20 



The Florists* Review 



Fbbruabt 24, 1916. 



stock the last named may, however, ap- 

 peal to you. C. W. 



BOSE BOOTS ABE TOO DBY. 



I am sending you under separate 

 cover an American Beauty plant that 

 seems to be affected with some sort of 

 trouble. Can you tell me the cause of 

 the trouble and a remedy for it! The 

 plants are grown in a 150-foot house, 

 on raised benches. The old wood was 

 cut back and the young shoots are sub- 

 ject to this trouble. The foliage be- 

 comes light, then begins to droop and 

 finally the plants die. Some time ago 

 I found one affected plant in a bench 

 of healthy ones. Sometimes the leaves 

 first have a dark border, then turn 

 brown and fall off. The night tempera- 

 ture is 58 to 60 degrees. 



W. K.— Mo. 



From the appearance of the specimen 

 received, the plants were 2 years old, 

 which had been rested for a while by 

 withholding water and then started up 

 again. The plants made new shoots, 

 then turned yellow and died. This 

 often occurs in starting up roses. The 

 old soil around the roots is not thor- 

 oughly saturated before removing any 

 of the soil. The new soil takes the water 

 readily, but the ball of old soil around 

 the plants will shed the water. The 

 plants, receiving some nnoisture through 

 syringing, will make weak shoots, but 

 the soil around the roots is dry, which 

 means that no new roots are made to 

 support the new shoots. As a result the 

 foliage turns yellow and, in time, the 

 plants die. This is probably the cause 

 of the trouble in this case, as the plants 

 adjacent to the dead one may have 

 taken enough water and made good 

 growths at the roots. W. J. K. 



OBAFTED BOSE PLANTS BEST. 



I want to plant white Frau Karl 

 Druschki roses for summer blooming 

 for the wholesale market. Will own- 

 root or grafted plants do best! 



E. C. M.— N. J. 



Frau Karl Druschki and all other hy- 

 brid perpetual roses are much better 

 in your state when grafted or budded. 

 Such stock possesses greater vigor than 

 that propagated from cuttings, is far 

 more floriferous and, at the same time, 

 winters better. The usual stocks used 

 for working hybrid perpetual roses on 

 are the Manetti or seedling birch, and 

 these are hardier than the roses them- 

 selves. There is no room for doubt 

 that in the colder states grafted roses 

 are much superior to own-root stock. 

 If you are looking for the cheapest 



TO BE FOBCED FOB EASTEB. 



Where would you keep potted roses 

 that are to be forced for Easter f I 

 have some of them under a bench, but 

 I think they are too warm there. I 

 also have a coldframe full of rhododen- 

 drons which I want in flower for Eas- 

 ter. How long before Easter should 

 these be potted and housed? 



F. G. E.— Ohio. 



Roses and rhododendrons for Easter 

 should both be in coldframes for some 

 time to come, Easter being late this 

 year. Three to four weeks' forcing 

 would bring in the rhododendrons for a 

 late Easter, while the roses may take 

 six to tight week?. W. H. T. 



THE BOSE ANNUAL. 



The yearly volume of the American 

 <Bose Society, soon to make its appear- 

 ance, will mark a distinct departure 

 ■ from the tjj^e of society reports as 

 known in this country. It has been 

 edited by J. Horace McFarland with 

 the idea of making it a volume of in- 

 terest rather than of record. 



"Inasmuch as this annual represents 

 a distinct advance in the handling of 

 the literature of rose culture in Amer- 

 ica, " says Editor McFarland, "it is 

 hoped to be the first of a series of an- 

 nuals which will promote American 

 rose growing in America at least as 

 efficiently as it has been done in Eng- 

 land for England. 



"Each member of the American Rose 

 Society will receive a copy of the an- 

 nual in due course. The edition, which 

 is considerable in size, covers only 

 actual needs, and I have no doubt that 

 the book will be out of print within 

 three months. Associate members 

 (those not engaged commercially in 

 rose growing or as florists) can secure 

 both a year's membership, the Ameri- 

 can Rose Annual and admission to all 

 the rose shows held under the auspices 

 of the society, for $1. 



"The articles by Dr. Van Fleet and 

 E. H. Wilson are of unusual value, and 

 it will be found, I think, that the an- 

 nual presents also, for the first time, 

 the complete story with respect to rose 

 insects and the lamentable lack of sci- 

 entific attention so far to the control of 

 rose diseases." 



-•v^^-'A 



i^ 



'^V.,^0^ 



:'*Ai:»'.» fw- 



ADIANTUM FBONDS ABE BBOWN. 



The fronds of our maidenhair ferns 

 are always brown, the year around, and 

 the plants have not had a healthy 

 growth for years. Can you tell us the 

 probable cause of this? We transplant 

 them every other year. When we do this 

 we remove all the soil from them and 

 divide them into two or three roots. We 

 transplant them in March or the first 

 part of April, using three parts sandy 

 soil, three parts leaf-mold, one part 

 peat and some oil meal. They make a 

 particularly poor showing the first year 

 after being transplanted. 



P. F. C— Cal. 



as overwatering during this jjeriod is 

 liable to cause a serious check to the 

 root action. W. H. T. 



It is taken for granted that these 

 ai^iantums are grown for cutting, and 

 the soil is too light in character to 

 grow good fronds for that purpose. Be- 

 sides, the oil meal is a somewhat doubt- 

 ful fertilizer for use in such a case. If 

 your soil is of a sandy character, it 

 would be best to omit the leaf-mold, 

 the peat and the oil meal, and use in- 

 stead one part of dry cow manure to 

 four parts of soil, breaking up the ma- 

 nure by rubbirifif it through a sieve of 

 1-inch mesh. Also, after dividing the 

 ferns and replanting them, be careful 

 in watering until the plants get a start, 



FLY AND MILDEW ON FEBNS. 



Kindly let me know what is the best 

 way to kill white fly and mildew on 

 Whitmani ferns in the greenhouse. Is 

 it advisable to water the foliage in the 

 evening? K. N. — Cal. 



White fly is a rather difficult propo- 

 sition to handle on ferns, from the fact 

 that this insect is able to stand just 

 about as much as the ferns, and some- 

 times more when there is much young 

 growth on the plants. Try spraying 

 them with, or dipping them in, a solu- 

 tion of Ivory soap, the solution to con- 

 sist of half an ounce of the soap to one 

 gallon of water. Use this treatment 

 Tonce a week for several weeks in suc- 

 cession, and always protect the plants 

 from the sun while they are wet with 

 the soap solution. 



Flowers of sulphur, applied with a 

 bellows, is the most effective treatment 

 for mildew on plants in general. It is 

 preferable to keep the foliage dry at 

 night, and this is best done by water- 

 ing early in the day. W, 11. T. 



