44 



The Florists' Review 



March 30, 1916. 



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SEASONABLE iir 

 X SUGGESTIONS 



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Stock for Memorial Day. 



There is a comparatively short period 

 between Easter and Memorial day this 

 year. As five weeks is not sufficiently 

 long to start plants and flower them, 

 it will be necessary to start them in a 

 moderate way early in April. Allow 

 Spiraea Japonica six weeks, Gladstone, 

 seven weeks and Peach Blossom eight 

 weeks, in an average night temperature 

 of 60 degrees. Hydrangeas and ram- 

 bler roses should be housed and given 

 a start now. They may need to remain 

 somewhat crtowded until Easter has 

 passed. Crops of feverfew, candytuft, 

 stocks, snapdragons, calendulas, etc., in 

 benches, which should all have been 

 benched some weeks ago, will need 

 careful attention from this time on. 

 Eun the candytuft and feverfew 

 warmer than the snapdragons and 

 stocks. If the last-named need heat, 

 let it be later, when the spikes are 

 pushing up. 



Bouvaxdia Humboldtii. 



If young stock of Bouvardia Hum- 

 boldtii is wanted, cut back one or two 

 old plants, place them in heat and spray 

 freely, but do not overwater, and they 

 will soon give a flne crop of nice, suc- 

 culent cuttings that will root easily. 

 If these are potted on, they will make 

 nice stock in 6-inch pots before fall. 

 Keep the old, carried-over plants rested 

 for some time yet, and plant them out- 

 doors in well enriched ground when 

 the weather has become warm and 

 settled. 



Buddleia Asiatlca. 



Cuttings of Buddleia Asiatica can be 

 put in as late as August and produce 

 good little flowering plants; if those of 

 fair size are needed, cuttings should go 

 in now. They root easily and should 

 be kept potted on and plunged outdoors 

 through the summer. They can be had 

 in good bloom as early as Christmas, 

 and are at their best during January 

 and the first half of February. They 

 succeed particularly well in a tempera- 

 ture of 50 degrees at night. 



Sweet Peas Outdoors. 



Winter in many sections this year 

 is prolonged well into the lap of spring, 

 and early plowing and seed sowing 

 seem improbable when these notes are 

 written. But even though certain seeds 

 are sown two or three weeks later one 

 season than another season, they in- 

 variably flower at about the same time 

 each year. It is always an advantage 

 to have an early season for sweet peas. 

 It is necessary to sow the seed as soon 

 as possible after the frost has left the 

 ground and the soil has dried sufficiently 

 to be workable. Cover the seeds two 

 to two and one-half inches deep, leav- 

 ing the tops of the rows somewhat 

 hollowed after filling in, but do not fill 

 in about the plants, as is often recom- 

 mended, while they are small; it only 

 breeds stem-rot. 



Utilize Hotbeds. 



Greenhouses become much over- 

 crowded in early spring and it is a 

 great relief to be able to use cold- 

 frames now for much of the hardier 

 stock. A foot of warm stable manure 

 mixed with leaves and firmly tramped 

 will give a nice, gentle heat in which 

 many plants will thrive amazingly. All 

 plants are near the glass. They grow 

 stocky and can be gradually hardened 

 in a way impossible in greenhouses. 

 Partly plunge the pots in order to give 

 them a little bottom heat, and the 

 change from the greenhouses will be 

 little noticed. Use mats and board 

 shutters on cold nights to keep the 

 plants comfortably warm. 



Oround for Asters. 



Sweet peas and asters are the two 

 most valuable annuals for the average 

 florist. The land for each, whenever 



possible, should be prepared in late 

 fall. Where this can not be done, give 

 the aster ground a liberal coating of 

 well decayed manure and plow it as 

 soon as the land is workable; later, 

 when it has dried out well, give it a 

 thorough harrowing and go over it sev- 

 eral times more before planting time, in 

 order to pulverize the ground thor- 

 oughly. The better the land is pre- 

 pared, the finer your asters will be. 



San Jose Scale. 



Before the buds on trees and shrubs 

 get started, it is a good policy to spray 

 many varieties either with lime sulphur 

 or one of the soluble oils for San Jose 

 scale, which is a common pest. Unless 

 the work is to be done on a large scale, 

 the oil solutions, such as Scaline and 

 Scalecide, are to be preferred. Select 

 a sunny day for the work, when there 

 is as little wind as possible, and use 

 a fine misty spray nozzle that will wet 

 every portion of the bark. All fruit 

 trees, not excluding currants and goose- 

 berries, should be sprayed. Some 

 shrubs are badly attacked, including 

 lilacs, cydonias, cornus and all the spe- 

 cies of roses; also, hawthorns, cer- 

 cidiphyllums, willows, chestnuts and 

 poplars. This is but a partial list, but 

 it is a safe plan to spray the entire 

 shrubbery each year. 



YIELD OF BLOOMS PER PLANT. 



How many carnation blooms per plant 

 are considered a good cut? 



M. W. H.— Mo. 



Fifteen blooms per plant would be 

 considered a fair average for such va- 

 rieties as the Enchantress family. Mrs. 

 Ward will drop a couple of blooms be- 

 hind, while White Wonder will go a 

 few blooms ahead. A. F. J. B. 



tion. This, with a little phosphate 

 rock, may be all they will need. 



Cuttings taken from these plants will 

 not make first-class stock for next year. 

 If, however, you select cuttings from 

 the best plants, the stock may prove to 

 be better than this year's stock and 

 several years of selection might bring 

 it up to a fair state of quality. Selec- 

 tion is usually an effective method of 

 eliminating disease and it is so in this 

 case; until we know more about this 

 disease, it is about the only treatment 

 that can be recommended. 



A. F. J. B. 



YELLOWS AND FEEBLE OROWTH. 



Please examine the enclosed plant 

 and let me know what disease has af- 

 fected it, as I am losing the plants in 

 the benches slowly but surely. 



J. S.— O. 



The plant submitted has never made 

 much growth and is in anything but a 

 vigorous condition. It is full of the 

 yellows, which may be responsible for 

 this lack of vigor. There is little you 

 can do for these plants, except to fol- 

 low a moderate course of culture. Do 

 not overwater them and be careful 

 about the feeding. They will perhaps 

 need a little food later, but not as 

 much as plants which have made a 

 vigorous growth. I^et the food you do 

 give be phosphoric acid and potash, 

 rather than nitrogen, as nitrogen soft- 

 ens the tissue and tends to aggravate 

 the trouble. As spring approaches, a 

 mulch of long stable manure may be 

 beneficial, to prevent too rapid evapora- 



BRANCH-ROT AND RUST. 



We are enclosing sample plants which 

 show two kinds of infection that are 

 appearing on our carnation benches, 

 and we wish to inquire as to the cause 

 of the trouble and the best way of 

 remedying it. P. F.' C. — Mich. 



The 8 pecimens submitted are af- 

 fected by both branch-rot and rust. 

 This form of rot is difficult to handle, 

 because it makes its attacks down in 

 the heart of the plant, where it is diffi- 

 cult to reach it with any spraying ma- 

 terial. Bordeaux is the most effective 

 remedy and I suggest that you spray 

 the plants thoroughly with this mate- 

 rial every two weeks, poking the spray 

 nozzle right into the center of each 

 plant. Bordeaux is also good for rust, 

 but you should have little trouble from 

 now on with this disease. Spraying the 

 young plants every three or four weeks 

 with this material will usually keep 

 them free from rust. A. F. J. B. 



