame. 

 These plants make an early and beauti- 

 ful burst of bloom and are soon over. 

 Yet if I wanted to have a border or bed 

 of pansies to last all summer, which 

 they will and are well worth growing 

 for the purpose, I would sow them at the 

 end of this month and transplant them 

 into flats early in March, which is all 

 the labor there is about them and the 

 coolest bench you have will suit them. 

 At planting time — say end of April — they 

 look small an<l flowerless compared with 

 the fall sown plants, but they will be 

 in beautiful flower when the others are 

 long past gone. 



Smilax. 



Sow smilax end ot this muutli. It 

 will take up little room in the seed boxes 

 for a long time and it is very essential 

 that you should have a good, strong 

 3-inch plant to renew the bed about the 

 first week in .July. Although this beau- 

 tiful climber is no longer "the thing ' for 

 decorative use, there seems plenty of 

 other uses for it and no retail greenhouse 

 should be without its own supply. 



Asparagus. 



Asparagus plumosus (misnomer nana) 

 if sown at once and encouraged to grow 

 along in a temperature of 60 degiees will 

 make good plants for replanting your bed 

 in June or July. Specialists on this 

 beautiful plant let it remain for some 

 years without replanting. Tlieir houses 

 :i.re so high that if they have six feet of 

 naked growth at the bottom they can still 

 have twenty feet of feathery vine on 

 top, but I think the average florist who 

 grows for his own use should replant 

 every third year. He then gets strings 

 of moderate length, but every foot use- 

 ful, and more of the short sprays which 

 are really as greatly in demand as the 

 long strings. It is often planted out on 

 benches and beds for this purpose alone 

 and no encouragement given to make 

 strings. For whatever purpose always 

 have it in solid beds on the ground. 



Asparagus Sprengeri has been in great 

 demand this winter. You can buy small 

 plants in the spring, but you can sow 

 the seed now and raise it yourself cheap- 

 er. To grow this useful plant profita- 

 bly it must have a deep bed or box. A 

 shallow bed will give one crop of sprays 

 and then it's over. 



I do not think of any other seeds that 

 require attention just now. It's seven or 

 eight weeks before any of the hardy an- 

 nuals want sowing. 



The Propagating Bench. 



PVom now into middle of March is the 

 most favorable time for propagating 

 most of our bedding and decorative 

 plants. Brisk and steady firing keeps 

 the sand warm and the atmosphere of 

 the house is cool — the precise conditions 

 for the successful propagation of nearly 

 all plants that are increased by cuttings. 

 Don't propagate some common plants 

 just because they root easily. It is five 

 long months, or nearly so, before many 

 of our soft wooded plants can I>e put out. 

 I allude to such easy rooting plants as 



