J 082 



The Weekly Florists^ Review, 



May 21, 1903. 



comment of ^lay 7 i-egaiiliiig the use 

 of •'cold" air. It Avas not suggested that 

 the air be any colder than the water now 

 used for syringing. We were merely re- 

 cording the opinion of one grower that 

 it was the cold as much as the moisture 

 that made syringing such a valuable aid 

 in keeping red spider in cheek, and that 

 syringing with warm water was not 

 nearly so eflective as that direct from 

 the liydrant. Mr. CSpers makes what 

 seems to be an excellent suggestion re- 

 garding the value of compressed air in 

 the carnation houses. — Ed.] 



TROUBLE WITH PHOENIX. 



I send herewith a piece of a leaf of 

 Phoenix Canaxiensis tliat is infested with 

 scale. I would like to know the name 

 and remedy. Insecticides which I have 

 tried checked but did not destrov them. 



M. L. B. 



The portion of a leaf of Phoenix 

 C'anariensis forwarded by "M. L. B.'' is 

 not infested with scale, though such a 



condition often does exist with the plant 

 in question. The specimen is suffering 

 from a severe attack of a certain fungus 

 that seems especially at home on this 

 phoenix, and if the entire plant is as 

 badly atl'ected as this piece of leaf I 

 should be strongly tempted to burn it 

 rather than to attempt a cure. The fun- 

 gus in question is one of the peronos- 

 poras. a genus that is closely allied to 

 the mildews, and makes its growth 

 within the tissue of the leaf in the form 

 of filaments or mycelium, from which 

 there are issued through the stomata or 

 pores of the leaf, tiny branching growths 

 on which are produced the spores to re- 

 produce the fungus, and it is the clusters 

 of these niinute growths that have been 

 mistaken for insects. Owing to the fact 

 that this peronospora does most of its 

 work inside the tissue of the leaf, it is 

 a difficult subject to eradicate, and tlie 

 most promising remedy would be eitlier 

 Bordeaux mixture or sulphate of lime 

 solution applied in spray form, though it 

 would be unwise to claim either a.s an 

 absolute specific. W. H. Taplix. 



MISCELLANEOUS 

 SEASONABLE HINTS. 



The Plantsman's Busy Day. 



The next two weeks will be such a 

 biLsy time there will be little time for 

 writer or reader to commune. The car- 

 nation man will have his young crop in 

 the field and will be at peace. The rose 

 man will be throwing out and replant- 

 ing, but this he does not have to do all 

 at once. In fact, it is an advantage to 

 let the planting of rose houses cover a 

 period of two or three months. Then 

 there is more likelihood of some of the 

 houses being in good crop at all times. 

 So the rose grower is not worried, pro- 

 vided he ha-s the requisite pile of soil 

 ready. The chrysanthemum grower is 

 anxious to get his bertches empty so that 

 he can plant, for while a good crop of 

 flowers can be grown with planting as 

 late as July or early August. y»u will 

 get much better flowers by planting early 

 in .June. No class of florists is, how- 

 ever, Iialf ISO much worried as the poor 

 fellow who must fill ,^00 vases, has half 

 a mile of boxing to do. and expects to 

 dispose of 100,000 bedding plants and 

 largely plant them out. 



Tills has been such a strange season. 

 and is at this writing so warm, that 

 people whose past experience should tell 

 them that June 1 is as early as it is 

 safe to put out tropical plants, are call- 

 ing us up by 'phone every hour and in- 

 sisting that their flower beds and 

 veranda )x)xes must be filled at once. 

 You would like to tell them to go to 

 Hellespont, for thafs at the eastern end 

 of the Mediterranean and far away, but 

 you must be suave, polite and discreet 

 and reason with them. The remark, 

 "Very well, madam, I will put them out, 

 but of course I am not responsible for 

 what occurs" will "fetch" lots of them. 

 It appeals to the most sensitive human 

 organ, the pocket. 



I am aware that ."SOO or 400 miles 

 south of this, say at Philadelphia, per- 

 haps, flower gardening is almost over, 

 and so it inav be in southern Illinois, 



Indiana and other western and more 

 southern states, but I know full well 

 that in western New York, where *he 

 mists of the Niagara float over the 

 blossoni laden apple orchai'ds, we usu- 

 ally, to be more definite, about twice out 

 of "tliree seasons, get a frost along about 

 May 30. Sometimes it will only scorch, 

 or "rather chill, coleus. Sometimes it 

 will kill them dead and kill back 

 geraniums, but they always recover. 



Spring Planting. 



You can't carry everybody's troubles 

 on your shoulders, and when a tiling is 

 demanded by yoNr cuistomers. do it. 

 There is a great dilTerence in the hardi- 

 ness of plants, a knowledge of which 

 you perhaps give your customers the 

 credit of having, but not one in ten 

 does have it. Thej^ have> the same idea 

 about a pansy, coleus. geranium and 

 cahidium. and it is for you to talk a 

 little education into them. 



Geranium beds could have been 

 planted by the loth, and all the better 

 for it. but coleus. cannas, acalypha and 

 these tropical plants should be left with 

 us vuitil the first week in .June. It is 

 true that with us all outside vegetation 

 is quite ten days earlier than the normal 

 season, but thafs no proof that a frost 

 may— H«>t-\--isit us later. The peculiari- 

 ties ol the seasons have left a slight 

 irscfiig" on our gray matter which we 

 can recall at pleasure, but we are not 

 such a.Xfi:?" observer as the man who 

 observ.ef[,';'^at if he lived through the 

 month' b't.yebruary he always lived the 

 rest of the year. 



This plaHting of flower beds for our 

 patrons gives us much lalior and under 

 some circumstances should be paid for. 

 A rule we have tried to observe for 

 some years is that a flower bed that 

 holds $10 worth of plants we will plant 

 without extra charge. AnytluHg below 

 that we charge the time, and the Ijed 

 nuist be dug "and ready for a planting. 

 If von know the beds are in the same 



condition, as the winter left them, then 

 chaige for labor, no matter how big the 

 bill IS. 



There is some comfort in having your 

 own experienced help plant these flower 

 beds, for it will be properly done, the 

 beils \vill have a good appearance when 

 Jinished and the plants have a good 

 start. If the coachman or hired man 

 docs the job, he will get tlie first row 

 too close to the edge or too far from 

 it, some too deep and some too shallow. 

 He will not plant them the right dis- 

 tance apart, but will spin thetn out or 

 crowd them. And. above all, he seldom 

 knows the correct way to plant and 

 water. 



The Way to Plant. 



And this leads mc on to my annual 

 crop of chestnuts, but chestnut as it 

 may be to many, I write for the be- 

 giimer and iasist there is only one way 

 to plant a geraniimi or any bedding 

 plant, .a. shrub, evergreen or elm tree, 

 and that is to make ample excavation, 

 loosening the soil at the bottom of the 

 hole. Then place the plant in position 

 with sutHcient soil around it to hold it 

 in place. When all the plants are so 

 jilnced. get the hose, if getable, if not, 

 the watering pot. and fill up with water. 

 When that is soaked away fill in to the 

 surface of befl with the rest of the soil. 

 This inch or two of dry soil acts as a 

 mulch and keeps the soil around and 

 l>eneath the plant moist and is worth a 

 do7.cn waterings on the surface, even, if 

 you did get the water down to the roots, 

 and ycm know very well if the bed has 

 ever so small an elevation in the center 

 that you would have to stand for an 

 hour with the hose to get the water 

 down six inches. 



About filling these orders that will 

 come now with a rush, don't put oflf a 

 day or hour in filling an order that 

 should and can be filled. All of us are 

 more or less "shirky" and so apt to- 

 sav, ■'Well, there is no hurry for a day 

 fpi- that." Get it oft': the other day 

 will be busier still. Get it oft' your 

 mind, oft" your place, and it will Ije 

 "something accomplished, something 

 done." We think the Saturday before 

 Easter a most rushing, laborious day. 

 I am sure I have in y^ars gone h^ 

 known every day from ilay 25 to Jime 

 10 the equal of that. Someone else 

 does it now; I could not stand the 

 pressure. 



■Violets. 



The best violet grower in this vicinity 

 plants in the lx;ds along about the end 

 of June, or as soon as he has cleared 

 out his bedding plants. He propagates 

 them froiii runners directly after Easter, 

 then puts them into flats until planting 

 time. Now where are they ? Not under 

 glass, hut out of doors, beneath the 

 shade of trees, or partial shade. The 

 heat of a house now would be Tery 

 injurious to them, either the double or 

 single varieties. I think his great, suc- 

 cess is due to the fact that this "Wise"' 

 man's house is of sash, whish is removed 

 during the sunamer and not put on in 

 fall until danger of frost. 



William SCott. 



DEPTH OF BOILER. 



How deep should my steam boiler be 

 in the ground when the return openings 

 are at the very bottom of the boiler and 

 ti« mains are overhead? J. H. K. 



■J. H. K. must place the steam boiler at 

 least so low that the normal water line 

 er le^^l within the boiler is below the 



