THE FLORISTS' MANUAL. 



181 



POINSETTIA. 



The showy Poinsettia pulcherrima 

 is now botanically classed with the 

 euphorbias, but is still far better 

 known to the trade as poinsettia. 

 is a native of Mexico and that infers 

 that at no time should it be subject to 

 a low temperature. Since its introduc- 

 tion it has been a favorite in all col- 

 lections of hot house r*ants, its bril- 

 liant scarlet bracts making it un- 

 equaled as a decorative plant in the 

 very darkest days of winter. Of late 

 years it has grown greatly in popular 

 favor with our flower-buying patrons 

 and as the lily is now known as the 

 Easter flower, the poinsettia may and 

 is known as the Christmas flower. 



They are often used for decorations 

 when cut with two or three feet of 

 stem, but are more satisfactory in 

 every way when it is possible to use 

 them in pots. Although their fine 

 leaves soon drop in a dry room, the 

 showy bracts remain on for several 

 weeks, always giving the purchaser 

 good value, and as it is one of those 

 plants which we never get returned 

 "to keep for another season" it is 

 satisfactory and profitable to grow, 

 more so than the majority of plants 

 we handle. 



Old plants that have rested from 

 January to April or May should be 

 shaken out clean of any old soil, pot- 

 ted into 4, 5 or 6-inch pots as their 

 size may require, the shoot or shoots 

 shortened back only to the sound 

 wood. Place in a warm, light house 

 and syringe daily. In four or five 

 weeks there will be a crop of cuttings. 

 In taking off the cuttings leave one 

 young eye at the old stem so that an- 

 other break will give you another lot 

 of cuttings. As most of your cuttings 

 will go into the sand after you have 

 discontinued firing, there will be no 

 bottom heat; so the cuttings want 

 shade and the sand must have a thor- 

 ough soaking twice a day in warm 

 weather. In about three weeks the 

 cuttings will be rooted. Lift carefully 

 from the sand and pot into 2% or 3- 

 inch pots. For the first few days, or 

 till the young plants begin to make 

 roots in the soil, keep shaded and 

 moist by frequent syringing. When 

 once they have got hold of the soil 

 they want the fullest light, and in the 

 warm months the greatest possible 

 amount of fresh air. 



The old plants that you are propa- 

 gating from can after June 1st be 

 plunged outside, and cuttings taken 

 from outside growth make better 

 plants than those grown inside. You 

 can propagate at intervals till the mid- 

 dle of August, the last struck making 

 fine dwarf plants. We seldom make 

 use of the old plants, but shifted on in 

 September and given plenty of heat 

 and light they will give you a number 

 of medium sized flowers. 



The main object in the cultivation of 

 the poinsettia is to obtain a stocky, 

 sturdy plant, retaining all its fine foli- 

 age, as dwarf as possible, but crowned 



with a fine head of what the public call 

 the bloom. Two shifts are enough; 

 from the 2% to a 4-inch, and from that 

 to their flowering pot, a 6-inch or in 

 later struck plants a 5-inch. Batches of 

 cuttings can be taken off at intervals 

 from May 1 to end of August, the very 

 latest propagation often making most 

 useful little plants. 



The poinsettia is very unsightly 

 without its large handsome leaves, and 

 these are too often seen drooping and 

 yellow or entirely absent at Christmas 

 time just when the plant should be at 

 its best. There are three causes for 

 this: First, a low temperature (60 de- 

 grees at night is the lowest they 

 should ever be) ; second, starvation at 

 the roots, either through an impover- 

 ished soil or insufficient root room, 

 and thirdly, as common a cause as 

 any, their roots being disturbed after 

 they begin to form their bracts. A 

 very important point to remember is 

 that they should have their last shift 

 never later than the middle of Octo- 

 ber and two weeks earlier is better. 

 They cannot endure having their 

 roots disturbed in the least when near 

 their flowering period. 



The best soil for them is two-thirds 

 of rather heavy turfy loam, with one- 

 third of well rotted cow manure, and 

 at the last shift add one pint of bone 

 flour to one bushel of compost. They 

 are very liable to be troubled with 

 mealy bug, which infests their flower 

 umbel proper, but if syringed daily as 

 they should be they are easily kept 

 down. Greenfly also attacks them if 

 regular fumigation is neglected. 



If very large bracts on 5 to 6-foot 

 stems are desired, you can plant out in 

 6 inches of rich soil some thrifty 

 young plants in August. In this; way 

 you can get bracts 20 to 24 inches 

 across. 



Plants unsold, or those you cut for 

 the flower, should be stored away in 

 January either in a warm shed or be- 

 neath a bench where not a drop of 

 water will touch them, and allowed to 

 rest perfectly dry till started again the 

 following May. 



There is a so-called white variety 

 seen occasionally which is certainly 

 not worth s growing, and there is a va- 

 riety called P. p. plenissima, or com- 

 monly called the double. It is with 

 me about ten days later than the type, 

 but it is very intense in color, stands 

 travel and handling better and al- 

 though not making such" a wide stretch 

 of bracts is most desirable in every 



way. 



POTTING. 



There is no chapter in this book that 

 I have started into with such a relish 

 as this one. It is a treat. It is better 

 than falling off a log. It is an ice- 

 cream soda and a 15-cent cigar. It is 

 more than equal to seeing the High- 

 land fling danced for the three thou- 

 sand eight hundred and fifty-sixth 

 time. 



There is a good display of egotism 

 in it, because the writer thinks he 



knows how to pot, and he has seen a 

 great many that did not and never 

 seem to learn. Some will say: "There 

 is a man who thinks nobody can do a 

 thing right but himself." I beg your 

 pardon; that is not so, for I Have 

 seen many young men who began to 

 pot and shift plants when they were 

 15 years old and made experts at it, 

 but when over 20 they seldom learn 

 to perform this important operation 

 properly, which must combine both" 

 speed and proficiency. 



Our business is both mental and me- 

 chanical, and a good mingling of the 

 two. It is the mental that saes at a 

 glance that a plant needs shifting and 

 the size shift or pot it wants. It is the 

 mechanical that expertly shifts the 

 plant from the 3 to the 4-inch, because 

 he has learned it, and it is not the 

 slightest effort of the brain to do it 

 right. It would be an effort to do it 

 any other way. 



It must be admitted that potting and 

 shifting is the most important mechan- 

 ical operation in our commercial 

 houses, and any young man who is 

 really a quick and good hand at it can 

 always get a job, but how few there 

 are when you want them. A Jaggs or 

 a Baggs or a Raggs, if known to be an 

 expert at this operation, would often 

 get a favorable answer to his question, 

 "^ave ye got a job, sir?" instead of an 

 evasive answer, even if he were known 

 to have laudable loving for exploring 

 all horticultural centers. We must put 

 up with a slow gait sometimes, but I 

 have suffered more than once by right 

 down bad and careless potting; care- 

 lessness is not the word, it is right 

 down stupidness, thick-headedness, 

 with awkward handedness. 



It is no good telling you how not to 

 do it, but still I can convey some 

 points by describing what I have often 

 seen in the shape of potting, which 

 causes itching of the skin and the 

 mastication of a large lump of profan- 

 ity that has to be swallowed instead 

 of coloring the atmosphere. 



You will see a man take hold of a 

 cutting between his finger and thumb 

 by the top of the shoot, and suspend 

 it in the little pot, then fill up the pot 

 heaping full and then begin to thumb 

 all around on the surface. Then the 

 same man or his class will take a 

 plant that has come out of a 3-inch and 

 after putting half an inch of soil in 

 the bottom of a 4-inch, set the plant 

 in with the old ball one inch down the 

 new pot, then a big handful ofi soil is 

 thrown on the top and the thumbing 

 commences again with several revolu- 

 tions of the pot and a few extra pres- 

 sures of the thumb. 



If you will knock out the 2-inch first 

 described you will find that near the 

 bottom, where the soil should be com- 

 pact around the roots, it is loose, but 

 firm on the surface, where you don't 

 want it so. And if you will knock out 

 the 4-inch you will find the first inch 

 quite solid, but lower down where the 

 roots are you will find spaces between 



