THE FLORISTS MANUAL. 



Rose Richmond. 



the surface of the bench, or an inch 

 above it, near the plant, and a similar 

 wire five or six feet above the plant, 

 and from the bottom wire to the top 

 one runs at each plant a strong but 

 cheap string. This answers the purpose 

 just as well, but the strings are thrown 

 away every year and the bottom wire 

 has to be removed, so it costs some 

 thing, while the stout wire stake, once 

 bought, will last indefinitely, or till the 

 Panama ditch is dug. 



I have said nothing yet about water 

 ing, and it is the hardest part to de 

 scribe. To a gardener it should be 

 only necessary to say, &quot;Water when 

 they want it.&quot; Texture of soil and 

 health and vigor of plant will make a 

 difference. Sometimes you will have 

 a big cut all in one week; especially 

 is this true of the first and second 

 cuttings. Be careful, then, not to over- 

 water, for the plants have lost a great 

 deal of their foliage and don t need 

 so much. Let the beds get very 

 slightly on the dry side, and then water. 

 Don t let the hose run on the beds in 

 a hard stream. A coarse rose is a good 

 thing; it will leave the surface of the 

 bed in a more friable state, and you 

 should only give water enough to wet 



through to the boards. A soaking that 

 drenches the beds and runs out through 

 the boards must carry with it lots of 

 the fertilizing properties of the soil 

 and manure. 



Neither will a bed be uniformly wet 

 or dry. There will be spots or spaces 

 that from some causes dry out faster 

 than others. Only the man in charge 

 knows this. If he is a rose grower he 

 will be familiar with every square foot 

 of surface and will let no part suffer 

 for want of water or the other extreme. 



In sunny weather the surface of the 

 bed will often appear dry when an inch 

 down it is abundantly moist. If we are 

 strangers to the texture of the soil we 

 are watering, then sight is not an in 

 fallible guide, but with the addition of 

 a touch you are dull indeed if you don t 

 know when a plant or bed needs water 

 ing. 



We syringe for two purposes. When 

 using the word &quot;syringing&quot; it may 

 lead our brother craftsmen across the 

 Atlantic to believe that we use a brass 

 syringe. &quot;Why, bless your dear heart, 

 don t you know, old fellow,&quot; our boys 

 would get so lazy with a hand syringe 

 that they would never keep down the 

 red spider? and fancy a man, or two 



207 



men, syringing a house 600 feet long 

 and fifty feet wide! They would have to 

 begin on the Fourth of July to get it 

 syringed by Thanksgiving. The %-inch 

 hose will not only syringe as well, but 

 much better, for you will do it thor 

 oughly with that beautiful upper- 

 cut&quot; so dear to a real gardener. 



Syringing is done on bright mornings 

 throughout the season, to produce a 

 genial, healthy moisture that is relished 

 by the leaves, and it is also done to 

 prevent the lodgment of red spider 

 on the under side of the leaf (and the 

 spider is ever ready to locate on the 

 fine leaves). If you are free of the 

 spicier, then don t syringe on wet, damp 

 days or very cold stormy days; no harm 

 at all in missing a day or a week, but 

 when firing very hard, damp down the 

 paths, under the benches, etc. The 

 thrips have become very troublesome of 

 late. We have known of their injur 

 ing the buds of American Beauty for 

 many years, especially in the summer 

 and early fall months, but it seems of 

 late to have grown more troublesome 

 and has spread to the tea roses and also 

 carnations. 



Cayenne pepper is the best destroyer. 

 We heat a number of bricks almost red 

 hot and put down four bricks on the 

 path of a house 21x150. On each brick 

 we spread a tablespoonful of cayenne 

 pepper. Be sure the pepper is of the 

 best quality and fresh. We have found 

 quite a difference if it has been on the 

 country storekeeper s shelf a year or 

 two, for it has lost its strength; so get 

 the freshest and best quality you can. 



The greatest scourge to the rose 

 grower is the mildew, the minute fun 

 gus that lays hold and soon covers 

 every leaf. It cripples the petals, ruins 

 the leaves and stunts the plants. A 

 dose of it in winter is a calamity, but, 

 prevalent as it is, our largest and best 

 growers never fear it and seldom have 

 it, for they know its causes and never 

 give it a chance to get a start. Mildew- 

 is caused by any check to the vitality 

 of the plant, which shrinks up the 

 cellular tissue and renders the leaves 

 susceptible to the resting spores, which 

 must be ever floating around. Per 

 fectly healthy leaves resist it, as do 

 healthy lungs resist the germs of tu 

 berculosis, while weak ones succumb; 

 for consumption is contagious or in 

 fectious, and not hereditary, as for 

 merly supposed; only in certain fami 

 lies there is a predisposition, and in 

 certain plants there is most truly a 

 predisposition for mildew. Catherine 

 Mermet is always ready on the slight 

 est excuse to be host to this trouble 

 some fungus, but, as once said before in 

 these pages, these things are all right 

 as they are, and if there were no re 

 ward for watchfulness, care and brains 

 there would be nothing in it and the 

 wise man would be no better off than 

 the fool man, which would be very 

 annoying in this world, however great 

 equality is to be carried out in the 

 next. 



A ventilator left open too late, a 

 draught from an open door, ventilation 

 forgotten till too late in the day, or a 



