Mabch 16, 1916. 



The Florists' Review 



19 



TIME FOR MUM CUTTINGS. 



Will you kindly inform us through 

 The Eeview the best time to take cut- 

 tings from chrysanthemum plants that 

 have been kept in a cool house all 

 winter! L. N. B.— 0. 



The best time to take cuttings from 

 mum plants that have been kept in a 

 cool house all winter is when the cut- 

 tings are in condition to be taken. 

 March and April are ideal months for 

 this work and plants that have been 

 kept in a cool house during the winter 

 should be producing ideal cuttings at 

 this time. It is an easy matter after 

 cuttings are rooted to pinch them back. 

 This will not harm the future plants if 

 they are not cut back too far, and is 

 preferable to throwing away a lot of 

 splendid cuttings, as the first cuttings 

 which plants make after a winter's rest 

 are, as a general rule, the strongest. 



Chas. H. Totty. 



BOOTING CHRYSANTHEMUMS. 



What should be the temperature of 

 sand for rooting chrysanthemum cut- 

 tings! I am enclosing some of my 

 cuttings. C. N. — 111. 



The chrysanthemum is a cold- 

 blooded plant and cuttings will root in 

 the sand without any bottom heat 

 whatever. It is, however, an advan- 

 tage to run a line of steam underneath 

 the sand bench if the question of time 

 ia important, for when a little heat is 

 supplied underneath, the cuttings will 

 root at least a week earlier. It is not, 

 however, a question of the sand being 

 kept at 75 degrees or any other spe- 

 cial temperature; as long as the bot- 

 tom of the bench is warm it will start 

 the root action working, but the chrys- 

 anthemum does not in any stage of its 

 life require much heat. 



On looking at the cuttings of C. N. 

 I think that, perhaps, he had his sand 

 too hot, as the cuttings were dried to 

 powder when they reached me. I may 

 say, in our case, rooting as we do 

 hundreds of thousands of plants, we 

 get the best success in a north house 

 on which the direct sunlight does not 

 fall. Cuttings should be well watered 

 when placed in the sand and not wa- 

 tered again, at this season of the year, 

 until they are taken out. 



When cuttings are rooted in an aver- 

 :ige greenhouse, where a mixture of 

 plants are grown and air is applied, 

 flifferent conditions will prevail. Cut- 

 tings will have to be sprayed and wa- 

 tered to keep them from wilting. If cut- 

 Lings are allowed to become badly 

 wilted two or three times the tissues 

 >?et hard and the cuttings will never 

 ;iake satisfactory plants. If C. N. 

 'S rooting his chrysanthemums in a 

 iiouse with other plants, I would say 

 '0 him not to mind about the warmth 

 ^\ the sand, keep the cuttings from 

 jilting and by no means let the sand 

 »e permitted to become dry. If these 

 I'ules are followed, there is no reason 



why C. N. should not have success in 

 rooting his mum cuttings. 



Chas. H. Totty. 



MUM CUTTINGS IN AI.ABAMA. 



Please give me some advice regard- 

 ing my chrysanthemum stock plants. 

 They are in a carnation house and 

 growing rapidly, some of the shoots 

 being eight inches high. The variety 

 is Chrysolora. When should I take 

 cuttings from these! Will the tops of 

 these shoots make good cuttings! 

 These plants were not lifted after flow- 

 ering last fall, as I had no room for 

 them. I left them in the bench and 

 now have several hundred cuttings. I 

 have Bonnaffon chrysanthemums in the 

 same bench, but they do not advance 

 so rapidly as the other variety. Should 

 the tops of these shoots be broken oflf, 

 so that the stocks will branch out! 

 Any information will be appreciated. 



H. A. C— Ala. 



Your chrysanthemum plants, from 

 the description, are just right lor tak- 

 ing the first batch of cuttings, with- 

 out delay. Take the tops and insert 

 in the cutting bed. Early varieties 

 like Chrysolora should always be propa- 

 gated early to have the best results. 

 After the tops are taken for cuttings, 

 the plants will not need any more cut- 

 ting back to make them break again. 

 Cuttings of all varieties that are ready 

 may safely be taken now. The cut- 

 tings will root better now than when 

 the weather becomes warmer. L. 



TRI-CITIES. 



The Market. 



The Tri-City florists have certainly 

 had nothing of which to complain dur- 

 ing the last three weeks. There has 

 been a most satisfactory volume of 

 business and everyone seems to have 

 received his share of it. The supply of 

 cut flowers has been unusually short, 

 but where it was impossible to procure 

 these, it has been usually possible to 

 use blooming plants. The demand for 

 these, however, has taxed the local 

 growers to their limit. 



Of roses. Milady and Shawyer seem 

 to meet with a large degree of favor, 

 though Richmond is a good, regular 

 seller. It is almost needless to mention 

 the Killarneys. They always prove 

 good property. For corsage work, 

 sweet peas and violets have the strong- 

 est call. Cattleyas, too, find their place 

 in this work. 



The Day After. 



March 8, the day following the con- 

 vention and banquet of the Illinois 

 State Florists' Association, the visiting 

 florists were met at the Manufacturers' 

 hotel, Moline, by the local florists with 

 enough automobiles to accommodate all. 

 At 10 o'clock the procession headed for 

 Government island and gave the visit- 

 ors a glimpse of its scenic beauties and 

 points of interest without stopping. A 



run along the river on the Iowa side 

 soon brought the sight-seers to the 

 range of the Davis Floral Co., where 

 some of the most wonderful cucumbers 

 in the country are grown under glass. 

 Both the visiting and local florists were 

 much interested, in the crop and the 

 manner of its preparation for the mar- 

 ket, as this use of the greenhouse is 

 entirely foreign to most of them. Leav- 

 ing here, they were whisked down river 

 to the Bettendorf conservatory to see 

 what Mr. Pearson, the superintendent, 

 had accomplished in such a short time, 

 and also to look over the conservatory 

 structure, which was but recently com- 

 pleted by the Foley Greenhouse Mfg. 

 Co. Next the park conservatories were 

 visited and the out-of-town florists 

 were shown the natural landscape won- 

 ders of Camp McClellan, the beautiful 

 residence district of Davenport. 



By this time it was noon, and, much 

 to the surprise of all, after visiting 

 the greenhouses of Ludwig Stapp, they 

 were ushered into the packing and ship- 

 ping room, where they found literally 

 piles of sandwiches of every known 

 variety, huge kettles of sauerkraut and 

 an unlimited supply of Frankfurters. 

 There were also liquid refreshments in 

 a variety to suit all tastes. The time 

 and the place seemed to lend them- 

 selves to oratory, and at the suggestion 

 of President Johnson, P. J. Foley, on 

 behalf of the state association, thanked 

 Mr. Stapp for his hospitality and the 

 Tri-City Florists' Club for its highly 

 successful eifforts to entertain the vis- 

 itors. Mr. Foley was followed in turn 

 by George Asmus, of Chicago, J. S. 

 Wilson, of Des Moines, Harry Bills, of 

 Davenport, J. F. Ammann, of Edwards- 

 ville, John Staack, of Moline, A. C. 

 Kohlbrand, of Chicago, and William 

 Goes, of Bettendorf. 



The party then motored to Moline, 

 where, after seeing the results of Arvid 

 Anderson's work on the Deere estate, 

 it was taken to the establishment of 

 J. Staack & Sons. Here coflfee and 

 an unlimited supply of other good 

 things were served to the accompani- 

 ment of music. The ever ready auto- 

 mobiles then speeded the guests to 

 their respective hotels. 



Various Notes. 



Three new Moninger houses, each 34x 

 300 feet, will soon be added to the 

 range of Ludwig Stapp, Rock Island. 

 The material is on the ground. 



A good plant business is reported 

 by M. A. Tierney^ proprietor of the 

 Bills Floral Co., Davenport. Funeral 

 work, also, has been heavier than usual. 



According to Mrs. Forber, of Forber 

 & Bird, Davenport, that firm has proved 

 to its satisfaction that it pays to ad- 

 vertise. The demand for corsages, she 

 says, has been greater during the last 

 few weeks than for several months. 



Joseph Tuckis, proprietor of the 

 Flower Shop, Rock Island, always has 

 an eye open. At the close of the state 

 convention he bought the entire supply 

 display of the A. L. Randall Co. As 

 a result, he is showing a splendid line 

 of novel baskets. Mr. Tuckis has only 

 been in the trade four months, but he 

 already has enough business to keep 

 himself and two assistants busy. 



Henry Gaethje^ Rock Island, says 

 orders for flowering shrubs and land- 

 scape work are beginning to come in 

 already. 



William Knees & Sons, Moline, are 

 growing a particularly excellent lot of 



