THE FLORISTS MANUAL. 



Gymnogramme Decomposita. 



potting. Some growers of Adiantum 

 cuneatum add about one-sixth of well 

 rotted and sifted cow manure to their 

 compost. Pot firmly but not too solid. 



As before mentioned about tempera- 

 ture, few plants will thrive in a lower 

 temperature than that of their native 

 habitat so well as ferns. Species from 

 the tropics, where in some localities 

 the temperature would hardly ever be 

 below 70 degrees, will do very well in 

 our houses if not below 55 degrees. 

 Growers of Adiantum cuneatum or A. 

 decorum, who grow houses of them for 

 the market, sometimes as pot plants, 

 but more often for the cut fronds, will, 

 I am aware, keep them higher than 

 55 degrees. Cuneatum will pay best 

 when grown in a high temperature, 

 but should be well matured before sold 

 or it will soon wilt. 



Watering ferns does not need any 

 great skill. All evergreen ferns, and 

 we grow only those, require plenty of 

 water at all times, but less in winter, 

 when art ferns take a partial rest. We 

 have had young men tell us that at 

 "their establishment," where the A. 

 Farleyense was well grown, they have 

 seen repeatedly Jack Jones standing 

 with the hose and giving the Farley- 

 ense a good syringing. It must have 



been on the morning of bright summer 

 days. 



Almost all ferns are found as under- 

 growth in forests and woods, and are 

 shaded by the trees above. Ferns want 

 subdued light, but not a heavy shade. 

 The ideal conditions for all the ferns 

 we grow would be a house that could 

 be shaded, say, by 9 a. m., and the 

 shade removed at 5 p. m., but that 

 great and most desirable convenience 

 the commercial man has not yet ob- 

 tained. Next to that is a north house, 

 where light comes in, but not -lie 

 direct rays of the sun. As we perhaps 

 have neither of the above, then shade 

 by degrees till midsummer, and re- 

 move gradually as winter approaches. 

 Ferns will|grow fast enough in a very 

 shady house, but the fronds are weak 

 and straggling. Plenty of water at 

 the roots, plenty of moisture in the 

 house, is needed, but do little wetting 

 of the fronds; they don't need it. 



One of the most important points to 

 observe is to give the ferns a cool bot- 

 tom. A bench with three or four 4-inch 

 pipes under it is the worst possible 

 place. A solid bed covered with ashes 

 will suit them far better. If growing 

 adiantum on a bench, let it be a deep 

 one and well drained, and no steam or 

 hot water pipes near it. Let the pipes 



be on the side, where they can have no 

 influence on the soil. The bottom heat 

 that is so congenial to most of our 

 soft wooded plants is misery to the 

 ferns. 



The healthiest lot of ferns I ever 

 saw under glass was in the fernery at 

 the Manchester (England) Botanic 

 Gardens. Cool and moist, with water 

 trickling over rocks, with the dick- 

 sonias in the center and their great 

 stems covered with platyceriums, you 

 could fancy you were transported to. a 

 rocky dell of New Zealand. The most 

 luxuriant ferns growing naturally 

 we*e on the banks of the small river 

 or inlet to Lake Chautauqua, N. Y., 

 where the osmunda grew to the wa- 

 ter's edge in rank profusion, shaded 

 by the overhanging forest. 



Few insects trouble our commercial 

 ferns. 'Scale is often troublesome to 

 large ferns. Old fronds, if badly af- 

 fected, are best cut off and destroyed, 

 and washing the others with soap and 

 Nikoteen is all you can do. Thrip will 

 succumb to the fumes of tobacco, but 

 ferns don't like tobacco smoke, and it 

 is much better to vaporize with the 

 Rose Leaf extract of tobacco or Niko- 

 teen. Do this at least once a week; it 

 will also keep down aphis, which 

 sometimes infests the young fronds of 

 the adiantums and will do the ferns 

 no harm. Wood lice, which often aie 

 known by that awful name of sow 

 bugs, eat the tender shoots. A hol- 

 lowed-out potato in which they will 

 go to roost will catch thousands, or a 

 mixture of paris green and powdered 

 sugar placed along the edge of the 

 bench will destroy them. 



The small white slugs are the worst 

 enemy of ferns, and the adiantums 

 seem selected as their own especial 

 diet. The old remedy of placing cab- 

 bage or lettuce leaves on the bench or 

 pots is sure to catch many of them, 

 but they should be examined early 

 every morning. The slugs are said to 

 be very fond of bran, and if small 

 patches are put on the bench here and 

 there the slugs will revel in it and can 

 be caught. Large growers o^. the 

 Maiden Hair find that a light dusting 

 of air slacked lime on the plants and 

 soil about once a month is sufficient to 

 dispel any visitation of the slugs. 



Ferneries. 



The filling of small ferneries for the 

 table is now an important branch of 

 business. We should endeavor to 

 make these as satisfactory as possible, 

 for they are short lived at best. We . 

 get them returned in the condition of 

 mud and again as dry as a rock. It 

 will not pay us all to be raising our 

 young ferns, and unless you are in it 

 with all facilities, leave it to the spe- 

 cialist. Ferns that are small, compact 

 growing, would be too slow in grow- 

 ing to be profitable, so it is small 

 plants of quick growing, larger kinds 

 that are mostly used for this purpose. 

 The spores are sown in winter or early 

 spring and the plants delivered to us 

 from 2-inch pots in the fall months. 



A night temperature of 60 degrees, 



