i8c,5. 



GARDENING. 



133 



CINERARIAS. 



CINBRflRlflS. 



Among greenhouse plants I know of 

 none so easily managed as this is, or that 

 makes a more generous display when it 

 is in bloom. As you will see by the ac- 

 companying illustration from the guide 

 to the conservatories here.and which was 

 engraved from a photograph taken last 

 winter, we grow these plants very largely, 

 almost enough to fill a whole greenhouse 

 at a time, besides having plants for suc- 

 cession. This gives an opportunity to 

 the tens of thousands of Pittsburg people 

 who visit these conservatories to see 

 cinerarias in all their floral glory. And 

 unbounded is their expression of their ad- 

 miration of such a show. Now, while 

 these plants are among the gayest and 

 most profuse of conservatory flowers 

 they are also among the easiest to grow 

 and most satisfactorj' of window plants. 



We treat them as annuals, raising them 

 afresh from seed every year. Their period 

 of growth is short and we have them in 

 finest bloom from the middle of January 

 till March, and some earlier and others 

 later hy regulating a succession of plants. 



Cinerarias are cool loving plants, they 

 dislike hot outdoor weather, and too a 

 hot greenhouse: at the same time they 

 can not stand a breath of frost. 



We sow the seed in pans in .\ugust in a 

 shaded cold frame; a few weeks earlier 

 for early flowers, and a few weeks later 

 for late blossoms. When the little seed- 

 lings have two or three leaves we pot 

 them ofl'singlv into 2y2inch pots. They 

 are rapid thrifty growers, and should be 

 kept cool and well up to the glass in a 

 freely ventilated frameshaded from warm 

 sunshine, and given rich soil and plenty 

 of water. Under no circumstances let 

 them get pot-bound. .\s soon as the little 

 roots are well through the soil repot the 

 plants into +-inch pots, and when they 



are nicely rooted in these shift them into 

 (i-inch pots. G or 7-inch pots are big 

 enough for common sized useful plants, 

 but if one wishes for big specimens he 

 may keep on repotting his stock till he 

 gets them into S or lOinch ones, when 

 they should make very large specimens. 



The soil we use is "a rich compost of 

 rotted sod and old cow manure and a 

 little sand. Of course before there is any 

 danger of frost getting to the plants in 

 the cold frames we remove them to low 

 roofed cool greenhouses. Greenfly is the 

 worst enemy the cineraria has got to 

 contend with, but tobacco is a sovereign 

 remedy for this parasite. When theplants 

 are quite young take some fresh tobacco 

 stems and chop them considerably finer 

 than they are with an axe, then scatter 

 them in "the frame under the plants, and 

 renew this every ten or fourteen days. 

 Do the same when the plants are taken 

 into the greenhouse, and the probabilities 

 are when flowering time comes there 

 won't be a greenfly on or about them. 

 Should there be any insects on them, 

 howe\er, syringe the plants to wet their 

 foliage all' over, especially about the 

 crown, then sprinkle them over with 

 fresh tobacco dust. In a couple of days 

 wash this ofi" by the syringe and repeat 

 the application,' till every fly has been 

 destroyed. X. W. Bennktt. 



Superintendent of Parks, 

 i'ittsburg. Pa., Jan. 7, '95. 



tion of the double pointed 

 that is a vast gain to us. 

 Orange, N. J. 



Van Rkvper's Glaziers' Points —In 

 wet and stormy weather when we cannot 

 work out of doors there are lots of odd 

 jobs we can do inside, and just now quite 

 an important one is repairing and rcglaz- 

 ing old hotbed sashes getting them ready 

 for eariv spring. In glazing we use these 

 points and find them vastly superior to 

 the zinc points. It is simply a modifica- 



CflRNflTIONS. 



One of the finest vases of caniations we 

 have ever seen is now upon our table. 

 The flowers came from Mr. C. W. Ward, 

 Oueens, L. I.; there are over sixty of 

 rhem, including pure white, pale and deep 

 pink, scarlet and crimson colored ones, 

 and every bloom is a perfect specimen of 

 its kind. There is only one blossom to a 

 stem. The stems are "fourteen to twenty 

 inches long, stout, stiff as a stake, and so 

 full of fine foliage that no other green is 

 needed with them. This bunch of flowers 

 is twenty-four inches through, six feet 

 around, and grades to fifteen inches high 

 above the vase; every bloom is held erect, 

 or with a slight droop on the strong 

 stems. The flowers run from two and 

 one-half to tw^o and three-quarters inches 

 in diameter, and every calyx is faultless. 



Mr. Ward is a florist who makes a spe- 

 cialty of growing carnations for the New 

 York market. He has immense ranges of 

 new greenhouses filled with carnations 

 alone, and a sight of them at this time ol 

 the year is a revelation in floriculture. 

 The 'secrets of his success are brains, 

 means and application; he has no hidden 

 secrets of cultivation. 



A CHOICE iiouQtET.—.V dozen carnation 

 flowers for a dollar and a half! He had 

 just picked them for a Baltimore lady 

 who wanted something choice, and she 

 got it. The variety was Bridesmaid, a 

 new and lovely pink, each bloom was 

 over two and o'ne-half inches in diameter, 

 and every stem was sixteen or .seventeen 

 inches long, full of leaves and some side 

 shoots, and besides the open blossoms 

 there were half a dozen unopen buds with 

 just as good stems as the open flowers 



