J06 



THE FLORISTS' MANUAL. 



a temperature of 100 degrees, so much 

 the better. Large palms and other 

 plants can be syringed and in half an 

 hour be given a good syringing of 

 clear water, when most of the scale 

 will be destroyed. Small palms can 

 be dipped or immersed entirely in the 

 water, excepting, of course, the ball 

 of earth, and shortly afterwards syr- 

 inged with clear water. That is doing 

 it most effectually. 



Palms received from Europe are 

 often infested with this white scale 

 and should be thoroughly cleaned be- 

 fore placing among your other stock. 



"Water. 



There are many compounds and 

 mixtures advertised and sold for fungi- 

 cides and insecticides, but those quot- 

 ed will about fill the bill. And finally 

 there is plain pure water, properly ap- 

 plied. The use of the syringe or hose 

 will save much labor and expense with 

 insecticides if properly applied. Red 

 spider, thrip or mealy bug should 

 never be seen and never would be if a 

 good gardener handled the hose. 



All the patent sprayers and hose at- 

 tachments are not worth one cent. The 

 forefinger of either hand is a marvel- 

 ous attachment and can guide and di- 

 vide the stream of water in any form 

 or direction you choose. You can't 

 talk to a fellow workman and intelli- 

 gently and faithfully water a lot of 

 plants in pots, much less syringe them. 

 Your work needs all your thought and 

 attention, and I will conclude this 

 chapter by saying that a man who 

 chatters or smokes at his work is of 

 little use. Work in work hours, give 

 all your mind to your work, and when 

 the noon and evening hour comes you 

 will enjoy the rest far better than if 

 you had been discussing your mother- 

 in-law or last employer. 



GARDENIA. 



In the days when short stemmed 

 flowers were used the flowers of Gar- 

 denia florida were much prized. 

 Flowers are often sent from the 

 southern states, but by the time they 

 reach our northern cities they are 

 much the worse for the journey and 

 useless. They would not pay a florist 

 to grow, but they are so deliciously 

 fragrant that well grown plants are 

 desirable for private conservatories. 



The gardenia is a dwarf evergreen 

 shrub. The double form of G. florida, 

 called the Cape Jessamine, resembles 

 the flower of a small camellia. They 

 are propagated from sideshoots of the 

 half ripened wood in early spring in 

 a strong bottom heat. Grow the plants 

 on as quickly as possible, with plenty 

 of heat and light. A good, fibrous, 

 open loam with a fifth or sixth of rot- 

 ten cow manure and leaf mould will 

 do. Let the drainage be perfect, for 

 they want a liberal allowance of 

 water, especially when growing, and 

 should be daily well syringed to keep 

 down mealy bug and red spider. 



In California young plants are plant- 

 ed on the benches under glass, each 



plant having a little mound to itself 

 to insure perfect drainage, and that is 

 necessary where so much syringing is 

 resorted to. If grown commercially 

 young plants are preferred, but large 

 plants can be grown on. 



GERANIUM. 



All the geraniums that are so popu- 

 lar with us the show, fancy, ivy leaf, 

 tricolor, zonal, etc., are botanically 

 known as pelargoniums, but the name 

 geranium is so firmly and popularly 

 associated with our favorite bedding 

 plants that it would be absurd for me 

 to write of them under the much less 

 familiar name of pelargonium. The 

 show and fancy pelargoniums that so 

 strangely are known to some people as 

 "Lady" and "Martha Washingtons," I 

 will treat under their proper name. 



The geranium needs no introduction, 

 for if there is a plant known univer- 

 sally by everyone it is the geranium. 

 Within thirty years an immense im- 

 provement has taken place, both in 

 the habit of the plant and the grand 

 form and color of the flower. The 

 earliest double ones were a curiosity 

 when first they came out, but they 

 were so double that they were of little 

 use, and now a form called semi-double 

 has entirely displaced them. The semi- 

 doubles have one advantage, the petals 

 are not knocked off by a rain storm, 

 and they have also a disadvantage. 

 Some of the varieties, although excel- 

 lent growers and remarkably free 

 flowering, become unsightly by the in- 

 ner florets losing color or decaying 

 before the outside florets have opened. 



The single varieties are still most 

 useful for bedding. The ivy leaf sec- 

 tion have been improved as much as 

 the zonals, having beautiful semi- 

 double flowers, and now we have 

 double flowers on the bronze and varie- 

 gated type. iSome of the variegated 

 kinds, such as the useful "Mountain of 

 Snow," are as vigorous as the zonals, 

 and so are the yellow and bronze varie- 

 ties, but the tricolor type are less ro- 

 bust. 



When Peter Greive some forty years 

 ago raised the lovely "Mrs. Pollock" it 

 was a great departure from any other 

 geranium. I have seen great beds of 

 it, or rather edgings of beds. It likes 

 a rich soil and a slight shade. It will 

 burn up and grow less in our hot suns 

 with the ordinary treatment we give 

 the flowering zonals. 



Mme. Salleroi is a type of itself, 

 forming no stems, but a mass of short 

 shoots spring from the crown and the 

 plant makes a compact little clump, 

 very suitable for edging. 



Propagation. 



When planting out for your own 

 stock give the plants plenty of room 

 to grow and do not crowd or the 

 growths will be soft and unsuitable 

 for cuttings. Unless the season is very 

 dry geraniums seldom want water, and 

 if you must water give them a thor- 

 ough soaking and then hoe before the 

 ground bakes. That is pretty good ad- 



vice to apply to a whole lot of things. 

 Keep all flowers picked off as soon as 

 they are fully developed; it will en- 

 courage the plants to grow. 



About September 1st take off your 

 first batch of cuttings and pot firmly 

 in 214-inch pots. A cold-frame will do 

 for the cuttings, but an ordinary bench 

 is just as good and less liable to neg- 

 lect. They should be shaded during 

 the hottest hours of the day only, and 

 that can be done with newspapers, 

 which is better than any fixed shading 

 because on dull days a shading would 

 be injurious. 



Potting firmly with a good sifted 

 loam is an important point. Don't 

 thumb the top of the soil, but get 

 your finger and thumb down by the 

 side of the cutting like a wedge and 

 make the soil around the base of the 

 cutting firm. The watering will take 

 care' of the surface without your wast- 

 ing any time with your thumbs. 



They want a good, thorough water- 

 ing when first potted; after that only 

 when they are decidedly on the dry 

 side. There are more geraniums go 

 off black and rotten through the heat 

 and moisture than there are from dry- 

 ness. In a month most of them will 

 be rooted, and when they commence to 

 make new leaves they should be stood 

 over, dry leaves rubbed off and the 

 surface of the soil stirred. From now 

 on you will have to treat them bar- 

 barously to keep them from thriving. 



Why you should wait till September 

 1st or about that time before propa- 

 gating is because earlier propagation 

 in a hot spell in August is not safe. I 

 have seen 75 per cent, of fine cuttings 

 turn black in a few days when we had 

 very warm weather. Any kind that 

 you were very short of can be propa- 

 gated earlier, but it would be safer to 

 put them in the sand. 



By taking off all the leading shoots 

 thus early you will usually by middle 

 of October get another good lot of cut- 

 tings, which root still more certainly. 

 If you don't have time for another 

 batch these plants are in excellent 

 shape to lift and pot and propagate 

 during winter. 



Florists that grow a variety of 

 plants had better do their operations 

 by a system, and our system is to get 

 all our geraniums propagated in the 

 fall without need of lifting old plants. 

 A light house should be given to gera- 

 niums; it cannot be too light and dry 

 and airy. A night temperature of 45 

 degrees will bring them along fast 

 enough. 



After our holiday trade there is room 

 to spread out, and then our geraniums 

 get a shift into a 3-inch pot. It is not 

 much of a shift, but it makes a great 

 difference to the plants. About Feb- 

 ruary 1st they have made good roots 

 in the new pots and then we stand 

 them over, taking off all the tops that 

 will make a cutting, and those that 

 are not long enough we just pinch out 

 the center. The cuttings from the 

 tops of these 3-inch plants will root 

 most easily at this time of year; pot- 



