July 27, 1912 



HORTICULTURE 



113 



ROSE GROWING UNDER GLASS 



CONDUCTED B¥ 



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Questions by our renders 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 HOKTICDLTURE. 



The Pots 



A;; we have suggested before, through these columns, 

 summer is the time for cleaning and washing all pots 

 and liaving them ready when the propagating season 

 comes along. It is very hot in all the houses as we all 

 know only too well and washing pots is much more suit- 

 able work for this kind of weather, than working in the 

 houses would be. Various devices and machines have 

 been devised and used on many of the large places, to 

 make more headway in washing pots. The most success- 

 ful and economically operated device we know of is a 

 regular pot-washing machine driven by an electric motor 

 which is used in driving a pump for syringing or liquid 

 manure. This pump is so arranged as to be easily dis- 

 connected from the motor, and then a belt is put on the 

 pot washing machine. To save time and labor, brushes, 

 etc., it is well to have the pots soaking for at least 24 

 hours before they are washed. 



As soon as the pots are washed store them away care- 

 fully ill a frost-proof building if possible, keeping them 

 piled up nice and neat, all sizes separate. Many places 

 have a special building where all pots are stored, yet we 

 find it much handier to provide a pot storage when plan- 

 ning a potting shed or work room, so as to have the pots 

 near at hand, when there is potting to be done. We find, 

 too, that the less we have to handle the pots the better, for 

 not only is time expensive but some pots are bound to be 

 broken in handling and where thousands of pots are 

 handled this breakage and the time required is bound to 

 eat into the profits. 



The New Roses 



Do not turn all the new roses down without giving 

 them a good trial first. During this trial study the 

 variety carefully ; find out its necessities, its weak points, 

 and do not do any guessing when it comes to figuring up 

 the returns. Keep careful account of every little thing 

 which may be of value to you later on in deciding 

 whether this one variety should be planted more freely 

 next season. Know the rose from A to Z before you 

 attempt to grow it on a large scale. 



Greenfly 



Where houses have always been kept clean and free 

 from this pest little trouble will be experienced in keep- 

 ing it in check. Syringing alone should keep greenfly 

 out providing of course that the plants were clean to 

 begin with. You will find it a great help by following 

 each syringing with a thorough spraying, using some 

 good reliable insecticide. As is needless to say the green- 



fly likes to hide on the under side of the leaves and if 

 Lilown ofE b}- syringing will quickly crawl back on the 

 plant again. Syringing scatters the greenfly pretty well 

 and if a thorough spraying is given right after each syr- 

 inging the largest part of the fly will never bother rose 

 (ir any other kind of plants again. In spraying the solu- 

 tion should be mixed full strength, the plants being all 

 wet which will dilute the solution so that there will be 

 alisolutely no danger of burning the plants. If this 

 spraying is kept up after each syringing little trouble 

 should be had from greenfly. 



Fumigation 

 Never think of fumigating unless the houses are below 

 70 degrees F. and always see that the plants are not dry 

 when this is done as fumigating dry plants heavily will 

 Ijurn them terribly. Hydrocyanic acid gas is fast taking 

 the place of tobacco papers because of its simplicity, but 

 it is very deadly and should never be entrusted in un- 

 sldlled hands. Tobacco stems are also largely used by 

 some of the best growers for fumigation. Although we 

 formerly used quite a lot of stems in a season the amount 

 seems to have diminished until but a bale or two is used 

 and that only for the young plants. 



Old Beauty Plants 



These should be kept disbudded until the growths 

 begin to touch the second wire. Should the plants dry 

 out too much a light mulch of lumpy cow manure may be 

 applied. Do not use any soil with the mulch, for, if the 

 benches become too full, you will have trouble in making 

 Ihem dry out properly next winter, and the chances are 

 that your roses will not do as well as they should. 

 Killarney 



Do not overdo the pinching on these or — for that mat- 

 ter — on any other roses. After the plants attain a fair 

 size it is better to let the flowers come on for if the pinch- 

 ing is kept up too long the wood is bound to get a bit 

 hard and it will be difficult to make it break strong after 

 a crop is cut ofl*. 



Here is another important thing, especially on a small 

 place where only a few plants are grown. After the first 

 crop is cut off and tlie second begins to come on try to 

 break up the second crop by pinching some of the shoots. 

 This will give you some roses all the time. Many of the 

 large commercial places will run a whole house to a crop 

 at one time and then just alternate the houses to have 

 one house or section in full crop at all times. Where 

 tills can be done it is much better all the way around 

 for a house can be forced more after a crop is cut ofE 

 and then run cooler wlien the crop comes on, without 

 the least injury. This could not be done where plants 

 have to flower and grow- new wood at the same time. 



