68 



THE FLORISTS MANUAL. 



The colors range from deepest crimson 

 to purest white and in many the colors 

 are finely blended. 



Finally, what is true of most soft- 

 wooded plants is more particularly true 

 in the cultivation of the cyclamen; they 

 should have no check, no setback of any 

 kind from the time the seed germinates 

 till they are in bloom, but should be con 

 tinually growing. 



CYTISUS. 



These are often called genista, but 

 cytisus is the correct name, of which the 

 beautiful tree or shrub, laburnum, is 

 one. They are profuse blooming, branch 

 ing evergreens. Small plants in 4 and 

 5-inch pots are most useful, but a lim 

 ited number of the larger plants are 

 very fine for decoration. Their bright 

 yellow color, the plants covered with 

 flowers, makes them very attractive, but 

 we do not consider them at all a good 

 house plant, the leaves and flowers soon 

 dropping, and the reason must be the 

 dry air of the room. 



can be kept in a very cool house; 40 

 degrees at night will be plenty. 



They are of most use as an Easter 

 plant &quot;and if not kept very cool will be 

 too early for Easter unless that festival 

 comes on an early date. Unsold plants 

 can be sheared off and if kept warm and 

 syringed will soon make a fine growth, 

 and when shifted they can be plunged 

 outside in summer and will want at in 

 tervals an occasional clipping. They 

 can be made very round, compact, hand 

 some bushes or allowed to grow more 

 freely if you wish. 



Canariensis is a trifle darker than 

 racemosus, but the latter is the better 

 grower and better plant. 



DAHLIA. 



These magnificent herbaceous plants 

 have long been favorites of the garden 

 and were, I think, once more frequently 

 seen than at present. They do not re 

 ward you with their grand flowers if 

 just shoved into the ground as the use 

 ful geranium does. They want cultivation 



Cyclamen Grandiflora Fimbriantum. 



Any ordinary loam with a little rot 

 ten manure will grow them. They are 

 sometimes troubled with red spider, but 

 never when they are kept syringed dur 

 ing the summer. 



They root readily from the young 

 growths in February and are pinched 

 and grown on by shifting during sum 

 mer. We never plant them out because 

 they lift badly. Keep them under glass 

 and keep them plunged on a bench 

 where there is very little shade. To 

 make compact, little plants they want 

 their strongest shoots often stopped, the 

 last stopping or clipping should not be 

 later than December. In winter they 



and they are well worth it. Excepting 

 as to odor what flower is more perfect 

 than a dahlia? 



There are several classes: The show 

 dahlia is the large double flower. The 

 francies are identical except in the 

 markings of the flower. The pompons 

 are perfect little double flowers, not 

 more than one-half or one-third the size 

 of the show flower. The single flowers 

 are very handsome and are used more 

 for bedding. Some twenty years ago 

 they were very much in fashion. 



At present the most decorative type is 

 the cactus dahlia and for the commercial 

 florist it is the most desirable. The pop 



ularity of the dahlias was on the wane 

 some thirty years ago because of the 

 formal shape of the show type. Then 

 the single varieties came in and quickly 

 became popular as bedding plants as well 

 as decorative flowers. The first cactus 

 dahlia was so called on account of its 

 resemblance to a cereus. There is now 

 as great a variety in this handsome type 

 as there formerly was in the show va 

 rieties and they are decidedly the most 

 decorative. 



With the exception of the single class, 

 or in case you want to raise new varieties 

 of the double ones, the dahlias are easily 

 raised from cuttings. The clumps of 

 roots which have been resting all winter 

 should be placed on a bench in Febru 

 ary or March in an inch or so of soil. 

 If there is heat under the bench so much 

 the better. The house can be about 60 

 degrees. Scatter some light soil among 

 the roots, just sufficient to cover them 

 and keep moist. From the crown of the 

 roots will spring a number of cuttings 

 which when two or three eyes long can 

 be cut off and put into the sand; or you 

 can put each cutting in a 2-inch pot, 

 with a little soil at bottom and sand on 

 top; the latter plan will save disturbing 

 the roots. Always make the cuttings at 

 a joint. This may be of little conse 

 quence with the majority of plants but 

 is important with dahlias. 



When well rooted in the small pots 

 shift into a 4-inch pot and give plenty 

 of light and air, and as planting time 

 approaches they should be in a cold- 

 frame, where they can be hardened off. 

 The planting time will depend on when 

 you are sure of no more frosts. The 

 aahlia is a cold-blooded plant, yet it* 

 can t endure the slightest frost. The 

 first frost of fall kills our dahlias, so a 

 late frost in spring would put you back 

 with the plants for weeks or kill them. 



If it is a bed you are going to plant 

 then the whole ground should be deeply 

 dug, and a fourth of its bulk of ma 

 nure added. The single varieties can be 

 planted two feet apart, the pompons 

 two feet six inches, and the show and 

 fancy kinds to do real well should have 

 four feet. All should have stakes to sup 

 port them and in a dry time an abun 

 dance of water at least twice a week 

 not a sprinkling, but a soaking. Grow 

 ers of good dahlias pinch out the earli 

 est flowers and all lateral growths till 

 the plant is three or four feet high. 



The single varieties are easily raised 

 from seed sown in February or March. 

 When well up pot into 2-inch pots and 

 shift on, giving all the light and air 

 you can as planting time approaches. 



Being assistant to a good Scotch dahlia 

 grower (the late Wm. Vair) in Toron 

 to some thirty years ago, I have not for 

 gotten his method. From plants prop 

 agated in March he showed and won 

 a prize the following July 1 for the 

 best twelve flowers of show dahlias. 

 By the end of May the young plants 

 were fifteen to eighteen inches high in 

 4-inch pots. For every ptgnt on a long 

 border (five feet between plants) he dug 

 a hole eighteen inches in diameter and 

 fifteen inches deep, working in a 

 third of manure. The surplus soil 



