March 12, 1903. 



The Weekly Florists* Review. 



609 



Bench of Primulas Grown by Arthur E. Chilmar, Gardener for 

 F. S. Moscliy, Newburyport, Mass. 



can remember several mistakes made in 

 bringing in these bulbs in the days of 

 "Auld lang s^'ne." \\Tien Easter fell on 

 the 23rd of April I gave tulips, etc., 

 about twenty-five days. April came in 

 like June and all sorts of stratagems 

 had to be resorted to, and then many 

 tulips and hyacinths dropped with old 

 age. Next year Easter was end of 

 March, and, remembering the year be- 

 fore, without meditation we gave this 

 bulbous stuff only two weeks. And with 

 winter weather there was a hustle and 

 bustle and a dreadful heat applied, and 

 tlien they were not in time. So for 

 many years we have not had a failure 

 in dates, but you must always con- 

 sider the date and be prepared for a 

 leturn of winter. 



Without a lot of words I will give 

 the number of days that the bulbs will 

 require in the greenhouse in a tem- 

 perature of 5.5 degrees in full uay- 

 liglit. Remember, I am speaking about 

 l>ulbs that have been out of doors cov- 

 ered with earth and straw, Tho.'^e kept 

 in a cold cellar may be more advanced 

 and may flower in a shorter time. 



All early single tulips, eighteen days. 



All early double tulips, twenty-four 

 days. 



Narcissus, eighteen days. 



IKiteh hyacinths, fovirteen days. 



If bright, sunny days, the above is 

 ample time. If dull and cloudy, a little 

 more heat may be« necessary, but not 

 likely. It is no longer forcing; they 

 are an.xious to flower. 



William Scott. 



SMALL WHITE FLY. 



Tlie small white fly mentioned by 

 H. M. in the Review of February 26 is no 

 doubt the adult male form of one of the 

 prevalent greenhouse scale insects. All 

 of the Coccidae (as these little pests are 

 called) have winged male forms. One 

 known as the "White Fly," and under 

 several other names, is a very small, 

 brilliant white and very active insect, 

 the adult male of Orthezia insignis. 

 M'hen seen at rest it is like an almost 

 microscopic white "miller," Under a 

 magnifier ynu will see it has two di- 

 verging abdominal cilia instead of one, 

 as in the male of the Aspidotus scales. 



This white fly I have observed recently, 

 especially numerous on a coleus (C, 

 thyrsiflora) , 



Whale oil soap washes seem to dis- 

 pose of the scales, and if the scales are 

 destroyed the flies can do but little harm. 

 In spite of the infinite variety of "dopes" 

 on tlie market for killing every manner 

 of crawling thing, it seems as if the list 

 of insect pests were daily growing longer, 



.fOUN" HiGCilNS, 



GERANIUMS AND PAEONIAS. 



We stood some geraniums, just shift- 

 ed into 4-inch, on a bench which had 

 been cleared of lettuce, and on which 

 the manure — about IJ inches — on sur- 

 face was allowed to remain. We find 

 that most of them have earth woims, 

 three to a dozen small ones. Will they 

 do anv harm? If so, what is the rem- 

 edy? 



Can paeonias be successfully kept in 

 cold .-torage until Decoration day, say 

 two or three weeks? What are the be^t 

 commercial varieties for cutting? What 

 kind of soil and culture do they require? 



L. R. A. 



The angle worms do no serious harm 

 except that they work the soil in the 

 pots into a pasty condition and prevent 

 the water escaping. If you want to get 

 rill of them put a piece of quick lime 

 about the size of your two fists into 

 thirty gallons of water, and when dis- 

 solved and the water is clear, give the 

 plants one watering with the lime wa- 

 ter. The worms will soon come to the 

 surface, give a parting kick and die, 

 ^'ou would have done better to scrape off 

 the manure, beat the surface of bed 

 down level, and put in half an inch of 

 sifted coal ashes. 



About the p;eonias, I have had little 

 experience in keeping them any length 

 of time. Ours are never in bloom uritil 

 two weeks after Decoration day. The 

 Ofllcinalis type, if an early season, soioi'- 

 tiuies are, but the Chinese herbaceous 

 varieties, never. But cutting quite close 

 befoie the bud is at all expfinded. yen 

 can keep them in a very cool cellar lor 

 two weeks. 



The nomenclature of the Chinese 

 p.TPonias is terribly mixed. That is the 

 reason why the growers of these sho«y 



plants felt the necessity of organizing 

 a. paeony society to straighten out the 

 names and reduce the confusion. The 

 man who grows purely to sell the blooms 

 needs but a few varieties and those 

 mostly white and shades of pink. The 

 single varieties are Ijeautiful flowers, but 

 they don't take with the public gener- 

 ally. Here are half a dozen varieties 

 that are very fine — all double: Chsr- 

 lemagne, flesh white, center tinted lilac; 

 Globosa, pure white; Duchess de Aun- 

 male, light rose, center straw color; 

 Charles Verdier, light lilac rose, very 

 large; Louis Van Houtte, bright purple 

 cherry ; Mme. Lemoine, large flesh 

 white; President Wilder, a beautiful 

 delicate blush. 



^hese are only a few and there are 

 dozens of others as fine, but as I said be- 

 fore, too much variety is not desirable 

 where flowers are grown for sale only. 

 Tlie paeony will grow in any soil and is 

 the hardiest of plants, but as they re- 

 main for years in one spot without 

 transplanting, to grow them well the 

 ground (a heavy loam is best) should 

 be dug or trenched 18 inches deep and 

 a liberal quantity of dair\- or short sta- 

 ble manure worked in. 



WiLLiAit Scott. 



PRIMULAS. 



We present herewith an engraving 

 from a photograph of a bench of pri- 

 mulas grown by Mr. Arthur E. Chil- 

 man. gardener for F. S. Moseley, Esq., 

 JCewburyport, Mass. In response to an 

 in<|uiry as to his methods of growing 

 primulas. Mr. Cliilman writes: 



"T)ie primulas were sown in pans the 

 latter part of May, 1002, in a light, open 

 soil, kept uniformly moist by dipping 

 the pans into a bucket of water when 

 necessary. Each pan was covered with 

 a .sheet of glass to prevent evaporation, 

 and partially shaded until a fair per- 

 centage had germinated. They were 

 pricked off as soon as possible and grown 

 in a temperature of 60 degrees at night 

 for about three weeks and then potted 

 singly into small pots and grown in a 

 violet house', shaded. The next shift 

 was into 3 and 4-inch pots and they 

 were then placed in a cold frame with 

 sash removed and shaded during the day 

 with laths. 



"As they grew the larger plants re- 

 ceived their final potting, some into 5 

 and some' into C-inch pots; others, three 

 into 7-inch pans and four into 10-ineh 

 pans, in good soil composted in the 

 early spring. As fall advanced, they 

 were put into a cool pit facing north 

 with all shading removed and grown 

 on until signs of flowering appeared, 

 when they were given a teaspoonful each 

 of Clay's fertilizer and removed to their 

 flowering quarters, where they were 

 kept at 50 degrees at night and 55 de- 

 grees during the day, 



"They began flowering early in De*- 

 cember. Some of the plants in pans 

 measure fully two feet through, and 

 some in 0-inch pots measure 18 inches 

 through. Some were doing duty in Bos- 

 ton at the timS the picture was taken. 

 These plants were not drawn, but good, 

 sturdy stuff. Our aim all through is to 

 keep them moving, tlie soil moist and 

 sweet, never on the dry side nor satu- 

 rated. Plants, like people, show at ma- 

 turity the care and attention they re- 

 ceive when young. In potting I always 

 make it a point to set each plant down 

 to the seed leaf, Tliey push up a little, 

 but never enough to topple over when 



