Fkuiivarv o. 1903. 



The Weekly Florists' Review. 



399 



Bfidesmaid's Bouquet. Fig 4. 

 [An example of what is to be avoided.] 



fcot square of surface in twenty-four 

 hours, and when once in the bed it is 

 ahnost impossible to get rid of it. 



I was surprised on visiting some large 

 and successful carnation growers last 

 winter to find they considered it desir- 

 able to. and did, change the sand for 

 every batch of cuttings. Tliis I don't 

 believe is at all necessary and must in 

 some localities be a considerable ex- 

 pense. To prevent any fungus we al- 

 ways water the sand with a copper solu- 

 tion before we put in a batch of cut- 

 tings, and at the strength we use it 

 would do no harm to even water the 

 cuttings. At least I have never seen 

 any the worse for it. Yet it is not 

 necessary if you will water the sand 

 before you put in the cuttings. The 

 formula we use is one pound of sulphate 

 of copper dissolved in two quarts of 

 ammonia. \Vlien entirely dissolved put 

 away in a stone jar and keep corked. 

 One-half pint of this in twenty-five gal- 

 lons of water will keep away any fun- 

 gus. Incidentally I might mention that 

 a tub of this solution is always stand- 

 ing near the bench where we propagate 

 the carnations. When they are ready to 

 go into the sand we just dip them for 

 a moment into this solution. Perhaps 

 the dreaded rust would have largely dis- 

 appeared even if we had not done this, 

 yet I cannot help believe that it has 

 greatly helped the exit of that pest. 



Watering. 



To return to the cutting bed, the old 

 bell glass kept the cuttings from wilt- 

 ing, because it was air tight and there 

 was some moisture arising from the 

 sand, but they were very sparingly wat- 

 ered. Nowadays we keep them from 

 wilting by keeping the sand saturated. 

 How much or how often to water the 

 cutting bed is a question that should 

 be no problem to the gardener. The 

 weather will have something to do with 

 ■ it, and certainly more water is needed 

 in April than in December and -January. 

 Plants of the texture of geraniums and 

 begonias want only to be kept moist 

 and may not need watering oftener than 

 once in five or six days, while coleus. 

 verbenas, tea roses, chrysanthemums and 

 many others should be watered everv dav. 



And as the season advances more water 

 is needed. I can remember not so long 

 .^go when we put up a mild hotbed to 

 root chrysanthemums and poinsettias 

 in June and July, we found out, or some- 

 body told us, that the cutting bed was 

 all right if we only shaded and wat- 

 ered enough ; and sure enough, if you 

 will water two or three times a day, 

 you can root these cuttings in the hot- 

 test days of July and August. In mak- 

 ing a propagating bed some years ago, 

 after putting on the slates we ran ce- 

 ment between the cracks where they met, 

 making it almost water tight. That 

 was how not to do it. You must let 

 the water pass away. Perhaps as good 

 a propagating bed as any I have seen is at 

 Mr. John Dunlop's, in Toronto. He has 

 two or three steam pipes beneath the 

 bench with valves so that lie can use 

 one or more. The bench is roofing slate 

 and on the slate a common brick. From 

 a steam pipe the slate would be too hot, 

 l>ut modified by passing through the 

 brick it is just right. 



Carnatioas. 



Mr. Baur will excuse me touching on 

 carnations. I did not mean to do it, but 

 now I have put my foot in it; before I 

 pull it out I will just add that the 

 sand at 6.5 degrees is rather warm for 

 carnations, and no bottom heat at all 

 is rather slow. My ideal for carnations 

 is 58 to 60 degrees in the sand and 50 

 degrees on top. The very plant I was 

 speaking of, the lemon verbena, is one 

 of those that want to be kept soaked. 

 William Scott. 



GERANIUMS AND FUCHSIAS. 



H. M. K. sends us some leaves of ger- 

 aniums and fuchsias, both of which look 

 tioubled with the same disease. H. M. 

 K. says the greenhouse is very cool at 

 night, often l:>elow 40 degrees, and about 

 60 degrees in the day time. "The green- 

 house contains all sorts of plants. The 

 leaves first turn like samples sent, then 

 j-ellow, and drop off." 



I will first say that long before thev 

 get so unsightly as to drop off thev 

 should be pulled off. I cannot name the 

 disease, but have seen it on geraniums. 



It is a bacteria of some sort destroying 

 the tissue of the leaf. As the cure or 

 remedy for this unhealthy state of things 

 was the object of the inquiry. I will be- 

 gin by saying tliat I don't know how 

 you are managing your greenhouse. Be- 

 low 40 degrees at night and GO degrees in 

 the day time, perhaps without ventila- 

 tion, is an altogether wrong condition. 

 I'erhaps you water towards evening and 

 let the cool night come on with the 

 foliage wet. Perhaps your plants are 

 dreadfully crowded, with the object of 

 getting a great number on the benches. 

 If so. you will have only a large quan- 

 tity of rubbish not worth half the quan- 

 tity of good, healthy plants. 



A temperature of 40 degrees at night 

 will w'inter geraniums very well, but not 

 young, growing fuchsias. If 40 degrees 

 at night is the Ijest you can do, then 

 whenever your house is 55 in the day 

 time give ventilation. Give all the 

 plants the proper space to have air and 

 light between them. Never water the 

 plants, even on sunny days, after 11 a. 

 m.. and dull days don't water at all. 

 Plants in as low a temperature as you 

 have can make but little gro\vth and 

 therefore need but little water. Pick 

 oft" every leaf that is the sliglftest bit 

 affected, and then dust them with flour 

 of sulphur. Jlix some sulphur with lin- 

 seed oil until it is about like thick paint 

 and paint the hottest pipe in your heat- 

 ing system — not all the pipe, sav a 

 length of 1 foot every 6 feet. But, above 

 all. give air, and keep the house dry 

 until you can be sure of a higher night 

 temperature. William Scott. 



RECEIPTS OF A GREENHOUSE. 



W. J. W. asks: '-What should be the 

 gross return in cash from a house. 22x 

 150 feet, devoted to bedding stock, mums, 

 etc.?" 



Mathematics is my weak point. I 

 would rather write an essay on the do- 

 mestic trials of the rattlesnake than do 

 a sum in long division. The above is not 

 mathematics, v-et it is most difticult to 

 answer with any definite sum, and an 

 approximate possibility only can be 

 given. There are many considerations. 

 Is this the only house you have, or is 

 it filled up with stock from other houses 

 from time to time? Besides mums, what 

 do you grow ? A house this size one-half 

 filled with bedding plants in the fall 

 would want two or three more houses to 

 receive the overflow towards spring if 

 they were well managed. You could 

 grow some chrysanthemums, then fill up 

 with lilies for Easter, some carnations to 

 be thrown out after Easter to make room 

 for cannas, coleus, geraniums, etc. Or 

 maybe you grow^ several hundred azaleas 

 and sell them at Easter. That would 

 add largely to your gross receipts, but 

 there would be a corresponding outlay 

 for the azalea plants. The m'ore and 

 better one crop succeeds another, and the 

 more of what you might call intensive 

 culture you follow the more profitable 

 will be the house, although the expense 

 of labor will be much greater than if 

 used for just one crop. 



Presuming you begin in the fall cut- 

 ting mums and follow on with flow^ering 

 plants until Easter, always of course gi\^- 

 ing your bedding plants room and atten- 

 tion, and that after Easter until end of 

 May your benches are filled with the 

 shifted, spread out and propagated bed- 

 ding plants, then I would say you wouM 

 be doing very well if your benches showed 

 gross sales of .$1 per square foot of 

 bench, and taking out G feet for three 



