176 



THE FLORISTS MANUAL. 



yellow has robbed us of most of our 

 hair, and we don t want to hear it. 

 They must die sometime, it s true, when 

 growing or existing in the house, but 

 let them pass gradually away, fading 

 away slowly, and then their demise will 

 be taken by all hands as complacently 

 as the departure of an elderly wealthy 

 aunt. 



Palms thrive in a small pot compared 

 to the size of plant, and should not be 

 given a large shift at once. Growers 

 of large quantities shift on as the plants 

 need it at any time of year, but the 

 florist who keeps only a few hundred 

 had better do his shifting in the months 

 of March and April, when there is a 



strong roots. When shifting, lower the 

 plant to the base of the stem, but not 

 lower. It is never advisable to shift 

 a plant, say from a 6-ineh to an 8-inch, 

 just before selling it to your customer; 

 far better let it go in the smaller pot 

 and tell him it will do very well in that 

 pot till spring; give it plenty of water. 

 Palms do not seem particular about 

 soil, and the mica so often seen in the 

 potting soil used about Philadelphia 

 appears to agree with them very well. 

 I would consider the ideal soil or com 

 post for palms to be a rather stiff 

 yellow loam sod, cut and laid up in 

 summer, and between every foot of 

 the sod a laver of two inches of cow 



Kentia Canterburyana. 



constantly increasing temperature. Al 

 ways pot firmly. Up to a 5-inch or 

 6-inch size this can be done by squeezing 

 the soil with your fingers, but in large 

 size, and particularly if the shift is 

 small, a blunt stick will help very much 

 to firm the soil. Some writers say that 

 roots never should be cut. Perhaps 

 there is no need of it, but I have seen 

 the roots of latanias and old seaforthias 

 chopped off without doing any harm. 



Never pot too deep. The base of the 

 stem from where the roots begin is 

 easily defined, and they should not be 

 potted below that. Some species, ken- 

 tia fur one, raise the stems bv the 



manure. When this is thoroughly 

 soaked, and after a month or so, cut it 

 down and chop over, and in a few 

 weeks give it another turn. By that 

 time the manure will have about dis 

 appeared, and the compost will grow 

 any palm. A good supply of this 

 should be under cover during winter 

 for early spring use. If you cannot 

 make these preparations, get a fresh 

 loam and add a sixth of well decayed 

 manure. Bone meal is often used with 

 palms, and if a quick growth is desired 

 it can be added to the compost at the 

 rate of one pound to each bushel of the 

 compost. 



Insects. 



If a proper degree of moisture is 

 maintained and syringing properly done, 

 red spider and thrips are seldom seen. 

 If thrips are very persistent, then 

 vaporize with tobacco several successive 

 nights. Mealy bug is sometimes very 

 troublesome and more often when the 

 plants are crowded. If not removed by 

 ordinary syringing, then have the plants 

 brought to some nearby place, where 

 water runs off quickly, and by laying 

 the plant down and turning it on all 

 sides with a sharp, strong stream they 

 can be washed off clean. 



Scale is the worst enemy we have to 

 contend with, and the common brown 

 scale is much easier removed than the 

 white. I mention these two, for that 

 is sufficient here, because the remedy 

 would be the same were there twenty 

 species of these insects on our palms; 

 and there are not only twenty, but per 

 haps twenty hundred species known 

 to entomologists. It appears they do 

 not multiply with anything like the 

 rapidity of the aphides. That is a con 

 solation. And they breed and lay a 

 crop of eggs but once a year. So if 

 the palms are thoroughly cleaned, say 

 in August, you should see no more of 

 them for another six months. It is 

 often supposed that they are without 

 the power of locomotion, but when 

 very young in the larval state they 

 creep about till they find a comfortable 

 spot, then insert their beak into the 

 leaf or bark, and that is their resi 

 dence for life. Entomologists say that 

 the ants which feed on the excretion 

 of the scales take the young insects 

 and plant them on different parts of 

 the leaves of palms and ferns. If this 

 is so, then we should get rid of the 

 ants. 



There are several means of remov 

 ing the scales by washing with some 

 insecticide, and when you wash the 

 leaves, see that every part is thoroughly 

 cleaned. You can see the large scales, 

 but the very small ones might elude 

 you. Sponge with warm water, to which 

 has been added two ounces of whale 

 oil soap in two gallons of water. 



A solution of two ounces of kerosene 

 emulsion in five gallons of water is also 

 used, and applied with a sponge. 



Other methods are applying water to 

 which has been added a hundredth of its 

 bulk of nicotine extract, of a weak solu 

 tion of/ fir tree oil; this also is recom 

 mended by some. 



You cannot with any effect syringe 

 these solutions on the plants. They 

 must be sponged; and remember that 

 the very young leaves will not endure 

 as strong a mixture as the matured leaf, 

 and the leaf stalks are uninjured by a 

 still stronger solution. 



The following appeared in a recent 

 number of a horticultural journal, and 

 is, I think, worth insertion here. The 

 white scale we get from Europe on 

 imported plants is certainly a very bad 

 species, and although a free trader, I 

 would put a very high tariff on him : 



The sending out of palms and ferns 

 afflicted either with mealy bug or 

 scale is much to be deplored, but the 



