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AOGDST 3. 1916. 



The Florists^ Review 



13 



eeventy-five bulbs can be used in a flat. 

 Place the flats or pots outdoors and, 

 after watering, give them a 4-inch cov- 

 ering with coal ashes or sand. 



Freesias. 



Christmas freesias are always highly 

 prized, and in order to have some of 

 these sweet-scented and popular flowers 

 at that early date, the bulbs should be 

 placed in pans during the last half of 

 July. I prefer pans eight or ten inches 

 in diameter, in which twenty to fifty 

 bulbs can be planted. If the soil is 

 at all moist at potting time, do not 

 water until it has dried out well. Keep 

 the pans in a coldframe, cover them 

 with leaves or dry moss and cover this 

 again with board shutters, to prevent 

 drying out and to keep the pans dark- 

 ened. The bulbs will start much more 

 evenly if treated in this way than if 

 exposed to sun and rain, as is too often 

 done in the early stages of growth. 

 After September these freesias must 

 have a light bench or shelf in a house 

 kept at 52 to .55 degrees at night, to 

 insure their being in flower for the 

 holidays. 



Polnsettias. 



Poinsettia cuttings still can be put in 

 to produce dwarf plants suitable for 

 pans; in fact, I have rooted them as 

 late as August 10 and had nice little 

 stock. Be sure to keep the rooted cut- 

 tings potted up while the roots still 

 are small. If allowed to go a few days 

 too long, the roots break badly and the 

 plants get a decided check. If the pot- 

 ting is done when the roots are not 

 over two inches long, there will be no 

 trouble. 



Stevias. 



Give the stevias one more pinching 

 now, and this should carry them through 

 the season. Where they are planted 

 out in the field it is best to do the pot- 

 ting from August 15 to 20, before the 

 plants become too unwieldy. Where 

 only a few dozen plants are grown, pot 

 culture through the summer is much to 

 be preferred. Such plants should now go 

 into the pots in which they are to 

 flower, _ and should be plunged to the 

 brim, in order to keep the soil from 

 drying out so rapidly. 



Mignonette. 



About the last of July is a suitable 

 time for making a first sowing of mi- 

 gnonette under glass. Mignonette 

 wants a low temperature in winter. It 

 can be grown well in either solid beds 

 or benches and it needs a good soil, 

 just such as mums, violets or carnations 

 would thrive in. If you have not a 

 bench at disposal yet, start the seeds in 

 small pots and plant out later. Mignon- 

 ette cannot successfully be sown and 

 pricked off like other annuals. There- 

 fore, pots should be used where beds 

 are not yet ready. If sowing in a 

 bench, put a few seeds in little patches 

 twelve inches apart each way. For 

 forcing, purchase the best mignonette 

 procurable. Never mind if the cost is 

 somewhat high; it is quality we need. 



Trachellmn Cseruleum. 



Trachelium cseruleum is one of the 

 finest summer-flowering plants for pot 

 culture that we have. It flowers in a 

 cool greenhouse in July and . August. 

 The flowers are usually pale blue, but 

 a fair percentage come pure white. 

 The cloud-like heads of flowers some- 



When the Order Calls for a Ship and Nothing Else Will Answer. 



what resemble gypsophila, but have 

 much better keeping qualities and will 

 ship long distances better than almost 

 any other flowers. 



T. cseruleum is not at all a new thing, 

 but seems to have been entirely over- 

 looked by florists hitherto. The plants 

 grow two to four feet in height and, if 

 given one or two pinchings, are quite 

 shapely. Plants are easily propagated 

 from seeds or cuttings. It is not too 

 late to sow the seeds now. Treat the 

 plants much the same as Canterbury 

 bells for best results. These trache- 

 liums are members of the natural order 

 campanulaceee. They do best if treated 

 as biennials, though they are really 

 perennials. In England they are often 

 seen in herbaceous borders. The 

 tracheliums are natives of the Mediter- 

 ranean region of Europe. They should 

 prove extremely useful to florists who 

 want really nice flowers in July and 

 August. 



Genistas. 



Genistas now are making active 

 growth and will need an occasional 

 shearing to keep them shapely. They 

 grow well through the summer when the 

 pots are plunged to the brims, or even 

 over them, provided the necessary wa- 

 tering can be given when the weather 

 is hot and dry. Any repotting can be 

 done when the plants are taken out of 

 the quarters where they are plunged; 

 this need not be before the first ^eek 

 in September. 



Co., made the design shown in the ac- 

 companying illustration. 



Such designs never are the artistic 

 equal of sprays and wreaths, but when 

 a customer wants such an emblem the 

 florist must be prepared to meet the 

 demand. 



PANSIES DYING. 



I am sending some pansies under 

 separate cover and wish you would tell 

 me what is the trouble with them. 

 They begin to die at about this time 

 every year. I have them in a bed at 

 the north and east of the house. The 

 soil seems rich. I use some lime and 

 sand with the soil. The plants begin 

 to die close to the ground and the 

 leaves turn yellow and have spots on 

 them. Should some kind of spray be 

 used on them? M. T. S. T. — Kan. 



A SHIP IN FLOWERS. 



The other day a member of the crew 

 of one of Uncle Sam's torpedo boat 

 destroyers was killed in IJie harbor of 

 San Diego and his remains were sent 

 home to Watertown, Wis., for burial. 

 There the call was for a ship in flow- 

 ers and nothing else would do, so Mrs. 

 Wm. J. Stuebe, of the Stuebe Floral 



I think the most probable cause of 

 the condition of your plants is a too 

 high temperature'. They are naturally 

 cool and moisture-loving plants, as are 

 all members of the viola family, and 

 they would probably do well with you 

 until hot weather came along. While 

 dry heat affects them most adversely, 

 they sometimes become spotted and dis- 

 eased when spells of hot, damp and 

 almost sunless weather occur. Under 

 either condition there is little you can 

 do to help them. Pansies love a light 

 but rich soil; one containing decayed 

 leaves in addition to rotted manure is 

 ideal for them. The soil will not re- 

 quire lime unless it is acid. To coun- 

 teract any fungoid affections of pan- 

 sies and other plants, both Bordeaux 

 mixture and Fungine are valuable. 

 - C. W. 



Fort Wayne, Ind.— It is probable that 

 Frank Hutchinson will succeed his 

 father, the late Eobert W. Hutchinson, 

 as landscape gardener of the western 

 division of the Pennsylvania lines. 



