THE FLORISTS MANUAL. 



U3 



Prokop Daubeck, light scarlet; best 

 variety for vases. 



Ernest Lauth, rich shade of red; extra 

 good. 



La Favorite, pure white. 



Jean Viaud, bright rosy pink, a splen 

 did one for pot culture for Memorial 

 day. 



John Doyle, a very fine bright scarlet. 



Le Soliel, a slight improvement on the 

 well known S. A. Nutt. 



White Queen, a very fine semi-double 

 white. 



Single Zonals. 



Athlete, bright scarlet. 



General Grant, bright scarlet; one of 

 the very best for large beds. 



Mrs. E. G. Hill, salmon; a grand 

 truss. 



Eev. W. Atkinson, deep, bright scarlet. 



Mme. Lavalle, rosy salmon. 



Dryden, white and rosy pink; a splen 

 did bedder. 



Eichmond Gem, a beautiful shade of 

 scarlet with a distinct white eye; most 

 attractive. 



John Salter, white and light salmon. 



J. P. Cleary, vivid dark scarlet; one 

 of the best bedding geraniums. 



Mrs. A. Blanc, magnificent variety; 

 shaded apricot red. 



Ivy Geraniums. 



Souv. de Charles Turner, deep pink; 

 fine grower. 



Jeanne d Arc, fine double white. 



Pere Crozy, scarlet; erect in habit. 



Then we have a double as well as 

 semi-double pale pink, most useful. 



Scented Geraniums. 



Eose Leaf, indispensable for cutting. 



Lady Plymouth, variegated rose leaf, 

 and a few each of the nutmeg and lemon 

 scented. 



Variegated, Bronze and Tricolor. 



Mountain of Snow, pure white and 

 green leaf; a most desirable plant. 



Mme. Salleroi, compact variegated 

 plant; excellent for an edging. 



Happy Thought, very attractive; dark 

 green, white center. 



Mrs. Parker, variegated foliage; 

 double pink flower. 



Marshal McMahon, fine bronze, with 

 distinct dark zone. 



Golden Bedder, rich, golden leaved. 



Mrs. Pollock, beautiful tricolor leaf; 

 best of its class. 



Dwarf Geraniums. 



We have in Mars a distinct type of 

 geranium, very dwarf and compact, the 

 flowers of a pleasing salmon shade. It 

 makes a very neat pot plant, or edging 

 to a flower bed, and is a wonderfully 

 free bloomer. 



Little Pink is semi-double, growing not 

 over six inches, a pure pink, and very 

 valuable for edging. 



It costs little to try a few of any of 

 the newer varieties sent out by reliable 



Geraniums in Pots on a Florists Lawn. 



houses, and if they do well in your soil 

 and locality increase your stock. There 

 was a time, about twenty years ago, 

 when the writer could pick out forty 

 varieties of double and single zonal 

 geraniums by their leaves. Any one can 

 do it by the flower, but the leaf is dif 

 ferent. Times have changed, and al 

 though we can pick out many other 

 things now, we have lost track of the 

 varieties of geraniums, but I trust not 

 how to grow them with profit to our 

 selves and pleasure to our customers. 



This would be a good place to say 

 something about a geranium cutting. It 

 is remarkable to see the poor judgment 

 (or is it carelessness?) of some men in 

 such a simple thing as making cuttings. - 

 We have been told that cutting at a 

 joint was not at all essential; don t be 

 lieve it. Cuttings will root, of many 

 kinds of plants, an inch below a joint, 

 but not as surely. At a joint is where 

 the wood is most firm, and if you left 

 a piece of sappy, succulent stem an inch 

 long below a joint it is more likely to 

 get overcharged with moisture, the walls 

 of the cells are ruptured, decay com 

 mences and the stem turns black. If 

 cut at a joint this is not so likely to 

 occur. When I say at a joint I mean 

 an eighth to a fourth of an inch below. 



Then again you will see men denude 

 a cutting of all the leaves except the 

 small, undeveloped ones, and others will 

 leave three or four large leaves, so that 

 if put into the sand or potted they would 

 be just a mass of leaves unless you 

 placed them far apart. These mistakes 

 are not always by the boys or beginners, 

 but by men who ought to know better. 

 It is carelessness, want of brains and 

 want of thought. 



Now, this pleasant little operation of 

 making cuttings should go quickly. They 

 should pass through your hands as quick 

 ly as the half-dollars drop into the ticket 



office of Forepaugh s circus, but be prop 

 erly done, withal. The cutting exists 

 largely on what the leaf absorbs from 

 the atmosphere and sends down material 

 to form the root. (These remarks of 

 course apply to soft-wooded cuttings that 

 are in active growth.) So do not pull 

 off all the geranium leaves. Leave one 

 perfect leaf and one half developed; 

 that will allow you to stand the small 

 pots close together. 



If it was any sacrifice of material to 

 cut just below a joint there would be 

 some reason for not doing it, but there 

 is none. Neither the piece above the 

 joint you leave on the parent plant or 

 the piece you leave below the joint of 

 the cutting is any good, and whoever 

 thinks it takes longer to cut in the 

 proper place is mistaken; a practiced 

 eye and hand fixes on the proper spot 

 in a moment. 



We are well aware that tea roses 

 root very well an inch or two below a 

 joint, but no better, and they are hardly 

 soft-wooded plants. 



While I have stated just how I would 

 trim a geranium cutting, that is no guide 

 to the hundreds of other soft-wooded 

 plants we grow. With many of the 

 smaller-leaved kinds a number of leaves 

 can be left on, perhaps the more the 

 better for the rooting process, but if 

 too many leaves were allowed you would 

 soon fill up your propagating bed, and 

 to crowd the cuttings, covering the sand 

 densely, is just the way to produce fun 

 gus on the surface of the sand, which 

 is a calamity and often results in serious 

 loss. 



With the great majority of the soft- 

 wooded plants we propagate during win 

 ter and spring. The heliotrope, agera- 

 tum, fuchsia, etc., the verbena, for ex 

 ample, root quicker and surer when the 

 cutting is quick grown, succulent and 

 brittle. I have endeavored to mention 



