194 



THE FLORISTS MANUAL. 



up the large plants with a sharp knife 

 and making each section into a cutting 

 which rooted slowly but surely, we no 

 longer bother with that method of propa 

 gation. We have now a double white 

 equal to the old variety from seed and 

 have every shade, double and single, 

 from pure white to crimson. The varie 

 ties of P. Sinensis come true from seed 

 and it is upon such we depend for our 

 fall, winter and spring flowering plants, 

 and they are now one of our most im 

 portant plants. 



Besides P. Sinensis we have P. ob- 

 conica and P. Forbesii, the baby prim 

 rose. For some years we did not realize 

 the great beauty and usefulness of P. 

 obconica. It is a most charming and 

 useful plant, and the baby primrose sells 

 at sight. They are so profuse in bloom 

 and have the great good quality that 

 they are fine window plants, and being 

 easily raised can be sold at a very moder 

 ate price. Other species may be found 

 very attractive for the private collection, 

 but the three mentioned are the leading 

 commercial plants, and all want about 

 the same treatment. 



Always obtain the best strain of seed. 

 It takes time and tedious care to save 

 primula seed, so don t begrudge paying 

 - for a good strain.* The foliage as well 

 as flowers of the P. Sinensis are hand 

 some. We have fern-leaved, parsley- 

 leaved, curl-leaved, and in flowers most 

 beautiful colors and markings. The flow 

 ers of obconica have been greatly im 

 proved of late and doubtless in both that 

 and Forbesii great improvements will be 

 made. 



The primulas are the least troubled 

 with any of our greenhouse pests of 

 any cultivated plants. The principal 

 thing to remember is that they do not 

 like much heat. After they have left 

 the seedpan they need a good open 

 soil; two parts loam, one part sifted 

 cow manure, and one part leaf-mold will 

 do them finely, potted only moderately 

 firm. 



The leaves, or rather, leaf stems, break 

 easily and here is where careful and skil 

 ful potting comes in. I frequently see 

 people, when asked to &quot;knock out those 

 plants,&quot; take hold of the top of the 

 plant as they would a cat s tail if they 

 wanted to draw pussy from her retreat. 

 Get the base of the plant in the fork 

 between your fingers, and you can pro 

 tect every leaf. I noticed some years 

 ago that the English florists had small 

 sticks pushed down on three sides of 

 the stem of the primula just after shift 

 ing, to keep them from wobbling about, 

 as they were potted what we would call 

 high. We never found any neces 

 sity for that, for they can be potted 

 with care just right, sufficiently deep 

 to hold them firmly upright, but not by 

 any means to bury their crowns. This is 

 particular; don t get them too low, but 

 just so that they sit firmly on the soil. 

 If you wish to have primroses by 

 October you should sow in April, and if 

 you wish to have them in spring you 

 should sow again at the end of August. 

 You can with care sow any time from 

 March to September. We usually sow 

 about May 1, which gives us flow 



ering plants from November on to 

 March, after which we think there are 

 many other plants, not better, but the 

 people want a change, and for an Easter 

 plant we do not prize them. It is in 

 early winter that they are such favorites 

 with everybody. 



The coldframe is an excellent place to 

 summer over the primroses. With the 

 glass shaded and the sashes raised back 

 and front, it is cool, and if you will not 

 neglect them there is no place in the 

 greenhouse where they can be grown so 

 well. If the frame is in the shade of 

 trees so much the better. It is coolness 

 you want. 



Sow on some light loam and leaf-mold 

 that has been previously well watered. 

 Just press in the seed and cover with 

 more leaf -mold very lightly ; when the 

 seed is out of sight it is covering enough. 

 Place a pane of glass over the flat or 

 pan and don t let the soil get parched. 

 When the little plants are up keep the 

 pan in the coolest place you have. 



In five or six weeks they can be pot 

 ted singly in 2-inch pots, using clean 

 pots. I have found these little plants do 

 finely on a shelf in a house that had a 

 good shade. In another five or six 

 weeks they will go into a 3-inch pot. 

 If you don t have a coldframe, then 

 give them a bench where it is shaded 

 overhead, and they can get plenty of 

 air. By the end of August or early 

 September they should be shifted into 

 their flowering pot. We sell most of 

 them in 4-inch pots, and the great ma 

 jority go as soon as one fine truss is de 

 veloped, but to grow a fine plant they 

 should have a 5-inch. 



After the heat of summer is gone we 

 try to keep them at about 50 degrees at 

 night, but less won t hurt them in the 

 least. And don t crowd them at any 

 time; they must have full room for 

 the spread of their pretty leaves, or 

 they are useles. They need little 

 syringing, and none when in flower, 

 but when growing during summer a 

 fine sprinkling does them good. They 

 wilt quickly when allowed to suffer for 

 want of water and need plenty of 

 water from seedpan to flowering. The 

 soil should be always in that condi 

 tion that it will take plenty of w T ater. 



If you flower them as late as March 

 or April their flowers will need shad 

 ing. 



RHODODENDRON. 



Where these broad-leaved evergreen 

 shrubs will flourish out of doors there 

 is no hardy shrub that equals them for 

 color and massive beauty. We have 

 seen acres of them growing as freely 

 as a weigelia or philadelphus, and in 

 many parts of Great Britain they are 

 planted for game covers, but that is 

 on the other side of the Atlantic. In 

 the vicinity of Boston they appear to 

 do well, and nearer home I have seen 

 some large, healthy plants, but in this 

 immediate neighborhood they are a 

 failure. Thousands of dollars have 

 been spent for their purchase and care, 

 but in a few years they are gone. We 

 have pulled up this spring the remains 

 of rhododendrons and kalmias (and re 



placed with hardy deciduous shrubs) 

 which the confiding owner had pur 

 chased from the agent, who showed him 

 the gorgeous picture of a rhododendron 

 warranted (till the bill was paid) to 

 grow and blossom even more beauti 

 fully than the colored plate. So be 

 careful, and unless you are sure that 

 these plants thrive in your neighbor 

 hood, don t sell them. There are , any 

 number of good, honest, hardy shrubs. 



It is said that the rhododendron, or 

 any of the Ericaceae order, will not 

 thrive where the soil is impregnated 

 with iime. So there cannot be lime in 

 some parts of the Alleghany mountains, 

 for there the kalmias cover the moun 

 tain side. R. Catawbiense is widely 

 distributed through our eastern states, 

 and is quite hardy. There are other 

 causes than the lime that make the 

 rhododendron an undesirable plant for 

 our northern states. It gets burnt 

 with the bright suns of March when 

 the leaves are frozen hard. The past 

 winter has destroyed many. 



It is as forcing plants that we are 

 chiefly interested in them. They take 

 up much room and we have several 

 times declared we would leave them 

 alone, but as the drummer pays his 

 annual visit we relent and say: &quot;Well, 

 we will try just a few.&quot; And it is 

 only a few you want in the commer 

 cial greenhouse; and the best time to 

 have them is at Easter. For the past 

 two or three years well flowered rhodo 

 dendrons of medium size have sold 

 well. 



The rhododendrons that you see 

 planted by the landscape gardener (es 

 pecially if he is from a distance), and 

 those we buy to force, are varieties of 

 R. Ponticum. They are propagated 

 from seed, by cuttings of the half- 

 riponed wood, by laj^ers and by graft 

 ing. The last method is the usual one 

 to increase the fine named varieties. 

 The business of propagating and grow 

 ing the rhododendron is a specialty 

 with those who have the suitable soil, 

 such as the fine peat of Surrey, Eng 

 land, or the black peaty soil of Hol 

 land and Belgium. 



If I attempted to grow on over sum 

 mer any rhododendrons I would use 

 two-thirds of turfy loam and one-third 

 well rotted leaves. You could not, 

 however, begin to grow them a season 

 as cheaply as you can purchase fine 

 young plants, well set with buds, that 

 only need a few months care, like our 

 newly imported azaleas, with this dif 

 ference, that you must expect to sell 

 or give away all your rhododendrons, 

 while your unsold azaleas are, with 

 proper treatment, much better plants 

 the second year. 



When potting the newly imported 

 plant see that the ball is not too dry. 

 It is better to make sure by dipping it 

 in a tub of water. Pack the soil firmly 

 around the old ball and store the plants 

 away in the coolest house or frame you 

 have. At New Year s, bring them into 

 more heat. We failed several years 

 to get them into flower, thinking that 

 like t .ie azaleas they would come along 

 in a cool house. They w r on t do it; 



