February 10, 1917 



11 U KTl C U L T U K £ 



173 



ROSE GROWING UNDER GLASS 



CONDUCTED BY 



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Questions by our readers in line witli any of tlie topics presented on this page will be cordially received and promptly answered 

 by Mr. Ruzicka. Such communications should invariably be addressed to the office of HORTICULTUKE. 



Care of Newly Potted Plants 



As soon as a batch of cuttings is potted, and set 

 properly on the best and sunniest bench in the house, 

 their care will have begun. A good watering should be 

 given as soon as a number of pots are set on the bench, 

 and if it is a sunny day, the plants should at once be 

 shaded with two thicknesses of newspaper, making sure 

 that the sun does not get a chance to hit the front rows. 

 To prevent this it will be necessary to have the papers 

 hang over the edge of tlie benches quite a little. It will 

 also be advisable to have them overlap, so there will be 

 no opportunity for the sun to get through. After the sun 

 is well over to the west in the afternoon, take all the pa- 

 pers off and go over the plants quickly with a very fine 

 nozzle, or else press real hard on the nozzle with the fin- 

 ger if an open nozzle is used, and spray the newly potted 

 cuttings well, yet be careful not to get any water into the 

 pots, as the first watering should last until tlie plants 

 start, which will be about two weeks after they are 

 potted, although root action sliould begin at once. If 

 the weather is very severe, and the house vei^ dry, see 

 that they are sprayed once or twice during the night. 

 Eemember that they should not be drenched, merely 

 sprayed so that the water will lie like dew on the leaves. 

 This will keep the leaves from drying up, also will help 

 soften the eyes, tlnis encouraging them to break. The 

 night spraying sluuild not be done except when the 

 weather is very cold, wlien plenty of fire heat has to be 

 used to keep the houses warm. Should the plants be 

 sprayed on warm moist nights, tbere would surely follow 

 a dose of spot. In the morning they should receive an- 

 other spraying, after whicli the papers are applied again 

 as soon as the sun l)egins to hit the plants. If the house 

 happens to be shaded by its southerly neighbor, then tlie 

 plants can be allowed to remain uncovered a while 

 longer, but not too long the first few days. The paper 

 can be sprayed over as often as may be necessaiy, being 

 careful to use a fine spray so as not to have a lot of water 

 standing on the paper to run on the pots later, thus 

 making some very wet. Then in the afternoon the pa- 

 pers are removed and the ]>lauts will have lived througli 

 their first day in soil. The treatment will be about the 

 same the first four or five days, after which the papers 

 need not be put on until about ten o'clock in the morn- 

 ing, and removed mucb earlier in the afternoon. This 

 is kept up until liiuilly the sliadc is left off altogether. 

 Ordy (iiie tliicknes-; of |ia|:er need be used after the fourth 

 day. Watch fur dry ]H)ts along the front rows and 

 moisten tliem when spraying so tliat tlic wliole l)atch will 

 run about even. 



Get Ready for Shifting 



It will not be very long before the small plants will 

 lie ready for a sbift, and it will be best to get the three- 

 inch jiots all re.idy and the soil too, so that there will be 

 no delay in the work when the time comes to do it. See 

 that tl)e large |()t< are all the same size so that there 

 will nut lie two or three dift'erent sizes thus making it 

 almost im))ossible to keep the rows straight. Fse good 

 ]iots. It will ] nv. .\ good ]iot should he ]ioi'ous. thus 



giving the soil a chance to get air through its walls, and 

 that is also one reason why pots should be clean and not 

 thickly coated with scum which stops up all pores. The 

 soil need not be so finely screened as for the first potting, 

 and a four-inch potfull of bone meal should be added to 

 each wheelbarrow of soil, also just a little more manure, 

 but nowhere near as much as will be used for the last 

 potting. Manure should be old and finely ground. 



Watering the Old Plants 



With the thermometer. between 10 and zero most of 

 the time, and the wind blowing a gale, plenty of fire heat 

 will have to be applied to the houses to keep them warm. 

 This will mean that the plants will dry out quite fast, 

 and if they liappen to be growing they will diy out 

 faster than is expected. For this reason it will be well 

 to look the benches over almost daily, being careful tw 

 go right down into the soil when searching for moisture, 

 as it often happens that the soil is quite dry in the bot- 

 tom of the bench while it appears fairly wet on the s\ir- 

 face. If there are only a few dry plants along the front 

 row, then these only should be watered. If however the 

 plants are all more or less inclined to be dry, a thorough 

 watering should be given. Use plenty of water at low 

 pressure, being careful to distribute it well all over the 

 bench, as evenly as possible. Let the water drip freely 

 through the bench and do not worry about the water bill 

 if there does happen to be a pool here and there under 

 the benches, it is absolutely necessa.ry to water heavy 

 so that there will be no dry spots in the benches any- 

 where. If the lienclies are wet in places, ajiply the water 

 just the same, for they will enjoy a little fresh water 

 after they have had the stale water for days. If there 

 are any benches that have not dried out far quite a while, 

 and have not been watered for two weeks or more tliey 

 had better receive a real good watering even if they are 

 not dry. This will freshen the soil wonderfully thus 

 helping tlie ])lants to sta.rt along once more. 



Tying in the Beauty Houses 



\\'ith the rush of ].)otting and making cuttings do not 

 neglect even a bench of Beauties, for once they are let 

 go it will take an awful lot of work to get them into 

 hand again, and it is still too early in the season to let 

 them go to pieces as with a little care they can be made 

 to produce fully as much if not more than they have 

 since tbey were planted. As the season advances some 

 of the blind wood can be removed while tying is in 

 ]ir(>giess, also bear in mind the remains of the long 

 stenmicd flowers that were cut down to the wire, but 

 had lieen bent down previously. If these are removed it 

 \vill give the eyes that remain a chance to break again. 

 Watcli out for plants that do not liave much top to cany, 

 aiul see that the buds that may appear on these are re- 

 moved so that they will have a better chance to take the 

 water and feed that is a]iplied. If any plants are cut 

 ofF real badly they had better be marked by scattering 

 some lime around them, and keeping the water away 

 from them -while watering. N"ot having much growth 

 tiev will not need much water. 



