398 



The Weekly Florists' Review. 



ri;r.i:i.vKV 



lOOy. 



blooms on fair stems all winter and 

 few bnrsted calvxes. Do not give it an 

 over rich soil and do not feed it until 

 toward spring. , n ■^ 



Much the same treatment will suit 

 Queen Louise, except that it does not 

 need so high a temperature; 50 to 52 

 degrees will suit that variety very well. 



We "-row Flora Hill frr summer, 

 .spring "and fall here and White Cloud 

 pnd Lorna for mid-winter. 



A. F. J. B.-VUR. 



CARNATION RETURNS. 



What should be the gross returns in 

 cash at average wholesale prices, from 

 a three-quarter span house. 22xl..O feet, 

 planted to carnations? W. J. \\ . 



Yours is a question that is pretty 

 hard to answer in a satisfactoiy manner. 

 The first answer that came to my mmd 

 was, "that depends on the grower. 

 ITien again it will depend largely on the 

 varieties you plant, the grade of blooms 

 vou will produce and in what market 

 vou will dispose of the blooms. Also, if 

 vou expect to sell the blooms only, or if 

 "you can find sale for what cuttings you 

 can make. . 



Your house will likely contain three 

 5fG0t benches and each bench will hold 

 about 1.100 plants, making a total of 

 ?, 300 plants for (he house. A first- 

 class variefv handled by a good grower 

 will bring about 50 cents per plant dur- 

 ing the season from blooms and 

 I feel satisfied that there are 

 • many gi-owers in this country wlio 



could cut $1,500 out of such a 

 house, but to do that every plant will 

 have to be a specimen, and in a large 

 majority of cases you will find a few 

 weak spots in the benches here and 

 there. Then again every place has a few 

 varieties that do not sell as well as 

 others, and you get hold of a variety 

 every now and then that will not do 

 well under your treatment. In fact, a 

 thousand and one little things may turn 

 up that will help to bring down the 

 gross earnings of your house. I don t 

 believe any grower in this country can 

 say that he gets an average of 50 cents 

 from every plant that he plants in his 

 houses, although he may average much 

 more from a few of his benches. I know- 

 it is so with us. 



If W. J. W. can average 40 cents per 

 plant from all that he plants on his 

 Ijenches he will have no room for cora- 

 ])laint. That would give him about 

 $1,300 from such a house. By being 

 very careful in selecting his varieties 

 and giving them a very high grade of 

 culture he can of course raise this some. 

 I may also add that there are many 

 crroweVs who would not average more 

 than $1,000 from such a house, and 

 they would be pretty fair growers, too. 

 Our method is not to set a certain 

 sum for each house to reach, but our aim 

 is to make each house earn just as much 

 as we can make it earn, taking into con- 

 sideration the varieties it contains, the 

 time of planting and in fact everything 

 that might increase or lessen the total 

 earnings of the house. 



A. F. -T. Batjr. 



MISCELLANEOUS 

 SEASONABLE HINTS. 



Geraniums. 

 This is an excellent time to increase 

 that most excellent bedding plant, the 

 zonal geranium. We shift the Septem- 

 ber and October struck plants as soon 

 after New Years as we can. They were 

 rooted in 2-inch and are now in Sjnch. 

 They are now rooted and many of them 

 will "ive vou a cutting, which makes a 

 .rood bedding plant and induces the 

 older plant to branch out and make the 

 strong bedding plant that you want 

 Don-t. however, murder the plant to get 

 a cuttin". If the 3-inch pot plant will 

 not f'ive vou a cutting without cutting 

 it down "almost to the soil, just nip 

 out the top and be satisfied. Pot these 

 cuttings in 2i-inch pots firmly. Water 

 thorousblv when first potted and atter- 

 wards "oniv when dry. and you will not 

 lose 5 per cent. A light bench and 50 

 degrees at night is what they want, and 

 it must be a very bright day if any 

 shade is needed, and that only the first 

 week after being taken ofT. Cuttings 

 of the ivy geraniums put in the sand 

 now will make the best of plants if 

 grown rio-ht along. The ivy section, 

 the silver" leaf tricolor and the bronze 

 all like a higher temperature than the 

 zonal; 50 degrees at night will not be 

 too high, while the zonals will be thrifty 

 at 5 degrees less. 



Gloxinias. 

 Some of our neighbors start these 

 tubers now, so that they have flowering 



plants in JIay. I always consKlcrod they 

 were a summer plant, filling up at a 

 time when there were few flowering 

 plants to be had in pots suitable for the 

 window. Mv ideas may be old-fash- 

 ioned. If they sell in Jlay and June, 

 bv all means grow them for that time. 

 We have never had better success with 

 them than when started in 3-inch pots, 

 and when the leaves have about spread 

 to the edge of the pots and they have 

 n-ade some roots, shift them into the 

 flowering pots— a 5 or G-inch. They 

 are most difficult plants to handle when 

 the leaves are of any size. There is no 

 i.liabilitv to them; they won't bend, but 

 break. "Leaf mold, at least a third, is 

 the greatest help to them. 



The gloxinias are plants that really 

 require a gardener's attention. You 

 can't splash over them with a hose. 

 Perhaps on a bright morning you can 

 be a little free with the water, for anv 

 moisture will quickly dry, but in dull 

 weather each plant should be looked at; 

 and watered if it needs it; if not, passed 

 over and attended to the next day, and 

 wet the leaves as little as possible. 

 The gloxinia is one of those plants that 

 would repay the correct method of shad- 

 ing. That is. shade when the sun is 

 brWit, and give no shade on a dull day. 

 But that is not important for the next 

 two months, as the small plants are 

 easily shaded if necessary. It is in the 

 summer time when heavily shaded hous- 

 es and no fire to dry up the atmosphere 



on rainy, dull days that the rust ap- 

 pears. 



Lemon Vetbenas and Lantanas. 

 Two plants that are in good demand 

 in the spring for the garden are the 

 lemon verbena (aloysia) and the Ian- 

 tana. I won't forget a bed of the lat- 

 ter at the Pan-American. It was L. 

 Craigii, exhibited by Henry A. Dreer. 

 Plants should have been grown in pots 

 last summer and resting (but not dust 

 dry) beneath a bench. They can be 

 brought up to the light and started 

 growing in a temperature of 55 to liO 

 degrees'! Shorten back the shoots and 

 they will soon give you plenty of cut- 

 tings. The lemon verbena should be 

 grown in the same way. A few plants 

 in pots from last summer should lie 

 resting. Shake off most of the earth, 

 repot "and shorten back the weak shoots 

 and start growing. They soon give all 

 the cuttings you need, and in the ordi- 

 nary cutting bed they root as easily and 

 surely as a coleus: only don't let them 

 wilt from sun or dryness. 

 Propagation. 

 Speaking of dryness of the cutting 

 l)ed. there are thousands of florists do- 

 ing business now. who knew little about 

 a "propagating bed when Peter Hender- 

 son published" his Ixjok "Practical Flori- 

 culture." ilanv improved methods have 

 been adopted since 1808 and the business 

 has undcraone a great change, but for 

 all that the chapter on propagation is 

 still sound, and when I first read it. 

 thirty-five years ago, it was a revelation 

 and "an instructor of the greatest ben- 

 efit. Brought up in the English ortho- 

 dox school "of gardening, or a small por- 

 tion of it. we had seen bell glasses used. 

 &cn sucii a simple thing as the coin- 

 ii.on verl)enas were propagated by put- 

 ling them into a fl-inch pot of sand: 

 then the pot was plunged into tan bark, 

 or some material that' had heat; then a 

 bell glass went over the pot, and every 

 morning, or perhaps oftener, it was 

 lifted off and the inside wiped dry. Just 

 fancy such a performance! I will al- 

 ways have a great regard for Mr. Hen- 

 derson's book, for it cleared away (at 

 least with me) a lot of fog and fuss and 

 darkness, and made propagating by cut- 

 tings the simplest and surest of opera- 

 tions. I dreamed one night that I root- 

 ed smilax in the sand and one day told 

 somebody that I did root it. I told it 

 so often" that I began to believe it my- 

 self. You will notice that when you 

 repeat a yarn of that sort often that it 

 begins to" sound at last like the truth. 

 But future attempts on the smilax were 

 failures. 



Fungus of the Cutting Bed. 

 Tlie very great majority of our plants 

 root easify in sand,' and for the great 

 majority of things the sand at 6u dc- 

 "•re'es and the temperature of the housf^ 

 as near 50 degrees as you can keep it 

 will be found ideal. A draught over 

 the cutting is not good, yet there shoubl 

 never be a close, stagnant atmosphere. 

 If the house seldom goes over 55 de- 

 trrees, vou will not he troubled with 

 what Mr. Henderson called the "fungus 

 of the cutting Ijed," but if the sand is 

 warm and the house is allowed to go up 

 to 05 or 70 degrees it will make its 

 appearance. You can stand over the cut- 

 tin<' bed, look down over the sand and 

 discern nothing wrong, but stoop 

 and look over the surface and you will 

 quickly see the minute, film-like growths 

 that from a small speck will cover a 



