464 



HORTICULTURE 



March 28, 1914 



ROSE GROWING UNDER GLASS 



CONDDCTKD BY 



lA/CSi^-y^^^^'^-^-^ 



Qneitlons by our readers in line with any of the topics presented on this page will be cordially received and promptly aiuwered 

 by Mr. Enzl--ka. Such communications should InTarlably be addressed to the office of HORTICDLTUEB. 



The Easter Crops 



All houses that will be m crop for Easter will show 

 color now, and should receive very good care in regard 

 to watering, so that they are not allowed to become too 

 dry, and thus hurt the buds. As is often the case, all 

 sorts of insects, diseases, etc., are held responsible for 

 the deformed buds when in reality they are usually 

 deformed by the growers' neglect to water them enough 

 when the critical time is on. Beauties will seldom crop 

 as heavy as the other varieties, and they therefore will 

 escape this as they will stand a little more drying. This, 

 however, should not be carried to any extremes as the 

 Beauties are as lilcely to suffer from being too dry as the 

 other varieties, and that is what will account for so 

 many "blind" Beauties as they are sometimes called. 

 The longer days are now here, and the weather is bound 

 to be more or less bright, and if the houses are making 

 any growth at all there will be little danger of getting 

 them too wet. Another reason for not letting them get 

 too dry, is that the soil, especially if it is heavy soil, is 

 bound to crack up, and by so doing will tear the roots to 

 pieces, so that the plants will receive a bad check, to say 

 the least. To put additional color into the buds it is 

 advisable to scatter a little soot over the surface of the 

 benches; not a great deal but just enough to blacken the 

 soil a little. This will then be watered in, and the plants 

 will benefit thereby. A little of it can also be mixed 

 into the manure water, but as soon as the buds begin to 

 show color and the crop is heavy we would rather use the 

 former method, and avoid using the liquid manure for 

 a while. Although there are times when Easter will 

 bring better prices, we never force or hold the plants 

 back to have the crop come in for that time. There are 

 so many other special flowers grown that there is a pos- 

 sibility of the prices being lower than on the average 

 day. 



Mildew 



Watch out these warn*! spring days and nights for the 

 ever-ready enemy of the rose — mildew. Keep the 

 houses sufficiently warm at night, and do not take the 

 night fireman off just yet. There may be cold snaps, 

 and if the houses are not kept right you will be inviting 

 trouble. Put a little sulphur on the pipes every now 

 and then; not too much, say a little every twenty feet 

 or so. This ran also be mixed with a little lime, to take 

 the strength out of it a little, and then applied. What 

 lime really does is to fill in a good deal of the space 

 where the sulphur would otherwise be, and thus there 

 will be less siilphur on the pipes than there would be 

 :f sulphur were used alone. The pipes should neyer^ 



carry more than 8 lbs. of steam when the sulphur is 

 applied, as the more steam they carry the hotter they 

 will be, and the sulphur will evaporate more rapidly, 

 and if they are too hot it will go into the air at once, 

 making the fumes too strong, and these strong fumes 

 are liable to bleach the buds, or even hurt the foliage to 

 some extent. Where no steam is used, then a little lime 

 and sulphur mixed together will do nicely if dusted 

 on the plants when the weather is clear and the sun 

 shines. Do not, however, apply the mixture too thick, 

 as this would prove harmful. It does not have to show 

 on the plants. A fine dusting is better than a heavy one 

 in all cases. Another way to help check an attack of 

 mildew is to apply a spray of Fungine as soon as the 

 mildew becomes visible. This will kill all that is liv- 

 ing, and then regulate the air so that there will be no 

 danger of getting another dose of it. Houses that have 

 more or less of the mildew all the time will have to be 

 watched all the more carefully. The best place to tell 

 if mildew is gi'owing is to look at the old spots where 

 the mildew had been before. It will show signs of 

 life right here to start with. 



Shifting the Young Stock 



Keep the young plants coming all along, and never 

 for a day allow them to get too dry or pot bound. As 

 soon as they have formed a nice mass of roots, enough, 

 say, to hold the ball of earth together, they should be 

 shifted into larger pots. Clean pots should be used, 

 especially for the last potting, for we hardly can know 

 just how long the plants are to remain in these. Have 

 them well crocked, so that there will be perfect drain- 

 age. Many plants are spoiled by improper drainage, 

 for if not crocked well the soil will soon stop up the hole 

 in the pot and then sour soil will result. The soil 

 for the final potting can be as heavy as the soil to be 

 used in the benches later on. Use more bonemeal in 

 this than in the soil for previous pottings, for the plants 

 are stronger now and the roots are hardier and they 

 will be able to stand the food. 



Bonemeal 



It will not be advisable to use bonemeal from now on, 

 especially on houses that are to be taken out early. The 

 bone dissolves slowly and the plants will not get the 

 benefit from it, and unless the soil is used on the fields 

 or garden, a larger percentage of plant food will be 

 thrown away, and at the prices we have to pay for all the 

 raw material that we use in our business it is a very 

 poor policy to allow several dollars' worth of plant food 

 to be thrown away. Discarded rose soil is rich enough 

 to grow general garden crops in as it comes from the 

 benches, and will require little manure to grow good 



