914 



The Weekly Florists^ Review* 



April 23, 1903. 



ly expensive, but the returns are more 

 than sufficient to compensate for the ad- 

 ditional first cost, and particularly so in 

 a wet season. I never like the idea of 

 having the fruit lying all over the 

 ground. Not to speak of the fact thnt 

 its gets dirty, the black rot that spoils 

 the fruit is always much more in evi- 

 dence on unsupported plants. 



If your correspondent has already 

 tried the supported method of growing 

 and his troubles from blight are increas- 

 ing I can offer him no remedy unless it 

 be that he only tries to grow tomatoes 

 on high dry land with a sharp slope to 

 the south to quickly drain off the super- 

 fluous moisture. C. T. 



DISEASED GERANIUMS. 



I am a subscriber of your valuable 

 paper, and write for information con- 

 cerning the disease of the enclosed ger- 

 anium. It begins with a small, white 

 spot and ends as if it were bruised. I 

 have been using diluted fir tre« oil on 

 them. Is that correct, or what ^hall I 

 do, as my whole house, I am afraid, will 

 be affected? S. D. O. 



This is not the first sample of dis- 

 eased geranium leaves we have seen this 

 spring. We don't know it, but it is a 

 fungus, sure enough, and in applying 

 any remedy both sides of the leaves must 

 be sprayed. I don't say that the am- 

 moniacal copper solution will kill the 

 fungus that is in the tissue of the plant, 

 but it will destroy all that has come to 

 the surface. This solution has killed 

 the hollyhock disease, and that's about 

 as formidable looking a fungus as at- 

 tacks plants. The formula for the cop- 

 per solution has been printed in your 

 columns many times. It is harmless to 

 any plant. Willi All Scott. 



LILY BUDS THAT ROTTED. 



A Mr. D. K. writes that his lily buds 

 after they were showing nicely began 

 to rot and he lost almost all of them. 

 They were potted in August and brought 

 in after they were well rooted and kept 

 in 45 to 50 degrees at night. Up to two 

 months ago they looked well. 



From the fact that he potted them 

 in August they must have been the Ber- 

 muda bulbs, and I can not think of any 

 cause that would rot or shrivel up the 

 buds. It must have been simply a bad 

 case of disease. We did not experi- 

 ence or hear of as much disease this 

 year as formerly, but it still exists. 

 Under such correct conditions as de- 

 scribed above I can think of no other 

 reason for the trouble. 



William Scott. 



HARDY FERN, 



Please tell me through the Review the 

 name of the fern of which I send a 

 frond and spores. Also how to grow the 

 fern from spores. Can it be done out- 

 side without other protection than shade. 

 This is a very desirable fern for cutting, 

 is of robust growth and as hardv as an 

 oak. C.'H.H. 



The frond and spores mentioned in- 

 clude portions of two different ferns. The 

 contracted or berrylike, clustered frond 

 is the fertile frond of the Sensitive Fern 

 — Onoclea sensibilis — which abounds in 

 wet places. If desired to grow it the 

 creeping rootstocks can be taken up. 

 They stand transplanting well, but will 



do best in a rather moist, shady loca- 

 tion. 



The other frond which you send is a 

 portion of a fertile frond of Dryopteris 

 marginalis, a very fine and hardy fern. 



To grow ferns of this class from the 

 spores is a difficult and rather uncertain 

 task. You can proceed in this way. 

 Prepare some fine soil and leafmold in 

 a shallow box or pan. Float your fern 

 spores on the top, then cover your box 

 with a large pane of glass, set in a warm 

 greenhouse, where it will not fall below 

 60 degrees. Then, if you have good luck 

 and patience you may be rewarded by 

 a crop of new ferns. Sometimes, fern 

 growers say, the new crop may be an 

 entirely diflferent fern from the one you 

 suppose you are sowing. The only way 

 of getting those hardy ferns is by col- 

 lecting them where they occur spon- 

 taneously. John Higoins. 



TROUBLE WITH PALMS. 



Please tell us the cause of the leaves 

 of our kentias and latanias turning yel- 

 low in spots? Some of the leaves get so 

 bad it is necessary to cut them off. 



Are there two kinds of sago palms — - 

 a long leaf and a short leaf? The leaf- 

 lets oif the sagos turn yellow, too, and 

 have to be clipped off. Texas. 



The most likely cause of the yellow 

 spots mentioned in this query is an at- 

 tack of some species of scale insects, any 

 of which \vould soon produce such an ef- 

 fect on the leaves of kentias and lata- 

 nias. Yellow spots on the leaves may 

 also be caused by the root action of the 

 plants in question being defective, but 

 naturally one could not speak positively 

 in such a case wdthout seeing a specimen 

 of the affected leaves. Look on the un- 

 der side of the leaves for the insects 

 and give a careful sponging with solu- 

 tion of whale oil soap. 



Tliere are two forms of Cycas revoluta, 

 the one producing much longer leaves 

 than the other, and the difference is gen- 

 erally considered to be in the sex of the 

 plants, the male and female organs in 

 the cycas being produced upon different 

 plants. 



The leaflets of the cycas turn yellow 

 at times from unhealthy roots, the trou- 

 ble being caused by too much water be- 

 fore the plants are established. 



W. H. Taplin. 



A COLD ROOM. 



I want to build a cold room for stor- 

 ing cut flowers and would like advice as 

 to how it should be constructed. It 

 should not be expensive as I am doing 

 only a small retail business. Should 

 there be any windows in the sides? 



C. A. M. 



The modern refrigerator or cold 

 room (if for ice) can be constructed and 

 made effective at a very moderate cost 

 if utility is the sole consideration. The 

 main object to be attained being insula- 

 tion combined with a system of ventila- 

 tion, which will at all times and under 

 any conditions keep the atmosphere in 

 the chamber from becoming unduly 

 charged with moisture. 



To properly isolate the chamber from 

 outside atmospheric conditions, the walls 

 to be as non-conductive as is necessary 

 should be built somewhat after this 

 method. In the center of the walls and 

 between two boards of an inch thick an 

 air space of 4 inches should be left. 



the boards should be paper covered, then 

 on each side of this space another space 

 of 4 inches each which should be filled 

 with either charcoal, sawdust or finely 

 sifted dry coal ashes. Asbestos wool 

 makes the most effective job but adds 

 considerably to the cost. 



Both sides of the wall should be cov- 

 ered with paper and the inside finished 

 with dressed sheathing and given an oil 

 coating. The outside wall to be finished 

 with German siding. The entrance door, 

 filling door and ceiling should be con- 

 structed on the same isolating principle. 

 The ceiling should if possible be ten feet 

 high, so that the ice rack may be re- 

 moved sufficiently far from the blooms, 

 so that the cold air descending from the 

 ice may be qualified by the air in the 

 chamber before coming in direct contact 

 with them. 



The rack should be made of 2x4 

 dressed scantling, running lengthwise of 

 the chamber and should have a slight 

 decline from the filling door to facili- 

 tate filling. A zinc lined drip pan should 

 be hung a few inches below the ice 

 rack 'and have a pipe attached to carry 

 the water outside the chamber, as the 

 less water exposed so much easier can 

 the temperature be regulated. 



The system of ventilation which we 

 adopted when building our last cold 

 room has served the purpose so well 

 that I do not hesitate to recommend it. 

 Along the sides of the chamber and on 

 the floor line holes a foot square should 

 be left at spaces of four or five feet 

 apart; these allow the vitiated air to 

 escape, and holes of a corresponding size 

 and shape should be left quite close to 

 the ceiling for the admission of fresh 

 air. These holes should have closely 

 fitted doors on both the outside and in- 

 side of the walls, and be so constructed 

 that they can be easily opened and shut. 

 These openings give all the light we . 

 find necessary to fix the keeping quali- 

 ties of the cut. RiBES. 



CHRYSANTHEMUMS. 



Propagation 



should now be well under way and while 

 there is plenty of time to propagate the 

 tall growers such as Eaton, it is well 

 to get all the dwarf varieties and the 

 early sorts into the sand as soon as pos- 

 sible. Don't forget this year to include 

 in your list of earlies Mrs. Coombes, 

 Lady Harriet and Alice Byron. They 

 are fine for cutting from October 10th 

 onward. Tlie first two varieties are 

 pink, Byron is a white and with Halli- 

 day as a yellow you will very possibly 

 make more money than if you grew 

 either earlier or later varieties. 



There is generally a time about the 

 end of the second week in October that a 

 killing frost cuts off everything outside, 

 and then there is a big demand for flow- 

 ers for a few days, with nothing but 

 mums to fill it. 



Tliis frost and consequent demand did 

 not occur last year and the early varie- 

 ties were anything but profitable, but 

 one is generally safe in predicting frost 

 by October 15th, when the varieties I 

 have mentioned will be in their glory. 

 That is why I think they will be more 

 profitable than the earlier ones, which 

 are competing with late asters and dah- 

 lias. 



It is now at propagating time that 

 the grower should look ahead and fig- 

 ure on the harvest. The margin of 

 profit in chrysanthemum growing is so 





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