651 



The Weekly Florists' Review. 



JUrch 19, 1303. 



always with a fair anioiiiit (if ventila- 

 tion; during bright weatlicr SI) or 82 de- 

 gree* is none too liigli during tlie day. 

 During dull, cloudy weather, both night 

 and day temperature ean lie reduced 5 

 to 8 degrees with advantage. 



As the syringe has to \>e applied with 

 a good deal of force, staking and tying 

 should be strictly attended to. so that 

 the st^'ius and foliage may maintain their 

 upright position. 



It is obvious, from a study of these 

 conditions, that this variety cannot be 

 grown with any reasonable success along 

 with any other variety, but should have 

 a house entirely to itself, the heat and 

 moisture required being almost fatal to 

 any other rose. 



By the month of Septeml)er. when the 

 real blooming .season begins. Hie night 

 temperature should be set at (iS desrces 

 and kept steadily at that point durinj 

 the rest of the season, with a day tem- 

 perature approaching SO degrees, accord- 

 ing to weather. Some growers prefer a 

 night temperature of 70 degrees. Having 

 tried both, for general health of the 

 plant, quality of (lower, stem and foli- 

 age. I prefer the lower temperature. 



A word of advice to the smaller glow- 

 ers: If you wish succe-s uitli Meteor. 

 it is better to partition olT a part of a 

 house and put in an extra line of piping 

 than to attempt to grow a buncli of them 

 in a mixed house, as by this latter meth- 

 od there ean be little profit and no pleas- 

 ure. RiBES. 



PROPAGATING H. P. ROSES. 



Please tell liU' tlic nio-t usual way of 

 propagating hybrid (lerpetual roses — 

 preparing stock ])lants. lime to start 

 cuttings, where, luiw — in short the whole 

 story. Hegi.vxer. 



The first question propounded by this 

 inquirer is an easily answered one. Init 

 on reading his concise and condensed in- 

 terrogations it fairly "took tlie wind out 

 of me." "'The whole stoiv" would re- 

 quire a bigger book than I can ever 

 hope to live long enough to write. 



The most usual way of i)ropagating 

 H. P. roses ( L presume they are for 

 outdoor culture) is to use half ripened 

 wood, which can lie cvit any time during 

 the summer after the ])lants have been 

 in bloom. In dry seasons this happens 

 .sometimes late in June, in moist seasons 

 in .Tuly. 



Construct a hotbed from stable ma- 

 nure which has been turned over two or 

 three times to get rid of the most in- 

 tense heat. The aspect of this bed 

 should be to the north. Put in 18 

 inches of the manure and treail it down 

 firmly. Leave it to ferment for a few 

 days and when the temperature falls to 

 SO degrees put 4 or 5 inches of loamy 

 soil on the manure. As soon as the 

 soil has become of the proper tempera- 

 ture (which shouhl be liS or 70 degrees) 

 put on 3 inches of clean sand. The bed 

 is now ready for tlie cuttings. The cut- 

 tings, should have at the least three eyes, 

 two above the sand with fully developed 

 leaves on, and one Ijelow the surface 

 from which the leaf has been removed. 

 Insert these in the sand to the depth of 

 at least one and a half inches. Cover 

 with a glass tilled sash and keep the 

 sand as moist and cool as possible bv 

 shading with matting and giving only 

 ventilation sufficient to let superfluous 

 moisture escape. Give more ventilation 

 during the night than during the day. 



In about 28 davs thev will have formed 



roots large enough to require potting. 

 Pot into 2-inch standard pots and place 

 in a cool frame, watering and shading 

 carefully until the roots begin to work, 

 gradually increasing the amount of ven- 

 tilation so that in three weeks they can 

 stand fully exjiosed. This young stock 

 should have the protection of a cold 

 frame during the winter and be planted 

 out in the following April. 



There are many other methods of 

 propagating H. P. roses, such as by cut- 

 tings from dormant wood, by budding, 

 by grafting, by suckers, etc., which 

 woulil require too much space to fully 

 describe. 



Wm. Scott, in his Florists' ^Manual, 

 has devoted quite a little space to this 

 very subject and I would advise ''Be- 

 ginner" to secure a copy of this valuable 

 work, as no beginner can afford to be 

 without it. EiBES. 



ROSE SOILS. 



I send you samples of foiu" different 

 kinds of soil. Wliic h is the best for 

 roses? Xo fertilizer has been added to 

 any of the samples. J. R. K. 



Sample Xo. 1, or "giunbo" soil, while 

 containing many of the elements neces- 

 sary for rose culture, has too large a 

 l)ercent<ige of day. I may also say that 

 all the elements are reduced to .such fine 

 particles that it is altogether too solid 

 for this purpose. 



Xo. 2. This soil, if taken as the top 

 spit si.K inches deep from old pa-sture 

 land, and composted in the proportion 

 of four of soil to (uie of well decompose<l 

 cow mamire. and thoniughly incorporated 

 with a >prinkling of bone Hour added at 

 ])lanting time, would be capable of pro- 

 <lui'ing g<Mid loses. 1 have used worse 

 with suc-eess. 



Xo. 3. Ordinary jirairie soil. Largely 

 used in Illinois witli success. 



Xo. 4. Percentage of clay far too high. 



RlBES. 



ROSE HOUSES. 



Will you give u- a little advice alxiut 

 building a bbn-k of rose houses? We 

 are obligcil to run them southea.st and 

 iiorthwol, and don't know whether to 

 build even span or ^liort s]i:iii to south. 

 If lioii-c^ 22 feet wide, how high should 

 ridge and gutter lie? A word as to width 

 and general proi>ortions would be accept- 

 able. I. B. L. 



Cal. 



For rose houses which must lie Imilt 

 with this as]>e<t an even span or nearly 

 even span — that is. a combination be- 

 tween an even and a three-quarter span — 

 would Im- the nio<t suitable. For such a 

 house, if desigiUMi for growing Brides, 

 Maids, or roses of such like habit, the 

 gutter should Ije six feet from the floor 

 and with the jutch of south roof of an 

 angle of 32 dcirrees the ridge-pole will 

 be sonietliinff like 13 feet from the floor. 



This width of a house is rather awk- 

 ward to divide economically without hav- 

 ing the benches either too narrow or too 

 wide. Tlie house slumld have for con- 

 venient working four walks of 20 or 22 

 inches wide. A house of 22 feet 8 inches 

 would have room for four benches of 4 

 feet wide each. The l)ench at the north 

 part of the house would l>e close up to 

 the posts supportinar the gutter. One 

 side can be worked from (he south path 

 of adjoining house. 



By making the width of the house 2.5 

 feet 4 inches, the benches can be nuide 



4i feet each and the walks 22 inches, 

 which is a good ])ractical width for each. 

 The ventilator sash should be 3 feet in 

 depth, not continuous, but broken every 

 G or 8 feet to prevent januning from the 

 expansion of the wood during damp 

 weather. These should be placed on the 

 north side of the house. 



A house much favored by growers the 

 ])ast two seasons is the "short-roofed" 

 pattern. These houses have the short 

 Npan to the south, are 13 feet 8 inches 

 in width, and contain two walks and 

 two benches each. The gutters are from 

 7 to feet high, according to the variety 

 of cro]) to he planted. From what I have 

 seen of them they seem to fill the bill. 

 Xext season I shall be able to speak from 

 experience, as this is the design adopted 

 for the block we are to erect this season. 



Rises. 



CARNATION NOTES— WEST. 



As the sun gets stronger your plants 

 will need more water and nourishment, 

 and if you want to keep up your quality 

 into the hot summer days you will have 

 to look after your plants closely now. 

 .\ mulch of well rotted manure will not 

 only be food for the plants but it will 

 also prevent evaporation, which is just 

 as important in bright weather. There 

 are over three months of good business 

 in this season yet. and during the lat- 

 ter part of these three months the plants 

 will have their hardest struggle to keep 

 up to the top notch in quality, so you 

 must train them for the ordeal Ijefore- 

 hand. Most of the varieties are throw- 

 ing up a crop of buds now that will 

 1«" in bloom during Ajuil and ilay and 

 it will take more nourishment to enable 

 the jibiiil to produce all large, perfect 

 blooms than it did when only two or 

 three blooms were produced each month 

 and when the bloom took at least twice 

 as long to grow and develop. 



Look after the disbudding closely now, 

 as the side shoots come faster than ever. 

 You are through making cuttings and 

 instead of taking out the side shoots 

 ilown to the first good cutting you 

 should take off these, too, as far down 

 as where you will cut the stem.s later 

 on. All these things will help the bloom. 

 See that the shoots stand up straight 

 so the stems will be straight. 



The Ijawson and a few others will 

 want a light shade to keep the color 

 good, but only put on just enough to 

 break the sun's rays a little. You don't 

 want to soften the growth by it, so be 

 careful. 



By the way. if >ou intend growing 

 any of your carnations inside all sum- 

 mer you should begin to handle them 

 accordingly. \Vc find Mrs. Lawson does 

 l>est with us inside all summer. We are 

 shifting them into fours now. and by 

 June 1st we expect to have them planted 

 in the l>ed. nice bushy plants with a good 

 start. We get longer stems and a con- 

 tinuous crop from October until the 

 next .Tuly and all high grade blooms. 

 Pot about one-f(mrtli more than you 

 want to plant: you will need them. It 

 is said that plants that are grown in the 

 field during summer will produce more 

 blooms than those grown inside, and 

 l)erhaps it is true in a small way. but 

 I don't think tho.se plants will bring 

 .you any more nor even as much money 

 in the season. They will produce heavy 

 crops of blooms when they are in crop, 

 but they will not produce right along 

 like the inside grown plants will and 

 the quality will also vary just as much. 



If you have a bench or bed that you 



