Mat 14, 1903. 



The Weekly Florists^ Review, 



1039 



MISCELLANEOUS 

 SEASONABLE HINTS. 



Spring Plaot Business. 



The bedding out time is fast approacli- 

 ing, when some of us have to hustle 

 very lively froiu the 20th of May to the 

 10th of June. This bedding plant busi- 

 ness is not simply filling flower beds. It 

 is filling vases, veranda boxes, and of 

 late years we are asked to fill hundreds 

 of 12 and 15-inch pots, which are u.sed 

 in various ways. On each side of the 

 steps leading to the front door is a fa- 

 vorite place for them and they are all 

 right tliere if not overdone. Most of 

 our citizens, even if they have a small 

 lawn surrounding their residences, are 

 reluctant to cut up the sod for making 

 a flower bed, and I don't blame them. 

 A group of shrubs is better taste than 

 a bed of geraniums in the small "front 

 yard," but the veranda box, or these 

 lafge pots on the steps, don't cut up the 

 lawn and they add color to the garden ; 

 and although our leading landscape gar- 

 deners are opposed to any high colors 

 being introduced, or even variegated or 

 colored foliage, such as the variegated 

 dog\vood, Prunus Pissardii or golden 

 elder, the average eye of taste delights 

 in a brilliant bit of color and will have 

 it in spite of the very refined teachings 

 of the modern landscape artist. 



If shaded from the hottest noon hour 

 sun, or if on the north or east exposure, 

 the tuberous rooted begonias make splen- 

 did pots for this purpose and have a 

 much tastier eft'eet than geraniums. If 

 fully exposed to the sun some of the 

 dwarf cannas can be used and look well. 

 Some people like a large jar of Caladium 

 esculentum. They look cool and refresh- 

 ing, but when you use either the cannas 

 or the caladium let there be nothing else 

 in the jar, for they will starve out any- 

 thing that is with them. The zonal 

 geranium is of course the great standby 

 for these jars, and deservedly so. It's 

 the gayest, healthiest, best tampered, 

 good natured flower that cheers alike the 

 garden of the millionaire and that of 

 the humblest toiler. "Familiarity breeds 

 contempt" we say about bipeds, and so 

 it is with this universal favorite, but 

 no plant gives us so much color and 

 brightness. A mass of one color is al- 

 ways more effective than a mixture, and 

 it most times does better. The semi- 

 double varieties are much the best for 

 this purpose. Two well known varie- 

 ties— "Nutt" for dark scarlet and "Mrs. 

 Perkins," bright pink — can't be beat. A 

 good white is always in demand. Vari- 

 eties used in these jars should be of 

 the best constitution. Tlieir roots are 

 crowded, so is their foliage, and some 

 of the coarse growers like old "Prokop 

 Daubeck," which is not desirable for a 

 flower bed, is just the thing for jars and 

 vases. A very free flowering geranium, 

 when its roots are so confined, will 

 flower itself to death and give up the 

 ghost in midsummer, while a hardy, 

 coarse giowing variety has its vigor so 

 reduced that it survives the cramped up 

 conditions. 



Veranda boxes are usually planted 

 with a mixture, and if they arc not so 



full of color, but the vines hang down 

 and do well, all will be forgiven. Be 

 ca refill not to use too many callas or 

 cjiladiums in these boxes. They will 

 make so much root that anything near 

 them will sufl'er. Study the aspect in 

 which to place these boxes. The morn- 

 ing sun up to 11 a. m. will hurt noth- 

 ing. It is the burning afternoon, per- 

 haps with roots dry, that scorches the 

 plants. It's no use reasoning with our 

 customers about filling these pots, boxes 

 and vases. There is not one in a hun- 

 dred but that will insist on their looking 

 attractive and "full" when thev arc sent 



a beautiful cemetery. People have grown 

 tired of mixed vases that too often do 

 but indifferently and necessitate so 

 called vines around the edge, which blow 

 about and soon become attenuated and 

 shabby. Now the nuijorily of vases in 

 o>ir cenieteries arc filled with one spe- 

 cies or variety of plant. Tlic Vernon 

 type of begonias — and there are many 

 beautiful varieties — arc splendid for the 

 purpose. If a, little shaded, the tuber- 

 ous rooted begonias make some of our 

 handsomest vases, and for sunny posi- 

 tions there is of course nothing equal to 

 the geraniums. 



Now about filling these different 

 things, it is laborious work, and a 2-J 

 inch iron vase filled is no trifle to han 

 die, but we have found through many 

 years of experience and con6ideral>le of 

 that kind of work that it is much better 

 in every way to bring all these reeopta- 

 clcs home to your greenhouse to fill. 

 You have the soil; you have the plants 

 to choose from; yo\i will do the work 

 quicker and more satisfactorily. It takes 



An Easter Automobile. Arran£ed by C. A. Samuelson, Chicago. 



home on the first of June, and they are 

 expected to keep right on growing and 

 improving until frost ends their days. 

 If gardeners had the care of them and 

 thinned out plants here and there to the 

 benefit of the others, and watered and 

 sprayed judiciously, how diflcront would 

 be the results. But that is very seldom 

 the case and John Tliomas, the coachman, 

 lets drive the hose at them as if they 

 were a fire. The soil for these pots, 

 vases and boxes should be rich — as good 

 stuff as you can get — and here is where 

 I believe that in addition to a third be- 

 ing good animal manure, a 5-inch pot 

 of bone dust could be added to every 

 bushel of soil. 



Vases. 



There has been quite a change of late 

 in filling cemetery vases, and there is 

 where ninety per cent of all the vase 

 filling is done. In many cemeteries there 

 is nothing else they can do. Our own 

 l)eautiful Forest Ijiiwn allows no sod to 

 be cut up for flower beds, and although 

 this is not in the interest of the florist, 

 it is most essentially right and insures 



labor to cart home the boxes and pots 

 and the va.ses to the cemetery and so it 

 does to cart out plants and soil. If 

 filled at home there is no wast<"; it is 

 better all around. But don't put these 

 vases or boxes under glass. They get a 

 forced start and sufl'er when exposed. 

 Keep them out of doors if you keep them 

 at all. 



We have found that to fill and deliver 

 at once is about the most satisfactory 

 plan of all. It is not half so pleasant 

 a business as cutting $2 Prosperity car- 

 nations or $0 American Beauty roses, 

 but we can't have pic all the lime. 



WiixiAM Scott. 



COPPER ON GERANIUM FOLIAGE. 

 "S. D. O," says that a few weeks ago 

 he was recommended to use a copper so- 

 lution for a fungus on his geraniuras. 

 which he did. He doesn't say whether 

 it stopped the spread of the fungus, but 

 I hope it did. .\nd now he wants to 

 know how to remove the stain which the 

 copper has left on the leaves. I donM 

 think it ■■■ui !><■ removed, but it doesn't 



