April 



1910 



HORTICULTURE 



513 



SEASONABLE NOTES ON CULTURE 



OF FLORISTS' STOCK. 



Camellias. 



Those who grow Camellias that are 

 wanted in bloom by Christmas should 

 by this time have them started into 

 new growth. The plants require a 

 shaded house during the summer. 

 They are much more easil}' managed 

 under glass than when put in the 

 open. They should have abundance of 

 water, especially in their growing sea- 

 son, but soil must not be kept in a 

 soaked condition, as this would prove 

 a great injury. When the plants have 

 Just fully completed their season's 

 growth — which can be easily known 

 by the developed terminal leaf of each 

 new shoot — withholding water until 

 the new growth shows signs of flag- 

 ging, will cause the forming of a fine 

 crop of flower buds which will develop 

 into flowers instead of the buds drop- 

 ping before opening. They do well in 

 winter in a temperature of from 4.5 to 

 50 degrees at night. 



Left-Over Stock. 

 The benches are now pretty well 

 cleaned out of Easter plants. For some 

 weeks we have all been taxed for room. 

 The most important bedding plants — 

 the geraniums — that have been quite 

 badly crowded of late should now be 

 spread out. If you have any remain- 

 ing in 21/^-inch pots give them a shift 

 at once. Cannas will need some of 

 your spare bench space; they will be 

 starting freely now and should have 

 good attention as they always sell well. 

 Easter stock that is left over should 

 not be left here and there dotted all 

 over the houses. If worth holding, get 

 them together. Azaleas that are left 

 unsold should have all the seed picked 

 off after blooming, and repotted if 

 needed. Soak the ball well before pot- 

 ting. As soon as the genistas are 

 through flowering trim off the old 

 flowers with a pair of shears and when 

 the weather gets good they can be 

 plunged outside. Spiraeas can be 

 planted out in the border. 



Nephrolepis. 

 Those who are thinking of raising a 

 stock of young Nephrolepis for next 

 year can from now up to .luly start 

 to propagate them. First of all see 

 that you have the drainage perfect so 

 that the bench will let the water 

 through freely. Then put in some 

 light, sandy soil and plant the ferns 

 out and you will get abundance of 

 runners that will root and lift without 

 losing a single frond. A light shad- 

 ing and frequent sprinkling to create 

 a fair amount of atmospheric humidity 

 and a moderate degree of moisture at 

 their roots is about all that is needed 

 in the way of care. There are few 

 members of the great family of ferns 

 that are so easy of propagation as the 

 Nephrolepis, and they still enjoy a 

 marked degree of popularity. The 

 Boston fern seems to lead all others 

 as a sellei'. Nephrolepis Whitman! is 

 the best of the sports and shows very 

 little signs of reversion. N. Scottii 

 makes a nice compact plant. N. ele- 

 gantissima is something similar to 

 Whitmani. They are all good and sat- 

 isfactory for most florists. 



Poinsettias. 

 The old plants of poinsettia that 

 have been resting since the new year 



under the benches can now be started 

 by shortening back the stems and re- 

 potting in as small pots as the roots 

 will permit. They can be placed on 

 a sunny bench where the temperature 

 of 60 degrees can be maintained; at 

 night give them a good soaking of 

 water. Keep rather on the dry side 

 until the plants start to break and 

 they will soon produce a quantity of 

 fine cuttings. Take the cuttings off 

 with a heel when three or four inches 

 long. Trim with leaves off fairly close 

 before inserting them in sand. Water 

 carefully and shade until rooted. When 

 potting them off use small pots and a 

 mixture of loam, leaf mould and sand. 

 It is a great mistake to allow them to 

 make long roots before being taken 

 from the cutting bench; pot as soon 

 as the plants have made roots from 

 one-half to one inch long. Cuttings 

 can be rooted at any time from now 

 until the middle of August. Those 

 propagated in July and August are fine 

 for making up pans, but the earlier 

 ones will give the finest bracts for cut- 

 ling. 



Rose Compost. 



The Importance of good compost for 

 roses cannot be overlooked. We may 

 have every advantage as to good 

 houses, fine heating system and every- 

 thing that goes for the production of 

 good crops, but the selection of a suit- 

 able soil for planting purposes is im- 

 perative. Get your compost together 

 now so it will have time to be thor- 

 oughly incorporated and in a condition 

 for the young stock to draw its food 

 supply from. A stiff fibrous loam is 

 the most suitable for most of the va- 

 rieties cultivated under glass. The 

 top spit of six or seven inches deep 

 of some old pasture land will make an 

 ideal compost. Stack it in square piles 

 and add a load of well decomposed 

 cow manure to every three or four 

 loads of sod. The pile should be 

 turned over two or three times; this 

 will put the compost into a mellow 

 condition so that the young roses when 

 planted out in it will immediately take 

 hold and grow. 



Stevias. 



Stevia serratifolia. so highly valued 

 at the holidays, cannot be passed with- 

 out notice. The old plants that have 

 been kept in cool houses will give a 

 great many cuttings now which should 

 be rooted in good season so as to have 

 well established plants by the time the 

 call for them is the greatest. Constant 

 pot culture produces the best plants. 

 Of course, this method of growing 

 them into good-sized specimens re- 

 quires a greater amount of care and 

 attention than usuaiiy goes with field 

 culture, but I think it pays. 



JOHN J. M. FARREIaL. 



Mr. Farrell's next notes will be on 

 Dendraljiums, Ericis, Palm Seed, Pansies. 

 Planting ont Carnations. Rambler Roses 

 for next Easter. 



The Gardeners' Chronicle for March 

 19, speaks of Peterson's Glory of Cin- 

 cinnati as a variety of Begonia Gloire 

 de Lorraine. This we believe to be 

 incorrect. Mr. Peterson says it is a 

 seedling and the appearance of the 

 plant, especially the foliage which is 

 large and glossy in the way of B. 

 Socotrana, seems to bear out Mr. Pet- 

 erson's claim. 



HARDY ROSE AMERICAN PILLAR. 

 The Blue Rose and the American 

 Pillar rose were late arriving exhibits 

 at the Philadelphia spring show and 

 did not receive mention in our pre- 

 vious issue, which they both well de- 

 served, the former for its novelty and 

 the latter for its extraordinary merit. 

 It was exhibited without name (a grave 

 omission), and to make certain of its 

 identity your correspondent communi- 

 cated with the exhibitors and was 

 gratified to receive the following com- 

 plete account from the pen of Antoine 

 Wintzer: 



Uf the many new hardy roses iutrodueed 

 dnriug the past ten years it is doubtful if 

 any posses more desiralile qualities than 

 the American Pillar, introduced by the 

 Conard & Jones Company in 1906. Tiie 

 history of tills remarkable rose is rather 

 unique. It grew and bloomed on the trial 

 grounds of the intx'oducers without attract- 

 ing any special attention. Why? because 

 it was a single rose and in the past single 

 roses, lilie single dahlias, were not appre- 

 ciated. During a beautiful June morning 

 in 1904, a lady visitor noticed Its charm- 

 ing bright single flowers produced in im- 

 mense clusters covering the bush. The 

 rose colored (lowers in combination with 

 the prominent yellow stamens produced 

 such a line color effect that she desired 

 to have a plant for her rose garden. We 

 grew a plant for her and it is now one of 

 the finest specimens in the country. 



Since its introduction the merits of this 

 rose have been fully appreciated by our 

 English cousins; they know a good thing 

 when they see it, and rate it according to 

 its merits. American I'illar was not in- 

 troduced to the floral world with a great 

 blare of trumpets claiming it to be supe- 

 rior to all other roses in existence and so 

 forth. One man had unfaltering faith in 

 its merits or he would not have given It 

 the name of ■"American Pillar" until he 

 was sure that the rose was worthy of the 

 name. 



The first point noticeable is the great 

 vigor of the bush, then its enormous 

 shiny green leathery foliage, but the cen- 

 ter of attraction is in the beautiful clusters 

 of single flowers. When first opening the 

 color is a rich carmine changing to clear 

 rose: it continues long in bloom and en- 

 dures the hot weather with perfect im- 

 punity; its lasting qualities are surprising. 

 It is an annual bloomer and can be trained 

 as a climber or pillar rose, also can be 

 keiit in busli form or trained as a standard. 



Those desiring a ' good single rose for 

 Easter flowering cannot handle -a better 

 sub.iect. One-year-old field-grown plants 

 produce three to five large clusters if 

 potted into 5 or 6 in. pots. No previous 

 nreparatifin is necessary to bring them in- 

 to bloom. We have several hundred such 

 plants in bloom, lifted from open ground 

 and potted last December without any 

 special treatment: of course all rosarians 

 understand that the better the preparation 

 the finer the bloom. The plants above 

 referred to were pruned close, consequently 

 there were not .so many flowers per plant 

 ■■IS they would have given if allowed more 

 blooming wood. Young plants of this va- 

 riet.v in 2t4 in. pots, planted in field dur- 

 ing April or Ma.v will grow large enough 

 by following November to fill 6. 7 or .S in. 

 pots if given rich soil and good cultiva- 

 tion. 



ANTOINE WINTZER. 



STILL FANCY FREE. 

 Editor HORTICULTURE: 



Dear Sir: I notice in your last issue 

 of HORTICULTURE that Mr. Lloyd 

 G. Blick of Norfolk. Va., expects to 

 be in the race for Rochester In his 

 auto, accompanied by Mrs. Blick. I 

 have been knowing that gentleman for 

 many years and never knew there was 

 a Mrs. Blick. He is an "old batch" 

 and his old maid sister is going with 

 him to have a good time. The two 

 of us are fairly healthy specimens, 

 weighing about 6.50 pounds and are al- 

 ways in for fun. So be on the lookout 

 for Blick and his sister. Yours truly, 

 L. A. BLICK. 



