66 



THE FLORISTS MANUAL. 



Where expense is of little moment 

 they make splendid plants for the 

 mixed baskets of flowers and plants now 

 sold in our largest cities. To grow cro- 

 tons at their best they should not go 

 below 70 degrees at night at any time of 

 the year, but for a short time will en 

 dure 20 degrees lower than that. Unlike 

 a palm or dracaena, however,, anything 

 near the freezing point for an hour or 

 two w T ill greatly damage them. 



They are subject to the ravages of 

 the mealy bug, red spider and tbrips, 

 but tnere is no excuse for them, as the 

 plants delight in syringing; the proper 

 use of the hose should banish their 

 pests, or rather they should never ap 

 pear. 



For soil they like a strong, turfy loam 

 with a fifth or sixth of rotten cow 

 manure, and should be firmly potted, and 

 when the water passes properly through 

 the soil, which it always should, they 

 want lots of it. Bone meal has been 

 added to the compost (about one pound 

 to a bushel of soil) with the very best 

 results. 



The following will be found very hand 

 some and satisfactory varieties, and 

 without describing each variety, they can 

 be depended on to furnish both variety 

 and form, habit and color of the leaf: 



Aurea picta, acubaefolia, Baron 

 Rothschild, Day Spring, contorta, Chal- 



CYCAS. 



There is one species of this handsome 

 palm-like plant that is known to all 

 florists the C. revolufa. It is not only 

 one of the finest of our decorative 

 plants, but its handsome leaves are large 

 ly used simply tied together or with the 

 addition of roses, etc., for funeral de 

 signs. Cycas leaves of all sizes and 

 perfect in outline and color are now im 

 ported either from China or climes where 

 this plant grows freely out of doors 

 the year round. Although they are beau 

 tifully preserved and put into fine ar 

 tistic forms, they are not quite the 

 thing with all our customers, and do not 

 entirely taKe the place of the home 

 grown, naturally colored leaves. 



The cycas is quite a tough plant. I 

 mean by that that it withstands a good 

 deal of rough usage. I have seen it 

 do well the year round in a light room 

 where gas was used, and if you have no 

 better place it will thrive in a tempera 

 ture of 50 degrees all winter, but that 

 is not the way to produce fine leaves. 

 It will burn under the focus of glass, 

 but will stand out of doors unharmed in 

 the broadest and hottest suns if plenti 

 fully supplied with water. It makes a 

 grand specimen for a lawn during the 

 summer months. 



They should not have a larger pot or 



Cycas Revoluta. 



lenger, Disraeli, elegantissimus, Johannis, 

 Mortii, Langii, Kuberrinum, Sunbeam, 

 Reidii, gloriesum, Lady Zetland, voluta. 



Picta is remembered as one of the 

 oldest and is probably the parent of 

 most of the present varieties. 



These plants are so universally known 

 as crotons (and probably will be for a 

 long time to come) that it is not worth 

 while naming them anything else here. 

 Yet modern horticultural dictionaries 

 say that they are not crotons but co- 

 diaeums. 



tub than is necessary, but must have a 

 shift every two years if they are mak 

 ing a strong growth. The soil should 

 be a strong turfy loam, lightened up 

 with leaf-mold and sand, or a fifth or 

 sixth of well rotted cow manure. In 

 the spring if you have no occasion to 

 shift them give them a mulch of not 

 over-decayed manure. When in good 

 health they will always make one whorl 

 of leaves every spring. If water passes 

 freely through the soil you cannot very 

 well overwater them, and they like syr 



inging at all times. Their great enemy is 

 brown scale, and to remove or rather pre 

 vent it, they must be sponged with the 

 kerosene emulsion. Mealy bug will at 

 tack them, but there is no excuse for 

 that, as the hose should keep them down. 

 A temperature of 60 degrees will do 

 very well in winter and as hot as you 

 like in spring and summer. When cut 

 ting the leaves for use never cut very 

 close to the stem; leave three inches of 

 the stem of the leaf on the main trunk. 



There is no need of discussing the 

 method of propagation of the cycas, as 

 the young plants or stems in a dormant 

 state are now imported by the ton and 

 sold by weight. When first received they 

 should be put into pots not much larger 

 than the diameter of stem and plunged&quot; 

 into bottom heat. They will in course 

 of time throw out a small whorl of 

 leaves, but their root action is slow. At 

 this stage they are easily hurt, and al 

 though not wanting bottom heat after a 

 few months, the plants should not be put 

 out of doors or used for decoration, or 

 by any means sold to a customer till 

 they have made a good growth of roots, 

 which will be two years from the time 

 they are started. 



We often get an old cycas on our 

 hands that has been abused and lost its 

 leaves. By shaking off the soil and pot 

 ting in small pots and treating as you 

 do the imported stems you will in time 

 get a good plant. 



C. revoluta is by far the most valuable 

 to the florist for all purposes. Of the 

 other species for private collections, 

 media and circinalis are fine plants. 



CYCLAMEN. 



Of all the winter-bloomnig greenhouse 

 plants as w y ell as a plant for a customer 

 a well grown cyclamen takes the first 

 rank. It is second to none. It is so 

 pretty in leaf and beautiful in flower 

 that few of our customers can resist 

 buying one, and when to that is addeu 

 its good qualities as a house plant it is 

 worthy of our greatest7 care and atten 

 tion. There are several species of cycla 

 men, but only one that is of importance 

 to the florist. We often hear people 

 from Central Europe (not gardeners), 

 when they see the Cyclamen Persicum in 

 our greenhouses, say that they grow wild 

 in Europe, and they call them the Alp 

 violet. It is Cyclamen Neapolitanum 

 they have seen, a native of that conti 

 nent. All the beautiful varieties we 

 grow are from C. Persicum. 



The writer can remember when these 

 plants were coddled up, starved largely 

 and kept from year to year. That day 

 is past, and they are now rarely kept 

 over, but are grown annually from seed. 



There are many fine strains. If you 

 will select each winter some of your 

 best plants that have both fine, com 

 pact foliage and large, finely colored, 

 stiff-stemmed flowers, and save seed 

 from these, you will soon have a strain 

 of your own as good &quot;^s any. If in 

 flower in mid-winter the seed will not be 

 ripe till April or May, too late for next 

 winter s crop. If you have to buy seeds 

 don t look for the cheapest ; only the 



