Febri-art 19, 1003. 



The Weekly Florists' Review* 



477 



Basket of Cypripediums and Mignonette Arranged by A. Lange, Chicago. 



Hartshoine. but on a calceolaria it at- 

 tains the proportions of an Isaac Ken- 

 nedy. Of course I mean only relatively. 

 Calceolarias never want a liis'i tempera- 

 ture. Forty-five at night will do finely, 

 and as their flowering time approaches 

 (April or May) a subdued light is neces- 

 sarj'. A north house where there is full 

 light without the direct rays of the sun 

 i.s the place for them. 



Fungicides. 

 Incidentally I want to mention that 

 a few weeks ago I had something to say 

 about hollyhocks and cautioned the in- 

 quirer to give his plants a syringing 

 with liqiiid Bordeaux mixture or copper 

 ammonia solution, •nhether we saw fun- 

 gus or not. Strange to say I gave orders 

 that the few hundred I have in 3-inch 

 pots should receive a dose of it. The 

 A'ery next day on looking them over I 

 discovered that the disease was well es- 

 tablished on them, but two or three 

 syringings of the copper solution, and 

 picking off the leaves most affected, has 

 resulted in a com]ilcte rout of the enemy. 

 I get very tired when it is neeessar}' to 

 resort to these antidotes, and I only men- 

 tion this because I am now convinced 

 that this fungus can be entirely pre- 

 vented from destroying this stately plant 

 if treated in time and faithfully followed 

 up. 



Tulips and Narcissus. 



Tlie season is now so advanced that 

 your tulips and narcissus will want from 

 now on vciy little or no shade and 

 should force very well in a night tem- 

 perature of 60 degrees, and their quality 

 is altogether better when not given so 

 much heat as was necessary earlier. I 

 suppose I shall soon get the usual batch 

 of inquiries, which will read something 

 like this: "Please inform me what time 

 I shall bring in tulips and daffodils and 

 Dutch hyacinths to have them in flower 

 for Easter." At present I will say, go 

 back and recline on the sofa for a 

 month. There are four or five weeks yet 

 before any of the bulbous stuff should 

 be brought in for Easter crop. 



William Scott. 



CARNATION NOTES— EAST. 



1 trust tlio!.c of you who attended the 

 convention feel amply repaid for the time 

 and money expended. It certainly should 

 be of material advantage for all growers 

 of the divine flower, to get acquainted 

 with each other. Experiences and opin- 

 ions differ and rightly they should, when 

 it is considered how many new varieties 

 are yearly being ]nit on the market, eaeli 

 journeying to different part-; of our coun- 

 try, to meet dilferent conditions, such as 

 treatment, climate, soil, etc. 



Coming together in convention gives 

 opportunity for exchange of experiences, 

 enables us to see the new introductions 

 at their best and perhaps the greatest 

 advantage comes from being able to meet 

 the originators, who are always read}" to 

 su])ply valuable information, ilany of 

 us were no doubt attracted by the su- 

 perior appearance of one or more va- 

 rieties exhibited there, and I venture to 

 say that we will never see better blooms 

 of these varieties, on the benches of the 

 average grower. 



Commercially speaking, these exhibi- 

 tion blooms are beyond the reach of the 

 grower; the price at which they would 

 have to be sold would be prohibitive. 

 Tins may sound discouraging to some 

 «ho have already or have since been in- 

 duced to invest in any of the new vari- 

 eties, but it is not in any sense my ob- 

 ject to prepare you for disappointment. 

 On the contrary the point I wisli to make 

 is this: You have seen wliat can be 

 produced in the hands of those thor- 

 oughly familiar with the variety; all 

 that expert cultivation can do has been 

 done; the mark of perfection is stamped 

 upon it; you go home with the ideal 

 firmly fixed in your mind; your e.yes 

 have not been deceived and you set your- 

 self about to grow this variety with en- 

 thusiasm. 



Siippose you have bought stock of a 

 variety which scored 85 or 90 points, 

 then after gathering all the information 

 jxissible relative to its requirements, and 

 you give it every care consistent with 

 commercial growth, you produce blooms 



that will score, on an average, 10 to li5 

 points less. I think you have no cause to 

 complain and that you have done exceed- 

 ingly well. 



That sucjcess may reward your efforts, 

 the seller and buyer must work in har- 

 mony. Tlie seller must supply you with 

 first-class stock, and the buyer must see 

 to it that he accepts no other, then the 

 burden rests with you. Mr. Baur will 

 pardon me if I include him in saying 

 that the scribes will insist, even at the 

 risk of repetition, on the stock being 

 taken care of. 



If there is one thing above another 

 that will cause disappointment and tend 

 to imdermine and degrade a varietj', it 

 is the narrow, short-siglited policy of 

 growing stock of new varieties in rich 

 soil, and ^^arm quarteis with a view of 

 obtaining another cutting (?). Yes! I 

 have seen growers do it, and brag about 

 it, thinking they were very cute. Their 

 product from these cripples as seen the 

 following season, showed "brag'' to have 

 lost its first letter, the balance tied on 

 a stick illustrated the quality. 



Geo. S. OsBORxn. 



CARNATIONS AND LETTUCE. ' 



Referring to the answer to inquiry in 

 the Eeview of Februaiy 12, would say I 

 have been growing lettuce in the same 

 house with carnations, though not on a 

 laige scale, and have been very success- 

 ful in growing them together. The va- 

 rieties of lettuce I grow are Grand Kap- 

 ids and Black .Seeded Simpson. The tem- 

 perature is kept at the same degree as 

 is usual for carnations and the lettuce 

 seems to thrive all right. The varieties 

 of carnations I gi-ow are Lawson, Day- 

 bieak, .Joost. Crane. Marquis, Crocker 

 and Queen Louise. I have tried several 

 other varieties of lettuce, but none 

 seemed to do as well with carnations as 

 the two varieties mentioned above. 



Wm. G. Neilsox. 



Plymouth, Pa. 



ASPARAGUS PLUMOSUS. 



Will it injure Asparagus plumosus 

 nanus to cut it down to the ground after 

 all the seeds have Ix^eu gathered? I no- 

 tice after picking seeds it looks ragged 

 and wants to branch out all along the 

 old vines instead of running up new- 

 shoots from the ground. Those that 

 come out all along are weak and very 

 thin. Vines are now six vears old. 



S. B. E. 



After bearing a crop of fruit the old 

 vine could most assuredly be cut do^v^, 

 not close to the ground, but within nine 

 or ten inches. If there is no young 

 growth coming, and by cutting "down 

 these long growths you leave scarcely 

 any foliage on the plants, then be care- 

 ful alx)ut watering to excess until some 

 new growths have started. 



I notice that S. B. R. mentions that 

 the bed is now six years old. Some 

 weeks ago I had occasion to write in these 

 columns that I believed for the average 

 florist who has not special houses for 

 this decorative plant, should renew the 

 bed every third year. Shortly after that 

 I visited a friend who has grown this 

 asparagus quite profitably the past three 

 years, and stated to him again my belief. 

 He not only agreed with me, but said 

 he would never leave the plants in more 

 than two yeais, and I think he is about 

 right. William Scott. 



