ai4 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST 



September, 191 1 



Petunia in Flower Six Weeks after Potting 



larger pot, being careful not to disturb 

 the roots when repotting them. Give 

 them good, rich potting soil for this pot- 

 ting, and nearly an inch of broken flower 

 pot, coal cinders, gravel or lump char- 

 coal in the bottom of the pot for drain- 

 age. Shade the plants from the hot sun 

 for a day or two, and then place them 

 in a sunny window, temperature from 

 fifty degrees to sixty-five degrees, awav 

 from dry, artificial heat. Spray the 

 plants once or twice a week with clear 

 water on fine days, and keep the soil 

 well moist but not soddened with water. 

 Petunias do not require a high tem- 

 perature to grow in, and they strongly 

 object to very dry, over heated atmos- 

 pheric conditions. Plants treated as de- 

 scribed should be in flower before Christ- 

 mas and continue flowering on until quite 

 late in the spring, or they will make good 

 stock plants to furnish a supply of cut- 

 tings during the winter. 



PETUNIA PLANTS FROM CUTTINGS 



Although petunias are usually grown 

 from seed and treated as annuals, they 

 are perennials and can be grown easily 

 from cuttings. Cuttings of petunias can 

 be taken any time now about the middle 

 of the month, or whenever young soft 

 terminal growth can be obtained. In 

 taking cuttings, the soft young shoots 

 that have few if any bloom buds on 

 should be made use of. It is of no use 

 taking the hard part of the base of the 

 flowering growth for cuttings. If these 

 root at all they take a long time to de- 

 velop roots, and even then they never 

 make as good thrifty plants as 1 do cut- 

 tings of softer growth. 



The best kind of cuttings are obtain- 

 ed from the young, soft grean shoots 

 that can usually be found cjbwn at the 



base of the growth near the roots. The 

 single and double flowering types can be 

 grown from cuttings. Place the cuttings 

 in some sharp clean pit or lake sand — 

 or even wash sand from the road side — in 

 pots or shallow well-drained boxes, and 

 place them in the window in partial 

 shade. Keep the sand well moistened. 

 In five or six weeks they should be ready 

 to pot off singly into small two and a 

 half or three inch pots. If repotted into 

 larger pots later as required, they will 

 make fine large flowering plants by early 

 spring, and also furnish a supply of cut- 

 tings for rootings in March and April 

 to make plants for flowering out of doors 

 in the summer. The old plants of petun- 

 ias cannot, as a rule, be kept over suc- 

 cessfully for the second summer, so it 

 is best to raise young plants from seed 

 or cuttings each year. 



CARE OF ROSE BUSHES 



Care should be taken to remove en- 

 tirely all briar or manetti growth from 

 rose bushes before the leaves drop, as it 

 is very difficult to detect the wild sucker 

 briar or manetti growth from the real 

 rose growth after the leaves have drop- 

 ped. If this growth is cut away now, it 

 is not so likely to injure the plant as it 

 would if done in early summer when the 

 bushes are just coming into flower. 



The method of detecting the briar 

 growth from the real rose growth is to 

 examine the leaves. If the leaves have 

 only five roundish lobes or sections on 



> 



Petunia Plant dag up aid Potted 



them as shown in figure one, it is true 

 rose growth. If, however, there are 

 seven or more lobes or sections on each 

 leaf (figure two) and the lobes are long 

 and narrow, it is a sure indication that 

 the growth that produces these leaves is 

 either wild briar or manetti. 



It must be borne in mind, however, 



ROSE LEAK KIG. 1 



BHIAK LEAK KIG. 2 



that a few of the Rugosa or Japanese 

 roses as well as many of the moss roses 

 have seven or more lobes to each leaf. 

 On the ordinary hybrid perpetual rose 

 growth, however, there are seldom 

 more than five lobes to each leaf. It is 

 very difficult even for an expert rose 

 grower to detect the difference some- 

 times, unless a close examination is made 

 • as suggested. As most roses are budded 

 or grafted low down on the briar or man- 

 etti stock, it is absolutely necessary to go 

 right down to the base of the briar or 

 manetti growth to cut it off. Cutting 

 off the top is only a temporary and partial 

 relief, and results in an increased stock 

 of wild growth the following season. 

 Many people allow this briar growth to 

 grow on until it eventually kills out the 

 rose growth proper, leaving only a wild 

 briar instead of a rose bush. 



If rose leaves start to drop from black 

 spot or rust the leaves should be raked 

 or picked up every day and burned. This 

 will help to prevent the recurrence of 

 this disease another season. Spraying 

 the bushes with Bordeaux mixture is a 

 good remedy for black spot or rose rust. 



Stop watering roses after the first week 

 in September unless the weather is ex- 

 ceptionally dry and hot. Deep cultivat- 

 ing should be also discontinued. Cul- 

 tivating only to keep down weeds is all 

 that is necessary at this season. With- 

 holding water and discontinuing culti- 

 vation helps to check growth, and has- 

 tens the ripening of the wood. Well 

 ripened wood withstands the severity of 

 the winter much better than green sappy 

 growth. Much can be done in the way 

 mentioned to assist the proper ripening 

 of the wood. 



If a white mildewy substance appears 

 on the leaves dust them in the early morn- 

 ing or late evening with fine flowers of 

 sulphur, or spray with a weak solution 

 of Bordeaux mixture, diluted with about 

 double the quantity of water usually used 

 for the potato blight. Mildew unless it 

 is unusually bad, does not injure roses 

 much at this season of the year. 



Always get the advice of an experi- 

 enced florist before engaging a carpen- 

 ter to build a conservatory. 



Cut off all flowers from house plants as 

 soon as they begin to fade. 



