THE FLORISTS' MANUAL. 



J95 



story. So you must lay down a rule 

 and your men must follow it to the 

 best of their ability. 



Young roses of all the kinds we 

 grow very quickly throw up buds 

 which you must pick off. As the plants 

 grow along in August and September 

 they -will continue to form buds, and 

 instead of picking the buds off as soon 

 as they form let them grow somewhat 

 larger. There is little weakening of 

 the plant going on by forming petals 

 (it is seed bearing that weakens), and 

 then cut the bud off with two or three 

 eyes of the growth; you will get a bet- 

 ter break from the remaining eyes. 



When cutting the fully developed 

 buds after you are letting the plants 

 flower you should cut back to three 

 eyes. If very strong and the buds are 

 numerous you may leave only two 

 eyes, but three is better. 



The neatest and best support for 

 roses is a straight wire stake, one for 

 each plant, and they are held in place 

 at top by some lighter wire running 

 over each row of plants three or four 

 feet above the plants, and to which 

 the upright wire stake is fastened by 

 a string or a piece of fine wire. 



One large grower I know, and a 

 good one, runs stove pipe wire across 

 the surface of the 'bench, or an inch 

 above it. near the plant, and a similar 

 wire five or six feet above the plant, 

 and from the bottom wire to top one 

 runs at each plant a strong but cheap 

 string. This answers the purpose just 

 as well, but the strings are thrown 

 away every year and the bottom wire 

 has to be removed, so it costs some- 

 thing, while the stout wire stake once 

 bought will last indefinitely or till the 

 end of the Philippine war. 



I have said nothing yet about water- 

 ing, and it is the hardest part to 

 descibe. To a gardener it should be 

 only necessary to say, ''water when 

 they want it." Texture of soil and 

 health and vigor of plant will make a 

 difference. Sometimes you will have 

 a big cut all in one week, especially 

 is this true of the first and second 

 cuttings. Be careful then not to over- 

 water, for the plants have lost a great 

 deal of their foliage and don't need 

 so much. Let the beds get very 

 slightly on the dry side and then 

 water. Don't let the hose run on the 

 beds in a hard stream. A coarse rose 

 is a good thing; it will leave the sur- 

 face of the bed in a more friable state, 

 and you should only give water enough 

 to wet through to the boards. A soak- 

 ing that drenches the bed and runs 

 out through the boards must carry 

 with it lots o<f the fertilizing proper- 

 ties of the soil and manure. 



In sunny weather the surface of the 

 bed will often appear dry when an inch 

 down it is abundantly moist. If we are 

 strangers to the texture of soil we are 

 watering, then sight is not an in- 

 fallible guide, but with the addition of 

 a touch you are dull indeed if you 

 don't know when a plant or bed needs 

 watering. 



We syringe for two purposes. When 

 using the word "syringing" it may 



lead our brother craftsmen across the 

 Atlantic to believe that we use a brass 

 syringe. "Why, bless your dear heart, 

 don't you know, old fellow," our boys 

 would get so lazy with a hand syringe 

 that they would never keep down the 

 red spider, and fancy a man, or two 

 men, syringing a house 600 feet long 

 and 22 feet wide! They would have to 

 begin on the 4th of July to get them 

 syringed by Thanksgiving. The 3-4 

 or 1-2-inch hose will not only syringe 

 them as well but much better, for you 

 will do it thoroughly with that beau- 

 tiful "upper-cut" so dear to a real 

 gardener. 



Syringing is done on bright mornings 

 throughout the season, to produce a 

 genial healthy moisture that is relished 

 by the leaves, and it is also done to 

 prevent the lodgment of red spider 

 on the under side of the leaf (and the 

 spider is ever ready to locate on the 

 fine leaves). If you are free of the 

 spider then don't syringe on wet, 

 damp days or very cold, stormy days; 

 no harm at all in missing a day but 

 when firing very hard, damp down the 

 paths, under the benches, etc. 



The greatest scourge to the rose 

 grower is the mildew, the minute fun- 

 gus that lays hold and soon covers 

 every leaf. It cripples the petals, ruins 

 the leaves and stunts the plants. A 

 dose of it in winter is a calamity, but 

 prevalent as it is our largest and best 

 growers never fear it and seldom have 

 it, for they know its causes and never 

 give it a chance to get a start. Mildew 

 is caused by any check to the vitality 

 of the plant, which shrinks up the 

 cellular tissue and renders the leaves 

 susceptible to the resting spores, which 

 must be ever floating around. Per- 

 fectly healthy leaves resist it, as do 

 healthy lungs resist the germs of tu- 

 berculosis, while weak ones succumb, 

 for consumption is contagious or in- 

 fectious and not hereditary, as for- 

 merly supposed; only in certain fami- 

 lies there is a predisposition, and in 

 certain plants there is most truly a 

 predisposition for mildew. Catherine 

 Mermet is always ready on the slight- 

 est excuse to be host to this trouble- 

 some fungus, but as once said before 

 in these pages, these things are all 

 right as they are, and if there was no 

 reward for watchfulness, care and 

 brains, there would be nothing in it 

 and the wise man would be no better 

 than the fool man, which would be 

 very annoying in this world, however 

 great equality is to be carried out in 

 the next. 



A ventilator left open too late, a 

 draught from an open door, ventilation 

 forgotten till too late in the day, or a 

 sudden drop at night from say 56 de- 

 grees, their usual temperature, to 46 

 degrees or less. Any of these causes 

 will produce mildew, and all must be 

 guarded against. 



There are several ways of applying 

 the best remedy, sulphur. Mix it with 

 linseed oil and paint one steam or hot 

 water pipe. Sulphide of potassium dis- 

 solved and mixed with clay can be 

 painted on the pipe, but do not put 



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