104 FRITZ BAHR'S COMMERCIAL FLORICULTURE 



gainst his body when watering a bench never will make a gardener. 



Every plant when freshly transplanted or shifted should have 

 a thorough watering. Only by so doing can you hope to settle the 

 soil evenly and firmly around the roots. The same thing should 

 always be done when placing cuttings in a sand bed to be rooted. 

 One good soaking is sufficient for many quick-rooting cuttings, 

 and a fairly moist sand is usually better than one that is too wet. 



The more firing that has to be done to keep the temperature 

 up in a house, the more attention you must pay to watering, 

 especially when heating pipes are just below the bottom of a bench 

 or close to its sides. Watering includes not only watering the 

 plants themselves, but also the use of the hose as often as is necessary 

 during the Winter months (or the Summer for that matter) in apply- 

 ing water on the walks and below the benches in order to maintain 

 a moist growing atmosphere. This is often necessary when a lot 

 of heating pipes underneath the benches are drying things out. 

 During a hot, dry Summer you are also liable to have too dry an 

 atmosphere prevailing. 



VENTILATING 



Unless a suitable atmosphere prevails in your houses, no matter how 

 wet or dry you keep the soil, nor how high or low the temperature is, 

 your stock will never do its best. To my mind the atmospheric condi- 

 tions surrounding a plant under glass have far more to do with its 

 success or failure than the soil it is planted in. 



of the essentials in successfully handling plants under 

 glass is to create and maintain a healthy growing atmos- 

 phere; without such an atmosphere, there is bound to be trouble 

 somewhere. 



We often hear of a man making use of the best kind of soil, 

 providing perfect drainage, maintaining the proper temperature, 

 and keeping his stock clean and yet a certain crop simply will not 

 do with him. In most of such cases one would have no trouble in 

 tracing his failure to the lack of a proper atmosphere in his houses. 



One of the reasons the smaller grower, or the one who conducts 

 a retail establishment, is not always successful with Roses, Carna- 

 tions, Sweet Peas, Lilies or pot plants such as Regonias of the 

 Cincinnati type, is that he has to handle the stock with fifty-seven 

 other varieties all in one house, which means about the same tem- 

 perature and atmosphere for all. On the other hand, the specialist 

 in Roses, Cyclamens, Lilies or Carnations, devotes a solid house 

 or several houses to each individual kind of plant and, through 

 experience, has found out just how to run the houses and what 

 kind of atmosphere best suits each class of stock. This is not to 



