610 



The Weekly Florists' Review, 



March 12. 1903. 



being moved around. In the early part 

 of the flowering season they were fed 

 twice each week with barn yard liquid. 

 The picture was taken the latter part 

 of February. Tlie plants are still good 

 at this time, March 3." 



REBUILDING. 



I have read with interest the article 

 on the cash receipts from a greenhouse, 

 for it nearly fits my case. I have ab'Ut 

 3.000 feet of bench room and work it 

 all myself, but can never get more than 

 50 cents per square foot from it. Of 

 course I do not get any fancy prices 

 here. I handle a "general stock of flor- 

 ists' plants and sell everything I can 

 produce; in fact, I could dispose of much 

 more if I could grow it. 1 have my 

 troubles, though, as I cannot get much 

 growth on my stock for six months nf 

 the year, as "my houses run north and 

 south, and as soon as the suri gels low in 

 winter the sash bars shade the houses 

 from about 10 o'clock in the morning 

 to 3 o'clock in the afternoon. I have 

 been thinking of pulling them down in 

 the spring and building in their place 

 one house 21x120 and 8 feet high, three- 

 quarter span, running east am! west, 

 with glass on the roof and ends Lnit not 

 on the sides, the house to contain three 

 beds— one 4 feet, one 8 f^et and the 

 other 4 feet. :My idea is to have two 

 sunken walks 2 feet wide, and heat with 

 hot water. 



The north side bench I would jilanl 

 to ferns for 3 feet, and in tlie front, 

 down to the walk, I would iikc (o stand 

 seine large rubbers. I want a .loor on 

 the north side about 40 feet from the 

 east end to lead to my residence. The 

 8-foot bench would be planted to .-so.ne 

 roses and a general line of stuff. Don't 

 you think that a temperature of 5-5 to 

 "(50 degrees would be all right '' An'^ 

 would I not get a good lot of light liy 

 this arrangement? I know, of c)ur*e, 

 that I could not have everv^hing in ex- 

 tra good condition having them all to- 

 gether in one house, but think I could 

 have them in fair shape and .«ivo an 

 item in coal bills. 



I thought al-so of having two lines of 

 cold frames, each fixfiO. on the norlii 

 side of the house where I eouhl put bed- 

 ding plants in the spring. This would 

 give me as much room as I now have. 

 Please advise me. U. A. U. 



I do not learn from the above in what 

 part of the country our friend is lo- 

 cated, and that makes all the dilTercnec. 

 For instance, south of Pliiladelphia, or 

 in the clear, bright days of some of our 

 western states, it makes little difference 

 whether the house runs north and south 

 or east and ^vest. In the dark winters 

 of the Atlantic and eastern states it is 

 undoubtedly better to have a southern 

 aspect; i. e., house running east and 

 west; or better still, a few degrees east 

 of south. Another great consideration 

 is size of glass. In the <dd days of 

 8x10 we grew about as good plants and 

 flowers as we do now, and I can truth- 

 fully sav that twenty years ago, in a 

 house glazed with 8x10 glass, running 

 north and south. I grew and cut more 

 good buds in the depth of winter of the 

 dear old Bon Silene, Safrano and Isa- 

 liella Sprunt than I have ever done 

 since. It more depends on the "man be- 

 hind the gun" than any improved 

 house, yet that is no reason why we 

 should not build on the best known 

 methods. 



I would say that if you are going to 

 pull down and rebuild, then build equal 

 span running east and west ; use glass 

 that is 10 inches wide; let there !» up- 

 right or side glass on all sides and both 

 ends. This latter is a most important 

 point. Vkm't have any sunken paths, 

 and if you must winter such abomina- 

 tions as "big rubbers," give them a 

 place at the east end of your house. Heat 

 by hot water by all means, and don't 

 use less than 2-inch jiipe. As for width 

 of house, I will be gUul, when you are 

 ready, to give you my opinion on what is 

 the most economical structure. 



Don't think of any 8-foot benches. A 

 bench of G feet is unhandy enough. A 

 house 28 feet wide, considering its first 

 cost and maintenance and the bench 

 room you get, is the ideal house for 

 many purposes, and more particularly 

 for "carnations, where only one house 

 can be built. If you can have only one 

 house, then a teniperature of .50 degrees 

 at night in extreme cold, and 5.5 in or- 

 dinary weather will be found to suit a 

 mixed collection. Hotbeds and cold 

 frames are useful to relieve the crowded 

 greenhouse in April and ilay. 



William Scott. 



CHRYSANTHEMUMS IN THE 

 SOUTH, 



Two llobile. Ala., Ilorists, ^Messrs. H. 

 P. Loding and Louis Kavier, take excep- 

 tion to the paper by Col. F. P. Davis 

 that was presented at tlie Chicago con- 

 vention of the Clirysaulhemura Society, 

 niev say: 



"AH hail to Col. Davis as a grower 

 of mums for pleasure, and giving the 

 king his dues, he has in his position 

 as a gentleman of society done a great 

 deal towards awakening an interest in 

 Queen IMum, but whether he, with his 

 six or seven years of amateur practice 

 with mums, i's justified in judging the 

 floriculture of a whole city con- 

 taining such men as Jlr. C. Eavier, who 

 for forty years or iiuuc was successfully 

 engaged in the florist business, is another 

 question. 



"Col. Davis is looking at one side of 

 the matter, and the thirist, who has to 

 make his living, has got to look at an- 

 other, the paying side. When Mr. Davis 

 says that the modern chrysanthemum 

 is "a novelty in tlie south and means the 

 modern exhibition chrysanthemum, he 

 may, as far as the public is concerned, 

 be right, but when commercial mums 

 are put on the scale we venture to say 

 that they are, on tlie whole, grown in 

 the south as fine as in most parts of the 

 north and west, and very nearly in 

 suflicient quantity to supply any ordi- 

 nary demand. We have seen some very 

 tine mums grown by Messrs. Oven, Co- 

 lumbus, Miss., and Patterson, Montgom- 

 ery, Ala., and some Xew Orleans grow- 

 ers are not behind, and so has this city 

 produced some very credit^able stuff, far 

 ahead of the price, $1.50 per doz., the 

 same being equally as good as any the 

 colonel has ever raised. So if Colonel 

 Davis can blush, as he says he can, he 

 had better use his blushes where they 

 are needed. 



"Mobile florists are fully able to take 

 care of their part of the business, the 

 raising for their particular trade, and 

 will come pretty near telling their stock 

 mums by the growth even if the labels 

 get lost. In the future there is every 

 reason to hope that Col. F. P. Davis will 

 use his valuable efforts in getting the 



buyer to understand that a first-class- 

 mum cannot be raised at the same price- 

 as inferior stuff. As to his cultural 

 directions, we have very little to say. 

 His advice to growers to shun all com- 

 mercial fertilizers we do not quite agre» 

 in, as we have used both nitrate of soda 

 and sulphate of potash to great advan- 

 tage in proper season and quan- 

 tity. Of his three big bugbears— 

 the mealy bug, the wood louse, or termi- 

 tina, and the corythuca (which last we- 

 have as yet classified as aleyrodes, but 

 he may "be better informed as to the 

 name)— the first one every florist knows 

 so well and would laugh if anyone told 

 him it was so terrible a pest to get rid. 

 of, and how he gets rid of them by 

 keeping the plants on the dry side is a 

 conundrum to us. 



"Having for years gromi chrysanthe- 

 mums, roses and other stuff in wooden 

 benches we yet fail to see where the 

 termitina has done any damage, outside 

 the boards they are in. Tlie corythuca, 

 however, is a very serious pest, not in- 

 side, where by fumigation you can easily 

 get rid of them, but on outside stuff, 

 such as asters, pompon mums and rud- 

 beckia, they are devastating. Kerosene 

 emulsion we find entirely ineffective, un- 

 less applied to such an extent as to de- 

 stroy the plants. The only remedy we 

 know of is a very hard application of 

 the hose whenever possible, and we would 

 ask any florist who knows a better to 

 kindly let us know through your col- 

 umns. 



"On the whole Colonel Davis' paper is 

 a very fine examjile of southern elo- 

 quence, but very little more. We should 

 be glad to have the colonel join the 

 ranks of professional growers and would 

 welcome him in our humble way. We 

 are sure his name alone would .give 

 lustre to the trade, and none of us are 

 vet too old to learn." 



THE WHITE FLY. 



Plant House Aleyrode. 



In a recent issue of the Review ap- 

 peared an inquiry regarding a small 

 white fly, and from the description I 

 iudge it to be the Plant House Aleyrode 

 or White Fly. which is the subject of 

 Hulh'tin No. 140. issued by the Connec- 

 ticut Experimental Station, Xew Haven, 

 Conn., during September, 1902. 



As stated in the bulletin it has been 

 very troublesome to tomatoes under 

 glass. It has attacked asters and chrys- 

 anthemums, and would without doubt 

 take kindly to pelargoniums. Its eggs 

 are laid on the leaves when the plant is 

 small. The insects fly at maturity, 

 which is reached in four or five weeks 

 after the eggs are laid. Tliey suck the 

 sap. which causes the foliage to shrivel 

 and drop. It is reported to have been 

 found on fifty-eight different kinds of 

 plants in this state alone. 



It is closely related to the scale in- 

 sects and resembles them in its imma- 

 ture stages, but differs in that both 

 sexes are winged when the adult stage 

 is reached. 



The remedies recommended in the bul- 

 letin are tobacco smoke, hydrocyanic 

 acid gas. and spraying with soap solu- 

 tions. The tobacco smoke will not kill 

 all but a drenching of wat^r will destroy 

 those that have fallen to the ground. It 

 is not considered effective, however, and 

 hydrocyanic acid gas is dangerous for 

 general use. The soap is considered best,. 



