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AoousT 10, 1916. 



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 SUGGESTIONS 



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Winter-riowerlng Begonias. 



We always find plants of Begonia 

 Gloire de Lorraine on sale early in 

 October and this reminds us that, in 

 order to have plants in nice condition 

 thus early, they should go into their 

 flowering pots or pans at once. During 

 the hottest part of the year these be- 

 gonias do not seem to grow particularly 

 fast, but with the arrival of somewhat 

 cooler nights their progress will be 

 much more rapid. Use plenty of flaky 

 leaf-mold in the compost and let one- 

 flfth of the whole be well decomposed 

 and screened cow manure. If loam 

 forms one-half of the whole you will 

 not go far wrong. Add some sharp 

 sand and powdered charcoal where your 

 soil is at all retentive or heavy. These 

 begonias can be grown in frames in the 

 summer, but will do vastly better in a 

 greenhouse. Do not shade heavily. 

 Water carefully and air freely. Unless 

 you want some plants in flower quite 

 early, pinch back any shoots which are 

 running up and pick off all flowers. 



Begonia incarnata improved is a 

 valuable winter plant, not so much 

 grown commercially as its merits would 

 seem to warrant. Three rooted cuttings 

 in 6-inch or 8-inch pans make splendid 

 plants, and these can be had in fine 

 flower for Christmas, but can be held 

 some weeks later if desired. B. La 

 Vesuve, a scarlet, continuous-blooming 

 variety with a vigorous habit, should 

 be more grown for Christmas. It is a 

 much easier doer than Lorraine, Cincin- 

 nati or incarnata and can be grown 

 quite cool. B. Gloire de Chatelaine, of 

 similar habit to Erfordii and Vernon, 

 is of a lovely pink color. This, also, 

 is a continuous bloomer and equally 

 good for bedding or pot culture. Any- 

 one unable to grow Lorraine or Cincin- 

 nati satisfactorily will find Chatelaine 

 a splendid substitute. As many country 

 florists do not propagate their own be- 

 gonias, they should order their plants 

 from one of the specialists without de- 

 lay. 



Callas. 



Callas can hardly be dispensed with 

 by the average country florist, giving, 

 as they do, a continuous crop of flow- 

 ers for two-thirds of the year. They 

 are, or should be, resting now, and soon 

 they can be shaken out and repotted. 

 While the old Richardia ^thiopica 

 still is largely grown, there can be no 

 question that the Godfrey is vastly 

 superior. It produces at least double 

 the number of flowers, which are of 

 large size and much purer white. While 

 callas can be successfully grown and 

 flowered in benches or solid beds, pot 

 culture usually proves far the most sat- 

 isfactory. Three medium bulbs in a 

 7-inch pot, or three large ones in an 

 8-inch pot, will give splendid results. 

 Use a fair amount of bone in the soil. 

 Later, also, when the pots are filled 

 with active roots, it is astonishing how 

 the callas will devour top-dressings of 

 this fertilizer. 



Palms. 



We get occasional rain storms and 

 spells of disagreeable weather even in 

 summer, and at such times a little atten- 

 tion should be given to the palms. 

 Sometimes a sponging may be neces- 

 sary. In other cases a good pressure 

 from the hose, directed through a spray 

 nozzle, will help to clean the plants. If 

 scale infests them, give a spraying 

 with Aphine, Lemon Oil or some other 

 good insecticide. Th^s will kill and 

 loosen the scales and the majority can 

 he blown off later with a good water 

 pressure. Well rooted plants will ap- 

 preciate an occasional dose of liquid 

 manure. If their color is a little pale, 

 the addition of some soot will mate- 

 rially help in darkening them. 



Pansles. 



For winter flowering it is advisable 

 to sow pansies as early as the last part 

 of July, but plants to be used for next 

 spring sales are all right in the more 

 northerly states if sown from August 

 1 to 15. Seed can be conveniently sown 

 in a coldframe, keeping sashes over the 

 seeds until they germinate and shading 

 them from direct sun, but an even bet- 

 ter plan is to prepare beds a yard wide 

 outside, making the soil as fine as pos- 

 sible. If the beds can have the advan- 

 tage of shade part of the day from trees 



or buildings, all the better. After sow- 

 ing, water the beds and give a light 

 mulch of leaves or dry moss. Remove 

 this as soon as the seedlings start to 

 germinate. 



For the average grower who wants a 

 few hundreds or thousands of pansies 

 of a good strain, there is nothing supe- 

 rior to the Giant Trimardeau, which is 

 a reliable hardy type, with flowers of 

 large size and attractive colors. This 

 can be had in mixed or separate colors. 

 Perhaps some of your customers may 

 want plants of one special color. In 

 this case it may be necessary to sow 

 suitable colors separately. By far the 

 greater number of buyers, however, 

 seem to like mixtures. If you want 

 something that will flower right through 

 the summer, try some of the tufted 

 pansies or violas. These have smaller 

 flowers than the true pansies, but are 

 much more floriferous and are dis- 

 tinctly superior for bedding. 



Repairs. 



The hottest period of the year is not 

 the most comfortable one in which to 

 make repairs to boilers, pipes, ventila- 

 tors, benches or roofs, but it is now 

 that the houses are more or less bare 

 of stock and in many establishments 

 fire heat has been discontinued for some 

 time. Do not leave the overhauling of 

 boilers and pipes until cool nights make 

 you think about starting a fire. Do it 

 now. Do not patch up half-rotted 

 benches and hope they will carry an- 

 other season; they may collapse when 

 the plants are in full crop. This is a 

 concrete age, but wood still predomi- 

 nates in the majority of greenhouses. 

 Push the bench repairing now; also, all 

 painting, glazing and whitewashing. 

 You will enjoy your vacation all the 

 more if you get these repairs done be- 

 fore you steal away for a little repose. 



Bailleul, France. — A German airship 

 not long ago dropped bombs on the 

 Cordonnier vinery here, the largest in 

 France and possibly in the world, lo- 

 cated only four miles from what was 

 then the fighting front. Many of the 

 glass houses were completely destroyed, 

 the vines being at the time in full 

 growth. 



Zurich, Switzerland. — This country 

 never has played an important part 

 in the international trade in seeds, 

 bulbs and plants, but has been coming 

 to the front of late as the headquarters 

 of concerns organized since the war. 

 The growth of the business would be 

 much faster were it not for the skepti- 

 cism of the governments of the warring 

 nations. 



Lyons, France. — In the nursery of 

 Pernet-Ducher are at least two new 

 roses that will go around the world 

 after the war. One is Constance, an 

 improved Rayon d'Or, which won the 

 gold medal at the Bagatelle trials, Paris, 

 as the best variety of French origin. 

 The other is Admiral Ward, a hybrid 

 tea named for the American, dark red, 

 said to be a superb variety. 



Copenliagen, Denmark. — The Danish 

 growers of pansy seed have had an un- 

 usual run of orders from America this 

 season, evidently from those who gener- 

 ally have used German stock. 



London, England. — Because of the 

 vehement protest by British dealers, 

 led by W. Cuthbertson, president of the 

 Horticultural Traders' Association, the 

 government has announced that the im- 

 portation of bulbs by parcel post will 

 be prohibited. The trade felt that the 

 admission of bulbs in the mails and not 

 in quantities by freight would be a 

 great injustice.' 



London, England. — The increasing 

 comprehension of the power of adver- 

 tising is well illustrated by the use the 

 Royal Horticultural Society recently 

 made of the "Times" to nullify the 

 effect of irresponsible writings urging 

 that shows and gardening be abandoned 

 during the war. As one writer put it, 

 "it cannot be said that the R. H. S. is 

 habitually prodigal in expenditure for 

 advertising, but for once it has done 

 something out of the ordinary, and has 

 done it well." 



