jOT January, 1921 



425 



Cultural Notes on Calceolaria Stewartii and Its Varieties 



GEORGE F. STEWART 



AS I have been asked by many of my fellow gardeners 

 to furnish the cultural directions for Calceolaria 

 Slcwartii and its varities, I have decided that the 

 best means of disseminating them is through the 

 Gardeners' Cronicle. 



These plants are now starting into active growth and 

 their shoots need to be stopped back. It is preferable to 

 perform this operation about a week previous to potting, 

 for after they are potted, they start with a more evenly 

 balanced break all over the plants. The soft shoots that 

 are pinched off are used for cuttings and inserted in clean 

 sand in a temperature around 50° to 55°. 



The cuttings should be watered every day for about 

 ten days, not a mere spray overhead, but a thorough 

 drenching with clean water. I may here state that I have 

 practised the drenching method every day with nearly all 

 kinds of cuttings, except geraniums and other similar 

 wooded plants, and have found that it is not only a quick 

 means of rooting 

 cuttings, but also 

 the best preventa- 

 tive for the so- 

 called damping off 

 that we hear so 

 much about 

 among gardeners. 

 This practice cov- 

 ers an experience 

 of over thirty 

 years. 



The Calceolaria 

 will be rooted in 

 about two Aveeks 

 if one obtains 

 good soft tops. 

 Pot them in two 

 inch pots in nice, 

 light, sandy soil, 

 shifting the m 

 right along as they 

 require it. The 

 compost for pot- 

 ting is one part 

 loam, leaf mold, 

 preferablv oak 

 leaves one y e a r 

 old, fern root such 



as is used for potting orchids, sand and decayed horse 

 manure. These are used in equal proportions with some 

 broken charcoal. To about one ]iailful of the compost a 

 small handful of Clay's Fertilizer is added. After the 

 plants are well rooted in their flowering pots, water with 

 manure water, about a good handful to an ordinary 

 watering pot. I apply cow manure, horse manure and 

 hen manure and when watering with a fertilizer use a 

 handful to the same amount of water. 



The plants can be manipulated so that they will flower 

 early or late. I have had them in flower as early as the 

 first week in .'\pril, and as late as July, and I have no 

 doubt, near the salt water, along the coast of jNTaine, one 

 could have them in flower in .Xugust. Gauging the lime 

 of flowering is done by pinching and potting. Near Bos- 

 ton, about seven weeks are allowed from the time they are 

 cut back until they flower, always potting a few days 

 after they have been cut back. 



A little care has to be exercised to carrv stock plants in 



good condition after iIkv flower, until Fall. This is done 

 by placing the plants in partial shade in a cool north 

 house or outdoors under a tree, and using care in water- 

 ing. Water is given only when they show signs of wilt- 

 ing. Along about the end of September, I look over our 

 plants which have flowered in from six to eight inch pots 

 and select the best for large specimens for the following 

 year. These may with good care, as described above, be 

 flowered in twelve inch pots with a spread, when staked 

 out, of from four to five feet in diameter. I grow the 

 plants in a night temperature of about 45°. If they are 

 desired to flower early, from 50° to 55°, allowing a rise of 

 ten degrees with the sun. 



The plants are subject to attacks from green and white 

 fly. Fumigating -once a month with Hydrocyanic gas at 

 the rate of one-quarter ounce to the thousand cubic feet 

 of space our house is not troubled with them. To those 

 who have never used this gas, I will add, that there is a 



little booklet sent 

 out by the Roess- 

 ler & Hasslacher 

 Chemical Co., 100 

 William St., New 

 York city, giving 

 full information 

 how to apply. 

 The)' also supply 

 Sodium Cyanide 

 in one ounce egg 

 form, which I have 

 found to be the 

 handiest form for 

 greenhouse fumi- 

 "ation. 



There remains 

 to us a great duty 

 of defense and 

 preservation ; and 

 there is open to us 

 also a noble pur- 

 suit, to which the 

 spirit of the times 

 strongly invites 

 us. Let us advance 

 the arts of peace 

 and the works of 

 peace. Let us develop the resources of our land, call 

 forth its powers, build up its institutions, promote all its 

 great interests, and see whether we, also, in our day and 

 generation, may not perform something worthy to be re- 

 membered. — Daniel Webster. 



A spcctiiu'ii /)/(!«/ oj Cultcolaria Slcwurtii — I'ar. Lyiiuuiu 



Today is yoiu's and mine: the onl}- day we have; the 

 day in which we play our part. What our part may sig- 

 nify in the great whole we may not understand, but we 

 are here to play it, and now is our time. This we know : 

 it is a part of action, not of whining. It is a part of love, 

 not cynicism. It is for us to express love in terms of hu- 

 man helpfulness. — David Starr Jordan. 



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I NEW YORK SPRING FLOWER SHOW 



I Grand C.-nlral Palace New York City 



I MARCH 14 to 20, 1921 



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