24 



The Florists^ Review 



March 9, 1916. 





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SEASONABLE m 

 Mr SUGGESTIONS 



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Cyclamens. 



Young cyclamen plants are still 

 mostly in flats. Do not neglect them. 

 Keep the surface soil stirred and the 

 plants will grow much better than 

 when you allow a coat of slime or moss 

 to cover it. Shift into 3-inch pots be- 

 fore they have time to become too much 

 crowded in the flats. Use plenty of 

 leaf-mold, not too much decayed. This 

 should form half the potting medium. 

 Add a little old, dried manure and 

 sand and let the balance be loam, light 

 rather than heavy. Continue to keep 

 the plants in a fairly warm house; 52 

 to 55 degrees at night will be a good 

 temperature. Flowering plants which 

 it is intended to retard should have a 

 cool house, not over 45 degrees at night 

 and 40 degrees on cold nights. The 

 glass must be shaded and do not use 

 any more fire heat than is necessary. 

 Damp on floors and below the benches 

 freely when the heat is on, to guard 

 against any possibility of attacks of 

 thrips. 



Bhododendrons. 



Rhododendrons for Easter flowering 

 can be brought into a cool greenhouse. 

 They will not need much forcing if ' 

 started now, but if left until the mid- 

 dle of March, they should be given a 

 temperature of 55 degrees at night and 

 be kept freely syringed until the buds 

 show color. Undoubtedly the finest 

 Easter rhododendron is Pink Pearl, and 

 these are all splendidly budded this 

 season. The price is higher than that 

 of the ordinary hybrids, but the flowers 

 and trusses are so much larger and 

 finer that they always readily com- 

 mand a higher price. White Pearl has 

 flowers of the same size as Pink Pearl. 

 It is not pure white, as its name might 

 signify, but delicate pink. It is a 

 lovely variety, but, unfortunately, it ' 

 is a poor shipper, losing much of its 

 foliage en route from Europe. 



Bougainvilleas. 



For Easter, bougainvilleas always 

 meet with a tolerably good sale. Their 

 color cannot be classed as exactly a 

 pleasing one, but associated with white 

 or pale yellow flowering plants it shows 

 up well. Give the Easter bougainvil- 

 leas a warm house, 60 degrees at night 

 will do, and syringe them freely. They* 

 will come along fairly rapidly, but it 

 takes some time to get the flowers de- 

 veloped and, once open, they can be 

 easily kept in good condition a week or 

 two in a cool house. 



Rambler Boses. 



Any rambler roses not yet started 

 must be got under way at once. It is 

 an advantage to start all dormant roses 

 cool and gradually advance the heat. 

 The season is npw so advanced that 

 ^ny unstarted plants should have 55 

 degrees at night from the start, or they 

 will probably be too late. Use care 

 in syringing roses that they get dry 

 before nightfall, and do not wet them 

 over at all on dull, dark days. Be 



careful with the ventilation. Any cold 

 drafts are likely to start mildew and 

 once this gets a fair foothold it is 

 hard to stamp it out. Prevention is 

 always better than cure, and with no 

 plants is more care necessary while the 

 growths are young and tender than 

 with roses. 



Spiraeas. 



There still is time to start the old 

 Spiraea Japonica and have it in bloom 

 for Easter, but it must have a tem- 

 perature of 65 degrees at night from 

 the start. Such varieties as Peach 

 Blossom, Queen Alexandra, Gladstone 

 and astilboides should be started into 

 growth before now, for they require a 

 longer season to flower than the old 

 Japonica. All the spirseas want a 

 copious water supply and it is well to 

 remember that their foliage is tender, 

 and for that reason fumigate lightly 

 where they are, and never use the one- 

 time popular tobacco stems as a fumi- 

 gant. 



Easter Ulies. 



The Lenten season began Wednesday, 

 March 8, and your lilies should show 



their buds plainly at this date in order 

 to have them on time, in an average 

 night temperature of 60 degrees. If 

 they seem a little late hustle them 

 along at once rather than adopt the- 

 sweating process nearer the festival. 

 Throw away any diseased or sickly 

 looking plants. They are absolutely 

 valueless and only occupy valuable- 

 space needed by the healthy stock. 

 Either spray or fumigate the plants 

 regularly to keep aphis in check. 



Dutch Bulbs. 



The narcissi, tulips and hyacinths- 

 wanted for Easter must be kept as cold 

 as possible for some weeks yet. All 

 these bulbs come along quickly in April 

 and from three to four weeks will be 

 ample time to allow for them after 

 housing. As Easter fomes so late, this- 

 stock will come much better if flowered 

 in coldframes and kept close to the 

 glass, as in the frames the plants will 

 be stockier and can easily be shaded to- 

 retard them. 



Deciduous Shrubs for Forcing. 



Deciduous shrubs are always popular 

 at Easter. They will need less forcing- 

 than usual this season, owing to the 

 late date of the holiday. Allow lilacs,, 

 prunus, malus, snowballs, wistarias,, 

 laburnums, Crataegus and deutzias an 

 average of not over six weeks in a 

 temperature of 50 degrees. The apples 

 and plums come more quickly than the 

 other varieties. All these varieties are 

 much improved by being grown cool. 

 The flowers are of better color andl 

 possess more substance. 





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MODEBN WINTBB SWEET PEAS. 



fA paper by Howarrt M. Earl, read t)efore tlie 

 Florists' Clul) of PhiladelpliiH. .\liirc-li 7. l!)l<i. 1 



To arrive at the development of the 

 winter-flowering sweet pea, we must go 

 back to the introduction of that fine 

 old variety, Blanche Ferry, for un- 

 doubtedly the American winter-flower- 

 ing sweet pea can be traced back to 

 that variety, or to the early-flowering 

 mutations which have since arisen from 

 it. 



Introduction of Blanche Ferry. 



The history of Blanche Ferry is ex- 

 ceedingly interesting and, strange to 

 say, the name of its originator is not 

 known. Over fifty years ago a quarry- 

 man 's wife in Jefferson county, New 

 York, procured some seeds from a 

 bright-flowered plant of that old vari- 

 ety — in fact, one of the original vari- 

 eties — Painted Lady (this variety was 

 introduced in 1700), and for many years 

 afterward she sowed and selected the 

 best plants from her original selection, 

 thus carefully and painstakingly im- 

 proving her stock of wliat was in later 

 years to be known as Blanche Ferry. 



W. W. Tracy, Sr., who was then con- 

 nected with the firm of D. M. Ferry &. 

 Co., of Detroit, in passing that way 

 saw the plants and was immediately 

 impressed with their distinct character 

 and obtained a small stock — only, I be- 

 lieve, about 100 seeds. The variety 

 was named by the firm Blanche Ferry 

 and was introduced by them in 1889. 

 In 1895 Messrs. Ferry introduced an 

 earlier-flowering type of the same vari- 

 ety, calling it Extra Early Blanche 

 Ferry. In 1898 W. Atlee Burpee & Co. 

 introduced Earliest of All, a still earlier 

 type than Ferry's Extra Early Blanche 

 Ferry, and this variety is what is 

 known on the market and grown so 

 extensively as Christmas Pink. There 

 is a much earlier-flowering variety of 

 the same color which blooms some time 

 before Christmas Pink, but the growth 

 is smaller and it is questionable whether 

 under glass the flowers attain quite the 

 size of its rather later-blooming coun- 

 terpart. 



Undoubtedly, all our winter-flowering 

 sweet peas have the Blanche Ferry 

 blood in them. Although the crosses 

 later may not have been made on that 



