THE FLORISTS* MANUAL. 



191 



A Pan of Poinsettias. 



from the 2% -inch to a 4-inch, and from 

 that to their flowering pot, a 6-inch or 

 in later struck plants a 5-inch. Batches 

 of cuttings can be taken off at intervals 

 from May 1 to the end of August, the 

 very latest propagation often making 

 most useful little plants. 



The poinsettia is very unsightly with 

 out its large handsome leaves, and these 

 are too often seen drooping and yellow 

 or entirely absent at Christmas time, 

 just when the plant should be at its 

 best. There are three causes for this : 

 First, a low temperature (60 degrees 

 at night is the lowest they should ever 

 be) ; second, starvation at the roots, 

 either through an impoverished soil or 

 insufficient root room, and third, as 

 common a cause as any, their roots being 

 disturbed after they begin to form their 

 bracts. A very important point to re 

 member is that they should have their 

 last shift never later than the middle 

 of October and two weeks earlier is bet 

 ter. They cannot endure having their 

 roots disturbed in the least when near 

 their flowering period. 



The best soil for them is two-thirds 

 of rather heavy, turfy loam, with one- 

 third of well rotted cow manure, and 

 at the last shift add one pint of bone 

 flour to one bushel of compost. They 

 are very liable to be troubled with mealy 

 bug, which infests their flower umbel 

 proper, but if syringed daily as they 

 should be they are easily kept down. 

 Greenfly also attacks them if regular 

 fumigation is neglected. 



If very large bracts on 5-foot to 

 6-foot stems are desired, you can plant 



out in six inches of rich soil some thrifty 

 young plants in August. In this way 

 you can get bracts twenty to twenty- 

 four inches across. 



Plants unsold, or those you cut for 

 the flower, should be stored away in 

 January either in a warm shed or be 

 neath a bench where not a drop of 

 \\ater will touch them, and allowed to 

 rest perfectly dry till started again the 

 following May. This is an important 

 point. Florists who are strangers to the 

 poinsettia are afraid to let the plants 

 become as dry as is good for them. 

 From New Year s till at least the middle 

 of April the soil in the pots can be 

 dust dry. If you are starting to grow 

 them get plants that have been grown 

 in pots. They will give you better cut 

 tings and more of them than the plants 

 torn up from a bench. 



There is a so-called white variety 

 seen occasionally which is certainly not 

 worth growing, and there is a variety 

 named P. pulcherrima plenissima, called 

 the double. It is with me about 

 ten days later than the type, but it is 

 very intense in color, stands travel and 

 handling better and although not mak 

 ing such a wide stretch of bracts is 

 most desirable in every way. 



Of late years most of the poinsettias 

 sold as plants are grown in half pots, 

 or as we know them, azalea pots. These 

 pans are more attractive than a single 

 plant in a 5-inch or 6-inch pot. A 

 few small Boston ferns planted in the 

 pans will add immensely to the at 

 tractiveness of the arrangement. To 

 make a good pan the cuttings are put 



in the sand the .latter half of August. 

 After the little plants have started to 

 grow in the 2*A-inch pots select five 

 or six plants of uniform size and vigor 

 that will insure you a handsome pan. 

 If you put the rooted cuttings from the 

 sand into the pan there might be some 

 failures and blanks. 



In concluding this article the subject 

 of which we have been growing for 

 thirty-five years and have known for 

 many more, I must pronounce the poin 

 settia a very easy plant to grow (a 

 warm house is the only requisite), and 

 one of the most profitable plants we 

 handle, and it is yearly increasing in 

 popular favor. 



POTTING. 



There is no chapter in this book that 

 I have started into with such a relish 

 as this one. It is a treat. It is better 

 than falling off a log. It is an ice 

 cream soda and a 15-cent cigar. It is 

 more than equal to seeing the High 

 land fling danced for the three thou 

 sand eight hundred and fifty-sixth 

 time. 



There is a good display of egotism 

 in it, because the writer thinks he knows 

 how to pot, and he has seen a great 

 many who did not and never seem to 

 learn. Some will say: &quot;There is a man 

 who thinks nobody can do a thing right 

 but himself.&quot; I beg your pardon; that 

 is not so, for I have seen many young 

 men who began to pot and shift plants 

 when they were fifteen years old and 

 made experts at it, but when over 

 twenty they seldom learn to perform 

 this important operation properly, which 

 must combine both speed and proficiency. 



Our business is both mental and me 

 chanical, and a good mingling of the 

 two. It is the mental that sees at a 

 glance that a plant needs shifting and 

 the size shift or pot it wants. It is the 

 mechanic that expertly shifts the plant 

 from the 3-inch to the 4-inch, because 

 he has learned it, and it is not the 

 slightest effort of the brain to do it 

 right. It would be an effort to do it 

 any other way. 



It must be admitted that potting and 

 shifting is the most important mechan 

 ical operation in our commercial houses, 

 and any young man who is really a 

 quick and good hand at it can always 

 get a job, but how few there are when 

 you want them. A Jaggs or a Baggs or 

 a Raggs, if known to be an expert at 

 this operation, would often get a favor 

 able answer to his question, &quot;Have ye 

 got a job, sir!&quot; instead of an evasive 

 answer, even if he were known to have 

 laudable loving for exploring all horti 

 cultural centers. We must put up with 

 a slow gait sometimes, but I have suf 

 fered more than once by right down bad 

 and careless potting; carelessness is not 

 the word, it is right-down stupidness, 

 thick-headedness, with awkward-handed- 

 ness. 



It is no good telling you how not to 

 do it, but still I can convey some points 

 by describing what I have often seen in 

 the shape of potting, which causes itch 

 ing of the skin and the mastication of a 

 large lump of profanity that has to be 



